Term Paper on "To Design an Instructional Improvement Plan for an Accounting Firm"

Term Paper 10 pages (2900 words) Sources: 0

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Instructional Improvement Plan for an Accounting Firm

An accounting firm is a service-based business, and the surest way to be profitable is to maintain high efficiency among the personnel. The key issue guiding my firm's strategy is the goal to increase the efficiency of our workforce to stimulate greater productivity and motivation, without sacrificing the quality of our product, incurring higher costs, or damaging employee morale. Employees who lack a strong sense of personal commitment simply do not possess the understanding or motivation to achieve their highest potential. An employee without this internal drive does not work very hard, jeopardizing productivity while undermining other vital areas such as customer service and quality of work. The goal for this assignment is to increase overall profitability, and the accountability problem is to devise a system that motivates the staff to increase productivity without sacrificing work quality.

Performance Indicators/Assessments

Any kind of performance indicator or assessment involves something that can be measured and recorded. Because of the difficulty in measuring or recording motivation, the numeric measurements employed in this study will assess employee productivity via an index, using a survey to evaluate an employee's work habits and ability to handle the workload, and to ensure that the employee is involved in continuing professional development via training and continue education.

Productivity Index

This is a weekly numeric assessment based on an index that consists of the following:

An accountant's experience in number of years. A more experienced accountant is expected to generate more billable hours

Each employee's work quality as measured by the numbers of mistakes detected via management and peer review

Productivity in work hours and billable hours completed by the accountant in a weekly period based on the time card

The level of difficulty of the accountant's projects, applied as a factor to the hours. This assessment takes into account a variety of factors that, when considered independently, might skew findings.

For example, some employees may be assigned more difficult tasks than others, resulting in a low productivity on paper that does not accurately reflect the actual level of work. On the other hand, others might demonstrate a high level of productivity, but at the cost of quality.

By incorporating these multiple performance measures, this evaluation should be more reliable, valid, and equitable. The consequence of this assessment is that the productivity index of every employee is posted in the office for everyone to see.

Survey of workload and work environment

One way to troubleshoot low motivation and productivity is to survey the employee and the immediate supervisor about how the employee feels about his or her work. This survey generates a numeric score from both the employee and the supervisor based on a scheme in which 1 = always, 2 = often, 3 = sometimes, 4 = seldom, and 5 = never.

When the numeric score is low (average is 1-2), it gives a ranking of Satisfactory. When the numeric score is high (average is 3-5), it leads to a Needs Improvement ranking. This ranking requires the supervisor and the employee to come up with an action plan to improve the score to Satisfactory.

Following are the survey questions:

Are you able to manage your time to deal with your workload? (1- 5 as above)

Do you have the right skills for your tasks? (1-5 as above)

Do you understand your supervisor's expectations for your work? (1-5 as above)

Do you have conflicts with your fellow employees? (1 -5 reversed from above)

Do you have conflicts with your clients? (1 -5 reversed from above)

Do you feel that you are being well managed and effectively utilized? (1-5 as above).

This assessment provides the opportunity for the employee to discuss what kinds of problems he or she has regarding work and workload. This also allows the supervisor to determine the cause of any decline in productivity.

Continuing professional development

Although all certified public accountants are required by the state board to take a certain number of courses each year to keep their skills up-to-date, the greater the interest an employee takes in training and/or education, the more motivated and capable the firm can assume he or she is. Employees who seek to advance their careers and use their skills to help advance the company are generally more willing to attend training seminars and take on extra coursework. Conversely, those who simply do not care will just come in, do the bare minimum work requirement, and go home. Better skilled employees will also lead to better quality work and increased productivity.

This assessment is based on a set of education and training commitments upon which the supervisor and the employee agree. The outcome of this assessment is binary: the employee either met or did not meet the commitments. Meeting all the commitments will lead to a monetary bonus for the employee.

All businesses are concerned that there may be a significant gap between their potential level of productivity and their actual level of productivity, due to a variety of problems such as poor organization or poor management of time and resources. Companies discover that by evaluating the abilities of their employees, they can assign each employee to the areas in which they excel. In particular, they can increase productivity by illuminating areas in which impediments to productivity have developed. An accounting firm is a competitive service-based business, in which profitability requires high employee efficiency. My firm's strategy is to increase the productivity and motivation of our workforce without sacrificing the quality of our product, incurring costs, or damaging employee morale. In trying to increase efficiency, we adhere to the observation that employees who are not committed to the job perform low-quality work and poor customer service.

After reviewing the results from the performance indicators, we have identified the following predictors of employee motivation:

Concern with job security

We have found that job security impacts productivity and morale in the current economic conditions. In an environment of continuing layoffs and low levels of job creation, the possibility of losing their jobs frightens workers, especially if the company's business prospects have diminished or co-workers have been laid off. Our company has never layoff accountants, a fact that increases the employees' feeling of job security. However, there is a vulnerable segment of employees who have felt more insecure than before. Accountants who are foreign citizens start employment on an F-1 status, which gives them permission to work for the company for a year. Subsequently, the company sponsors them for a working visa or a permanent residency if it decides that their service is valuable. These employees have felt that the company may sacrifice them first if layoffs begin.

2. Managerial attitude to employees

We have found that many employees take pride in their profession and the work they perform. Managerial attitude can bolster motivation in three ways: support for employees' professional decisions, praise for outstanding work, and display of interest in employees' personal lives.

Lack of professional support. Accountants derive satisfaction from more than simply performing the job - these employees expect their managers to stand by them and support their decisions, if those decisions are correct. Experience teaches that companies, whose employees do not feel appreciated, are doomed to failure.

Insufficient recognition for outstanding work. Rewarding employees goes beyond supporting their decisions. Managers need to praise proactively and publicly employees who excel at their jobs. When managers fail to reward their subordinates with praise, support and genuine interest in their work, employees feel alienated from the company and unmotivated to do their best.

Lack of Interest in employees' personal lives. Employees feel motivated when their managers treat them as human beings that have personal lives and interests outside of the company. Such treatment comes best in the form of showing interest at all times and displaying special concern, including offering assistance, during difficult times for the employees.

3. Work not challenging enough

Lack of diversification in responsibilities - employees are bored for performing the same tasks over and over Employees also feel motivated when they perform challenging work that they perceive is worthwhile and unique. The awareness that they work on complex transactions that require intellectual prowess boosts employees' self-esteem and their work productivity.

4. Unsatisfactory Compensation and Flexibility

Nothing defeats morale more than inadequate pay and lack of flexible working hours. If the monetary rewards of the job do not meet the employees' expectation or if the working hours are inflexible, the employees will migrate to other companies, which they perceive reward them better. My company has instituted flexible working hours, which the employees appreciate. In addition, the company pays the accountants on the basis of billable hours - the fewer hours they work, they less they will receive.

While the discussion above shows several ways in which to increase employee motivation, there are additional organizational factors that impact work productivity. One such factor is staffing. By evaluating the abilities of their employees companies can assign employees to projects that best suit… READ MORE

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