How do we retain and motivate employees? Especially tax pros that work long hours and have challenging jobs? There has to be more to it than increased salary. Check it out.

1. Top 10 Ways to Make Tax Pros
Happy!
(Without a Salary Increase)

2. 10
Laundry service and car care? Perhaps even
grocery shopping…
 Busy tax pros may not have time
to get it all done. So, some
companies are offering regular
laundry service with drop off and
pick up at the office, car care (oil
changes, cleaning, etc.) and even
once a week grocery
shopping, where you place your
order and it is dropped up for
you just as you are about to
head home for the evening!

3. 9
Paid time off to volunteer
 If you can drag them away from
tax compliance and audit, tax
pros get a lot personal
gratification out of doing
volunteer work or serving on
non-profit Boards. Personal
fulfillment can go a long way!

4. 8
Acknowledgment of significant others
 When tax pros are working
through dinner to get those
returns filed or to respond to ad
hoc projects that are constantly
popping up, the spouse or
significant other is picking up the
slack or going it alone. A gift, gift
certificate, or even a “night out”
and thank you to the family
support system is a great way to
make your team and their
families feel appreciated.

5. 7
Sabbaticals
 Offer month-long sabbaticals
after five years of service, or two
months after 10 years of service.
I have a colleague right now that
is doing her 6 week sabbatical
after 10 years of service. She is
heading out on a European tour
with the hubby. I know…can you
spare the employee for a
month?!! And, what do you give
them after 20 or 30 years? A
medal?

6. 6
Summer hours…
 Early departure
Fridays. Let them
beat the heat and
avoid some of the
summer traffic.
Get a start on the
week-end. And oh
yeah, how about
not working all
week-end?!

7. 5
Optional telecommuting
 This may be difficult in some tax
departments where a lot of
interaction is required on
projects, however there is a lot of
time that can be spent more
productively via tax pros working
from home. I know that I get a lot
more done when I am not being
constantly interrupted all day!

8. 4
Lunch & Learn Sessions
 We used to do these during the
Andersen days. They were
great. You can have someone
from your team or another part of
the company (or even someone
external) come in and teach a
new topic during lunch. It could
be related to parts of your
company or tax lifecycles, or it
could be business or technical
skills that folks might like to
learn.

9. 3
Wellness benefits
 Give your employees either
reimbursements or make deals
with various fitness facilities or
activities to support your
employee health and wellness.
This could be gym
memberships, yoga
classes, bicycles, kayaking, runni
ng shoes, etc. Be creative and
supportive. Lots of studies show
that the more exercise your
employees get, the less health
issues, less stress, and less time

10. 2
Innovation Days!
 Set aside specific day(s) each
month to focus on innovative
ideas to improve the work space
or the workflow. Allow folks to
take time away from regular
duties to brainstorm and come
up with new ideas on how to
make the company
money, reduce ETR, reduce
risk, and/or to make employees
happy! You will be surprised at
what they come up with!

11. 1
Tax Sensitize your GL!!!!
 And the number one way to
make your tax pros happy…tax
sensitize your General Ledger
(GL)! Put together the business
case and sell it internally. You
will keep a lot more employees
that way, be more efficient and
effective and save the company
a ton of money! If you can’t
make this happen in the short
term, review #’s 10 – 2!

12. Thank you for reading!
For more information, contact me at:
Kelley Lear
Kelley.Lear@redmoonsolutions.com
941-379-7108
www.redmoonsolutions.com
blog.redmoonsolutions.com
www.twitter.com/redmoonsolution