Most accounting firms and other types of small businesses search for ways to increase their employee retention rate and employee productivity. If your accounting firm finds itself in this position, here is a case study in an article from Harvard Business Review in which an accounting firm decided on an out-of-the-box way to get their employees more excited about and committed to their jobs, a way in which they began to view their job as more than just a paycheck with benefits. The article is called How an Accounting Firm Convinced Its Employees They Could Change the World and the results and statistics are no less than amazing!

Below are a few highlights from the article:

"A workforce motivated by a strong sense of higher purpose is essential to engagement. A survey by Calling Brands found that working for an organization with a clearly defined purpose is second only to pay and benefits in importance for employees, and ranks ahead of promotion opportunities, job responsibilities, and work culture. Two-thirds said a higher purpose would motivate them to go the extra mile in their jobs. A similar study by Net Impact showed that almost half of today’s workforce would take a 15% pay cut to work for an organization with an inspiring purpose.

Convinced that today’s workforce wants more than what they can see in their paychecks, our firm recently launched an initiative aimed at inspiring our already high-morale workforce reach new levels of engagement by re-framing and elevating the meaning and purpose of their work. The results have exceeded our expectations. Our partners and employees have flooded us with stories, our morale scores have soared, and turnover has plummeted. Perhaps coincidentally, the firm also enjoyed one of its best financial years in recent memory—ranking as the fastest growing of the Big Four public accounting firms."

The firm we are discussing is KPMG, and they go on in the article to explain:

1. How They Did it
2. The Results
3. The Challenges
4. What's Next

Let's Focus for a Minute on The Results

"On our annual partner survey, 90% reported that the higher purpose initiatives increased people’s pride in KPMG. Scores on our employee engagement survey rose to record levels as well. Less than six months into our Purpose initiative 85% of employees agreed that KPMG is a great place to work, up slightly from 82% a year earlier; after a year scores on this same question rose to 89%. Additionally, 60% said our purpose initiative strengthened their pride in KPMG and our work. This improvement in morale also resulted in KPMG surging 17 spots on FORTUNE magazine’s annual 100 Best Companies to Work For list, making us the number one-ranked Big Four firm for the first time in our history.

In that same survey, 76% of our employees said their “job had special meaning (and was not just a job),” six points higher than the average of our Big Four counterparts and a four-point jump year over year."

Pretty impressive statistics, wouldn't you say? If your accounting firm is looking for new ways to increase employee productivity and retention, why not try what KPMG did? After all, as the case study above proves, not only does having a higher purpose improve your company's bottom line by creating happier, more productive employees, you will be doing something that improves the world we live in. That's a total win-win.