april2021 - 8

FEATURE

The Workplace of the Future
By Tom Barry, CPA, Managing Partner, GHJ

THE LAST YEAR has come with unprecedented challenges
but also brought great opportunities for innovation and
growth. For small to mid-sized accounting firms, the
workplace of the future will continue to evolve and look
different than the past. How firms respond will become
either a permanent setback or setup for long term success.
HYBRID WORK IS HERE
TO STAY
The workplace has changed forever.
Employees now go to the office for
social interaction, team building,
personal preference and comfort or
to get back into routine, but they do
not have to be in the office for all
work. Organizations will thrive with
a combination on onsite and remote
working expectations. According to
the 2020 Anytime, Anywhere Work
Survey from management consulting firm Convergence Coaching, 81
percent of firms expect an increase
in people working from home
post-pandemic.
COVID-19 also disproved the
notion that client-firm relationships
require consistent face-to-face interaction. There is now an opportunity
to serve clients from anywhere, at
anytime, as well as expand talent

pools geographically.
Working remotely is here to stay
within a hybrid model. According to
Gallup, employees' optimal engagement occurs when they spend
60-80 percent of their time working
remotely. The future will likely continue to be a combination of onsite
and remote-work environments,
and organizations need to adjust for
this. Clients may not expect firms
to physically be anywhere, and the
need for in-person interaction will
not always be essential to many job
functions.

RELATIONSHIPS ARE MORE
IMPORTANT THAN EVER
Interpersonal relationships will still
play a role, however, and remain
foundational to success. Prior to
the pandemic, innovation largely
focused on creating efficiencies,

improving service delivery models
and quality or leveraging resources.
Today, firms will need to innovate
how they communicate and interact.
The pandemic mandated a quick
response to disruption, but it now
provides the opportunity to open the
world back up in a new way. To stay
ahead of the curve, companies may
need a new office environment that
offers the flexibility to which people
have become accustomed. Offices
should have a full spectrum of uses
in mind: larger open-collaboration
spaces, places for socialization and
even smaller spaces for independent
working.
Protocols, frequency and transparency of communications - and
the platforms for them - are also
essential to a seamless remote-work
environment and create a valuable
client experience. Millennials, for
example, continue to enter the
workforce as Boomers retire, and
each have different ways of connecting. Firms will have to adapt
to new ways of communicating
across generations just as much as
geographies.

CONFIDENCE AND TRUST
IS FOUNDATIONAL
Transparency of messaging and
action as well as trust in people and
culture, particularly when working
remotely, is paramount to being
successful in the future workplace.
According to Great Place to Work,
all companies that make their " Best
Workplaces " list have high-trust
cultures.
Through a client lens, the most
successful firms previously had
long-standing relationships, business contacts or a trusted brand
identity in the marketplace to
leverage. Now, there is a clear need
to leverage expertise in niche areas

8

FEBRUARY 2021 ■

www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com

to truly be an expert.
Firms must consider their digital
footprint and build strong online
brands through social media, websites and thought leadership. A silver
lining of working remotely is that
expert content can be created from
anywhere and cast a wider audience.
There is an opportunity to reach
untapped areas by leveraging niche
expertise. Historically this online
presence was " nice to have " - now,
it is a " need to have. "

LOOKING TOWARD A
BRIGHT FUTURE
The world has changed more rapidly
in the past 12 months than in the
previous few decades. Small and
mid-sized firms have the luxury
of being more nimble than their
larger counterparts. This creates
a unique opportunity to be able to
adapt quickly and compete for both
business and talent.
As with anything else, a strategic plan serves as a beacon for the
future. A new hybrid workplace will
emerge from the pandemic that is
built from innovation surrounding
team development, relationship
building, communication, engagement, collaboration and more. The
future looks promising and full of
opportunity. ■
Tom Barry is managing partner at GHJ,
a Los Angeles accounting and advisory
firm that specializes in nonprofit, food
and beverage, health and wellness,
and entertainment and media
companies. Tom's role is a combination of entrepreneur, partner,
consultant, mentor and business
advisor. He provides audit and
accounting, tax and general business consulting services to clients
in a variety of industries including waste
management and recycling, manufacturing, distribution and the restaurant
industry. He can be reached at tbarry@
ghjadvisors.com.
http://www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com
april2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of april2021
