Industry Insights

Accounting firms invest heavily in cybersecurity, but recruitment assessments may introduce an overlooked threat. Recent reports highlight scams in which job seekers are tricked into downloading fake assessment software containing malware, sometimes resulting in significant financial losses.

Self-doubt is common in accounting, but it isn't always caused by an unsupportive workplace or Imposter Syndrome. Sometimes, it stems from a personality trait known as Apprehension, which can lead individuals to question their abilities, dwell on past mistakes, and avoid opportunities for career growth.

The blog emphasizes that pre-employment tests must comply with anti-discrimination laws to avoid legal and reputational risks. Following the EEOC’s best practice guidelines helps ensure that testing processes are defensible against any claims of bias.

The article argues that listening is one of the most important and often overlooked skills in accounting. While technical expertise is essential, strong listening helps accountants build trust with clients, become better managers and leaders, retain talented employees, and have more valuable advisory conversations.

AI is changing how accountants work, but not the core skills that make them effective. Critical thinking, curiosity, professional scepticism, judgement and communication remain essential, with accountants still responsible for verifying information and deciding whether they are comfortable putting their name to the work—regardless of whether it was produced by a colleague or AI.

Accounting firms can make better people decisions by tracking five key HR benchmarks: promotion rates, staff turnover, employee feedback, leave balances, and hiring quality. Measuring these consistently helps firms identify problems in career development, retention, workload, leadership, and recruitment before they become costly.

AI is changing recruitment by making resumes more polished, tailored, and persuasive than ever before. Candidates can use AI tools to enhance their resumes, match job descriptions, and present their experience more strategically, making it increasingly difficult for employers to determine what a candidate has actually done based on a resume alone. While this isn't necessarily dishonest, it does create a challenge for employers—particularly in accounting and finance roles where technical competence, judgment, and accuracy are critical.

This article focuses on helping accounting firms hire and develop people who can effectively act as the “Human in the Loop” when reviewing AI-generated work and implementing AI responsibly. Rather than discussing AI itself, it explains how existing APPQ Personality and Critical Reasoning assessments can identify individuals with the skills needed to oversee AI outputs.

The blog explains that hiring accounting and bookkeeping professionals is difficult because many strong candidates are already employed and may only be casually exploring opportunities. Employers should therefore focus not just on technical qualifications, but also on understanding a candidate’s real motivations, career goals, and readiness to change jobs.

Firms apply far more rigor to buying software or equipment than they do to hiring employees—even though hiring mistakes often carry greater long-term costs. The blog argues that hiring should adopt the same “trust but verify” mindset as procurement, using more systematic, evidence-based methods to reduce risk and improve outcomes.

AI is rapidly reshaping accounting by automating routine tasks like transaction coding and reconciliations. As a result, accountants are shifting from “doers” to “reviewers,” responsible for interpreting and validating AI-generated outputs. While AI improves efficiency, it can still produce errors that appear correct, making human oversight essential. This shift makes curiosity a critical skill.

AI is transforming accounting by automating much of the technical work that traditionally trained new accountants, such as reconciliations and preparing accounts. While this increases efficiency, it also removes the hands-on experience that historically helped professionals develop judgment, pattern recognition, and a deep understanding of financial information. Without spending years working through the numbers, future accountants may enter advisory roles earlier but lack the experience needed to interpret business context and ask the right questions. As a result, the profession may face an “experience gap,” where professionals are skilled at using AI but less familiar with how financial data is built and understood. To address this, firms will need to intentionally redesign how accountants develop—through mentoring, real business exposure, and critical thinking about financial insights—ensuring that human expertise continues to complement advancing technology.