A clear career ladder with defined goals, a fair salary and worklife balance were the main factors influencing audit staff’s decision to remain in their current job revealed ACCA research into the state of the audit profession.

Antonis Diolas, head of audit and assurance at ACCA said: ‘The audit profession no longer just competes with the legal profession, medical profession, or other “traditional” occupations anymore; it also competes with the likes of YouTube, TikTok and other content development platforms.’

Ian Wright, managing director of ICAEW told MPs at a Business Committee hearing that staff retention was a major issue: ‘It’s a drag and I think all of the actors and professional bodies, firms, the regulator, perhaps the select committee need to work in concert to ensure that we deal with the attractiveness issue to ensure people want to stay in audit, have a good valuable career in audit and make sure it’s as resilient as possible.’

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