The new face of accounting: Building tomorrow's workforce through strategic partnerships

By Dr. Tiffany Crosby, PhD, CPA, CGMA, MBA, senior vice president, The Ohio Society of CPAs

Beyond traditional CPE: Creating dynamic learning ecosystems that prepare accounting professionals for tomorrow's challenges.

The accounting profession stands at a crossroads. Traditional career paths are evolving, technology is reshaping core competencies and a new generation of professionals is redefining what it means to build a meaningful career. For CPAs and accounting organizations, this isn't just about adapting to change—it's about leading it.

The data tells a compelling story: accounting and audit skills bridge industries with high diffusion potential and are experiencing significant growth. Yet 62% of business respondents report difficulty finding entry-level talent proficient in durable skills, while 65% struggle to find candidates with essential digital literacy and data proficiency. This talent gap represents both a challenge and an unprecedented opportunity for the accounting profession to reinvent itself.

The Shifting Landscape of Workforce Development

Workforce development has evolved into a complex ecosystem comprising three interconnected subsystems: educational ecosystems that develop talent supply, employment ecosystems that generate talent demand and talent ecosystems that identify, train and retain talent across boundaries. The role of workforce development is to align these subsystems through strategic stakeholder engagement, meaningful collaboration and purposeful innovation.

The World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report 2025 reveals that broadening digital access stands as the most significant transformative trend impacting jobs. This digital transformation isn't just changing how we work—it's fundamentally altering the skills required to succeed in the modern economy.

According to the Business Higher Education Forum's recent report "Forging Partnerships to Align Education and Industry for the Workforce of Tomorrow," durable skills— including critical thinking, problem-solving, communication, teamwork, creativity, leadership, adaptability, empathy and lifelong learning—are becoming increasingly essential yet increasingly scarce in the talent market.

Understanding the New Generation of Accounting Professionals

The newest entrants to the accounting profession bring unique perspectives and expectations that are reshaping workplace dynamics. Deloitte's 2025 Gen Z and Millennial Survey, which included 23,482 respondents across 44 countries, found that growth is an important thread for these two generations, but they're also redefining what it means to grow at work. It's no longer about climbing the ladder—in fact, only 6% of Gen Z and millennial respondents said their primary career goal is to reach a leadership position.

This shift has profound implications for accounting firms and corporate finance departments. Among Gen Zs, 70% say they are developing skills to advance their careers once a week or more, compared to 59% of millennials who say the same. What's more, Gen Zs are increasingly spending their off-hours time building those skills, with 67% saying they are developing skills outside of working hours, either before or after work, or on their days off. In terms of the skills and capabilities they feel are most important to their career progression, Gen Zs and millennials say soft skills like communication, leadership, empathy and networking are most important, closely followed by time management skills and industry-specific knowledge.

The implications of AI adoption are particularly relevant for accounting professionals. Most Gen Zs (57%) and millennials (56%) are already using generative AI in their day-to-day work to some extent, and as gen AI adoption continues to grow among these generations, so are concerns about whether they'll have the skills they need for work in the future. Nearly two-thirds of workers in these generations (63% of Gen Zs and 65% of millennials) worry that Gen AI will eliminate jobs.

The Interconnected Priorities of Money, Meaning and Well-being

Today's accounting professionals are seeking competitive compensation and purpose-driven work that supports their overall well-being. Financial concerns negatively impact personal and professional satisfaction for Gen Zs and millennials. For example, 60% of financially secure Gen Z respondents and 68% of millennials report being happy, compared to 28% and 31% for financially insecure Gen Z and millennial respondents, respectively. The connection between financial security and professional satisfaction is particularly relevant for accounting organizations. Purposedriven work has become a non-negotiable expectation for a majority of Gen Zs (89%) and millennials (92%). A significant percentage (>40%) of Gen Zs and millennials have left a role they felt lacked purpose or have rejected an assignment, project, or potential employer based on their personal ethics or beliefs.

