3 ways to help teams avoid burnout this tax season

Burnout is a significant issue for accounting firms, especially during tax season. It’s not uncommon for accountants to put in 50-80 hour weeks amid the uptick in clients that return to have their taxes done once a year.

But in spite of the fact that the stress is expected, how you handle your workforce during this season can make a huge difference for your firm. Disorganized workplaces with a negative culture can make accountants quit, resulting in a pattern of high turnover every year.

Over time, that drain on talent will create hiring and onboarding costs that cut into those extra tax season profits. That means that as a practice owner, how you help your employees navigate tax season can have a significant impact on your firm.

The real cause of burnout might surprise you

Popular advice about burnout often revolves around self-care – yoga, mindfulness, healthy food, and other things that individuals can do to cope.

But spending money on employee self-care can be an expensive trap.

A lot of accounting firms spend extra on employee dinners, wellness initiatives, and coaching that don’t do much to target the real causes of burnout. It’s a nice gesture, but it can leave employees demoralized if the real causes of burnout go unaddressed.

There’s good news for accounting firms: long hours often aren’t the sole cause of burnout. And when long hours are inevitable during tax season, taking steps to prevent the other causes of burnout can keep employees engaged, healthy, and ready to put in the extra hours.

Burnout is often a combination of factors, such as:

• Uncertainty: when employees feel that their jobs are precarious, they’re at higher risk of burnout due to stress. Fostering a sense of security and psychological safety can make their job much less stressful.
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• Lack of autonomy: PwC reports that almost half of employees would forego a 20% raise for more autonomy at work. Employees are more engaged in what they’re doing when they can make some important decisions about how they get work done.
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• Lack of impact: employees who feel they make an impact at work are much more likely to feel motivated to go the extra mile. Impact can be a larger purpose, but it can also be as simple as having a positive impact on the team around them.
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• Stressful teams: including cutthroat and competitive work cultures, undermining, and a lack of inclusivity in the workplace. Nurturing team cohesion and collaboration is essential in preventing burnout.

That said, there is a limit to the number of hours you should expect employees to put in. As tax season approaches, talk to your employees to see if they have the capacity to take on overtime, or whether you have to hire temporary help.

How your accounting firm can prevent burnout

Focus on the fundamental ways you can make employees feel safe, valued, in control, and collaborative. Achieve these things, and you’ll help manage workloads with much less stress.

Here are three rules of thumb for keeping burnout at bay:

Clear communication during tax season

Clear communication means employees know exactly what you expect from them and what their impact is on the team.

But clear communication doesn’t necessarily mean more communication; instead, use tools like ProCharted to centralize communications on each project to eliminate duplicate work, set clear tasks, and prioritize.

When employees do a good job, make sure to let them know. You’ll help them feel valued and create a sense of job security that’s essential for avoiding burnout.

Automate and streamline workflows whenever possible

When employees are stuck doing data entry all day, it can erode their sense of autonomy. That’s especially true for more senior employees with skills that aren’t being used.

Accounting Today recommends streamlining work with processes in place for tax preparation, hiring interns or students during busy tax season, and eliminating duplicate steps as much as possible.

You can also use AI tools to streamline workflows so your team can focus on adding more strategic, higher-level value.

Focus on collaboration

A workplace doesn’t have to be completely toxic to be stressful – it could simply be that employees are on the wrong teams, in the wrong roles for their skill sets, or lack clear standards for communicating with each other.

Increasing the focus on team collaboration can combat these issues and help teams work towards better cohesion. To create more efficient, happier teams:

• Schedule team meetings at regular intervals to promote discussion
• Monitor team workflows and hand off projects where appropriate
• Celebrate your wins together with the occasional team lunch

When employees are more connected, they care more about how their work impacts each other. A strong team is much more powerful than the sum of its parts.

Recovering from tax season

Recovering from burnout can take 6 to 9 months – but if you can prevent burnout, recovering from tax season won’t take that long. After the rush, take some time to debrief with your team, review client feedback, and celebrate your victories.

And don’t forget to encourage your team to take some time off! They’ve earned it.