Retaining newly qualified chartered accountants: A South African case study

Abstract

Retention of employees of the millennial generation is becoming an increasing problem for employers throughout the world. It has been found in prior research that higher levels of job satisfaction by employees in organisations was a key determinant in improving employee retention levels. This had the effect of increasing the ability of organisations to be competitive in the market. The focus of this study is to determine the levels of job satisfaction of newly qualified chartered accountants. It then goes further by analysing the factors which influence their overall levels of job satisfaction. The results are valuable for employers of chartered accountants from the millennial generation in that it allows employers to better understand and improve working conditions in their organisations in order to increase overall job satisfaction levels, reduce employee turnover and ultimately increase organisations’ competitive positions in the market. The study focused on analysing the overall levels of job satisfaction of chartered accountants classified as millennials employed inside and outside of academia as these were identified as the two broad groups within which chartered accountants were employed. The findings found that chartered accountants employed in academia experienced a significantly higher level of job satisfaction than their counterparts employed outside of academia. The factors found to be most important in an ideal job for newly qualified CAs were remuneration, flexibility, ability to grow professionally, working hours, meaningfulness of work, and being challenged at work. The results found that chartered accountants employed in academia experienced significantly higher levels of fulfilment in the following factors; remuneration, flexibility, working hours, and meaningfulness of work.