Navigating System Challenges

The current talent development landscape faces significant structural challenges that require strategic intervention. Organizations struggle to navigate highly fragmented systems, lacking the capacity and processes to work through disparate networks and requirements that define secondary and post-secondary environments.

Educational and employment ecosystems operate with different agendas, languages and change processes. While employers recognize that internships, project-based learning, job shadowing and apprenticeships represent the most valuable work-based learning experiences for increasing students' career readiness, there's a clear disconnect between intention and execution.

Demographic trends compound these challenges. According to Lightcast's "The Rising Storm" report, net increases in labor market participation fall significantly short of job demand, resulting in persistent unfilled positions. The world's biggest economies face below-replacement birth rates, creating long-term workforce constraints that will intensify competition for skilled professionals.

The accounting profession faces particular challenges in this environment as attention and resources are channeled into sectors like healthcare and construction, where the talent shortage is better understood. The finance and insurance sectors are currently categorized as experiencing a "Category 1 storm" in terms of talent shortage intensity, compared to the Category 5 assigned to healthcare and construction sectors.

Yet, when business leaders are surveyed, they consistently rank business management and operations as the top in-demand but difficult-to-fill talent category, with finance tied at fifth place. This ranking underscores the need for the accounting profession to articulate its unique value proposition more effectively.

Creating High-Performing Partnerships

The path forward requires creating high-performing partnerships that are connected to national, state and regional workforce development initiatives. Success demands the use of appropriate tools and templates, a technology infrastructure to support and manage relationships, clear role definitions and meaningful metrics to measure progress and success.

Solutions must be scalable and accessible to small and midmarket companies, government and non-profit organizations, as well as large employers. Intermediary organizations can help achieve the necessary scale and make partnerships more effective by serving as bridges between educational institutions, employers and professional organizations.

The accounting profession has a unique opportunity to lead in this space. CPAs already possess the analytical skills and strategic thinking necessary to design and implement effective workforce development partnerships. Professional organizations like state CPA societies are well-positioned to serve as intermediary organizations, leveraging their existing networks and credibility to facilitate meaningful connections, and their understanding of the profession to craft a vision for continuous learning focused on capability building.

Gaining Consensus on Future Skills

The accounting profession must develop a clear consensus on the key skills required for future success and the paths by which those skills can be developed. This goes beyond technical competencies to include the durable skills that employers consistently identify as critical yet scarce.

The prevalence of Gen AI is causing many Gen Zs and millennials to reconsider traditional paths for developing necessary workforce skills. Some are opting to explore alternative paths such as vocational qualifications, apprenticeships or trades that may offer more skills-based learning and a lower financial burden. Although a university or college degree remains valuable, 31% of Gen Zs and 32% of millennials decided not to pursue higher education.

This shift creates opportunities for the accounting profession to develop innovative skill development pathways that engage students as early as middle school. Professional organizations can collaborate with educational institutions to develop more practical, skills-focused programs that directly address employer needs, while also providing meaningful career advancement opportunities, ultimately leading to licensure.

The accounting profession's emphasis on professional development and continuous learning provides a natural foundation for this evolution in management. CPAs already understand the importance of ongoing education and skill development—extending this mindset to include people management responsibilities represents a logical next step.

Moving Forward

The accounting profession has several advantages in addressing workforce development challenges: established educational partnerships, professional infrastructure and a culture that values continuous learning. The opportunity lies in leveraging these strengths to create meaningful connections between talent development and business needs.

Success requires building scalable partnerships that emphasize practical skill development over compliancedriven training. This means working with educational institutions to develop curricula that balance technical competency with the durable skills employers actually need, while creating work environments that support financial security, meaningful work and personal well-being.

The accounting profession can lead this transformation by focusing on what works: mentorship, practical experience and clear career progression pathways. By creating these connections thoughtfully and strategically, we can ensure that the new face of accounting reflects both traditional professional values and the emerging expectations of the workforce.

Dr. Tiffany Crosby, PhD, CPA, CGMA, MBA, senior vice president, The Ohio Society of CPAs