Managing Staff: Busy Season Expectations Checklist

Busy season is just around the corner. Are you ready? Is your team ready?

You might feel your team “should know” your expectations, but that’s not always the case.

A client of ours once assumed a 5-year staff they hired from a Top 10 regional firm would know tax professionals work on Saturdays from February – April. She chose not to show up for any of them in February.

While the MP stewed over this behavior, we realized three key factors were in play:

• During recruiting the firm touted itself as family-friendly.
  “Fridays off all summer long!”
  “We’re really flexible as long as you’re getting your work done!”
• No one at the new firm had made it clear they expected her to come in on Saturdays from February – April 15.
• This team member didn’t WANT to work Saturdays (really, who does?) so, feeling she was on track with her work (which may have been debatable), and the promised flexible nature of the firm, she didn’t show.

This situation caused a lot more confusion and discontent than necessary. Do yourself and your team a favor by clearly communicating your busy season expectations this year before it starts.

Here is a checklist of 5 common CPA firm expectations to set with your team:

1. What hours you expect them to work.
   • Many firms specify a minimum number of busy season hours per week, along with an overall annual charge hour goal. Sharing these targets with your team makes it more likely they’ll hit the goal, and makes a “looks like your off-track” conversation easier if it’s ever needed.
   • If you set a range of hours, don’t be surprised if some team members log off when they hit that minimum – not everyone is as motivated to put in extra time.

2. What days you expect them to work.
   • Again, this may seem obvious. And you might know very clearly what days YOU plan on working. But out of an abundance of caution, let your team know what’s expected on these items:
     • Saturdays
     • Sundays
     • Do they get any full weekends off as a perk (some firms allow for this even for tax professionals)?
     • If weekend work is optional or based on their own professional judgment of their workload, talk with them immediately if their choices during busy season contradict what you might expect, based on your assessment of their workload.

3. What the process is for preparing or reviewing work.
   • If there’s a familiar way of doing a certain task, have one of your staff take the time to write up the procedure, if it’s not already documented. Review what they write, you might learn how a few errors tend to show up again and again. Share it with other team members. The best part about documenting your processes for preparing or reviewing work? You can use it in training and as a reference if a team member suddenly can’t do their work anymore.

4. When you expect them to be working.
   • Does your firm have set hours for the full day? Core hours only (a shift many firms are making, to having required hours of say 9 am – 3 pm, and employees can choose if they want to round out their hours earlier, later, or split them up).*Bonus points if you’re open and transparent about when people are unavailable and honoring that downtime – which is critical to recharging and being a better professional overall.

5. What response times you expect for internal and external communications.
   • Some firms and clients have come to expect, and rely on, near-instantaneous replies to chat and email messages. Responsiveness is a hallmark of our profession and a measure of top-tier client service. However, over-responsiveness can come at a cost if you and your team never allow yourselves the time to dig into that complex return or sort out the high-risk audit issue that involves digging into lengthy revenue contracts. By setting response time expectations, you can allow your team to both serve clients at a high level, while also attending to the cognitive work that a true professional must do.

What expectations are you setting at your firm? What’s gone well and what’s been a flop?
Add your comments below this article to share your experiences.