Remote Work / ATAWW

Addressing Common Objections to Remote and Hybrid Work

Challenged with firm leaders or team members who aren’t convinced remote or blended work will work? ConvergenceCoaching facilitators and remote-work experts address the common objections that impede the move to a more-remote environment. In this session we'll discuss strategies for addressing objections including:

• Understanding the latest market drivers causing firms to embrace the remote and blended paradigm
• How to manage a remote or blended workforce
• Why remote resources are productive and how to communicate this to your team
• How to train and develop remote resources
• How to maintain firm culture in a remote or hybrid environment

Attend this course to increase buy-in of remote and hybrid work at your firm!

Anticipate the Market – Today’s Trends Affecting You Tomorrow

The market is dynamic and fast-moving, and it’s our job as leaders to stay abreast of the changes that will have the biggest impact on our firm, team and clients. When we anticipate the hard and soft trends ahead, we can develop strategies to lead our team to capitalize on those changes. Which trends should you plan to address in the current year and beyond? Join us to explore:

• The most important trends in three areas – Talent, Technology and Client Experience – paired with insight on how firms are anticipating and addressing them
• Strategies for prioritizing your firm’s efforts in each of the three areas to facilitate real change and prevent overwhelm
• Methods for staying current on trends going forward

Leave this session with ideas for anticipating and maximizing market trends as you plan for the future!

Avoiding Common Remote and Blended Work Pitfalls

Want to ensure that you firm's remote or blended work strategy is a viable, long-term solution for your firm? Join this interactive discussion facilitated by remote-work experts from ConvergenceCoaching, LLC. Together we’ll prioritize and address the common pitfalls that impede the move to a more-remote environment. After completing this course, you will be able to:

• Identify the mindset and strategies that allow leaders to manage a team they can’t always see
• List common misconceptions about productivity and recognize the importance of creating new measures
• Recognize the strategies that will accelerate learning and growth in a remote or blended environment
• List specific approaches that will protect your culture and have your people feel connected to one another no matter where they work

Attend this session to expand your ability to overcome the common remote and blended work obstacles!

Building a Truly Progressive, NextGen Firm (1-day workshop)

With impending succession and the proliferation of automation, the profession is facing unprecedented change. Firms are challenged to now focus on the dreams, goals and desires of their multi-generational team members and clients. Leaders who recognize this shift and drive cultural change stand the best chance of remaining relevant, competitive and sustainable. Together, we’ll explore strategies to proactively prepare for and drive changes to ensure your competitive advantage. In this session you will::

• Learn engaging leadership cultural attributes centered around innovation and efficiently managing change
• Understand the three big factors driving change inside your firm: demographic shifts in talent, driving changes in client expectations, shifts in talent and the next technology revolution
• Identify methods to enhance your value to clients with a broader advisory approach
• Discover strategies to empower and engage NextGen while still embracing traditional team members and clients

Leave this session with ideas and tools to build a culture that inspires, excites and makes NextGen talent and clients proud to work at – or with — your firm.

Building a Truly Progressive, NextGen Firm

With impending succession and the proliferation of automation, the profession is facing unprecedented change. Firms are challenged to now focus on the dreams, goals and desires of their multi-generational team members and clients. Leaders who recognize this shift and drive cultural change stand the best chance of remaining relevant, competitive and sustainable. Together, we’ll explore strategies to proactively prepare for and drive changes to ensure your competitive advantage        :

• Learn engaging leadership cultural attributes centered around letting go, “getting better,” being open to change and failing forward
• Understand the three big factors driving change inside your firm: demographic shifts in talent, driving changes in client expectations, shifts in talent and the next technology revolution
• Discover strategies to empower and engage NextGen while still embracing traditional team members and clients

Leave this session with ideas and tools to build a culture that inspires, excites and makes NextGen talent and clients proud to work at – or with — your firm.

Building a Truly Progressive, Talent-Forward Firm

With all that’s happened in the last few years, the profession is facing unprecedented change. Firms are challenged to now integrate the dreams, goals, and desires of their talent into their core firm strategy. Leaders who drive cultural change stand the best chance of being a destination firm for high-potential talent. Attend this highly interactive, discussion-based session to explore strategies to engage, empower and develop your talent. After completion of this course, you’ll be able to:

• Identify critical cultural components that today’s talent are seeking, including a leadership culture centered on getting better, letting go, being open to change, and failing forward
• Recognize how embracing the changes facing our firms - remote and blended work, flexibility, technology, business model shifts, and new ways of learning to bring future leaders along faster - can create higher levels of engagement

Leave this session with ideas to shift your firm’s culture and identify new strategic priorities that inspire, empower, and retain your talent, providing a bright future for your firm.

Embracing NextGen Trends in CPA Firm Talent Management

As a firm leader, your job is to elevate your firm’s thinking related to culture and people and lead your firm through major change initiatives. When it comes down to it, your biggest challenge is to make sure your leaders understand that your firm’s culture and talent programs matter most. In this highly interactive session, we’ll discuss top talent trends and share strategies that are working inside our firms. Then, we’ll work to identify top priorities for your firm. You’ll help shape the content of this session, but some of the trends we’ll explore include:

• Cultivating a change-ready culture centered around “get better,” collaboration, and letting go
• Building your bench and finding the right talent at the right time
• Embracing “next level” flexibility and strategies needed to support flex and efficiency Discussing insights from our 2018 Anytime, Anywhere WorkTM Survey
• Enhancing your client value by embracing a less CPA-focused staffing profile and considering a two-track system

Leave this session with concrete strategies and ideas to drive your firm’s talent advantage in the future!

Having It All:  Managing a High-Performance, Flexible Work Environment

Increased competition for talent requires new and innovative employee engagement strategies. At the top of the list for many is the ability to work at a time and place of our choosing. This demand for Anytime, Anywhere Work^TM is driving CPA firm leaders to give up their attachment to their traditional work values of “face time” and mandated office hours and move to a more flexible, virtual work model. Attend this session to explore steps to navigate away from “old school” notions toward a more time-and-place-independent environment including:

• Shifting your mindset and identifying old norms and “gotchas” that will inhibit flexibility
• Exploring different flexible work options that you can offer to your team
• Identifying management must-haves to maintain service quality and firm profitability as you make the shift towards a more flexible work environment
• Managing expectations – yours, theirs, and the clients’
• Communication and accountability techniques to ensure success
• Technology and other enablers
• Addressing issues when flex is not win-win-win

Attend this session to further your ability to deliver service in new, time- and place-independent ways

Managing a High-Performance, Flexible Team (1-day workshop)

This workshop can be segmented into a virtual webinar series, a single-subject conference session, half-day and full-day workshops.

Work/life balance and flexibility are two of the top five “stay” factors for talent, according to Inside Public Accounting’s Road to Retention survey. Most firms say they’re committed to providing flexible work arrangements; however, many are still struggling to fully embrace flex and remote at all levels and in all service areas of the firm. As remote and flexible work options become the norm, and as talent can choose other organizations who offer both, firm leaders must learn to manage teams and engagements with mixed schedules independent of location. Ultimately, flex must become a cultural non-negotiable. In this one-day interactive workshop, you’ll:

• Shift your mindset and identify old norms and “gotchas” that inhibit flexibility
• Define flex as a two-way street that works for team members, leadership, clients and the firm
• Identify management must-haves to maintain service quality and engagement profitability in a flexible and virtual work environment
• Establish clear communication and accountability expectations to ensure success
• Define the technology needed and other enablers to facilitate effective collaboration
• Address issues when flex is not win-win-win

Attend this workshop to further your ability to manage, collaborate and deliver service in new, time- and place-independent ways.