Top 10 Ways Firms Can Help Employees Earn Their CPA License
Helping your new employees get their CPA licenses helps your business. However, in today’s fast-paced work environment, it can be overwhelming to figure out where to start and which resources they need to succeed – especially when it comes to test prep materials. Here are a few easy ways to help your team pass their exams and get back to work quickly.
1. Provide options for exam review that suit individual learning styles.
Your associates have varying needs when it comes to learning, so “one size fits all” is not the best approach for CPA exam prep.
If you use a vendor with one instruction approach, it may not be suitable for everyone. That can lead to inefficient prep and delays in certification (which means a delay in impact to your bottom line). Instead, partner with an education provider that can offer a customized learning solution. For example, UWorld has in-person, online, or hybrid programs available, designed specifically to meet the needs of your employees.
2. Help employees get maximum efficiency out of time that would otherwise be unproductive.
With the right partner, idle time becomes study time.
By working with partners that provide flexible content, your employees can use less productive time, such as driving, commuting, or waiting for an appointment, to study for their exam. Your associates can do things such as listening to audio recordings while driving or watching shorter videos on a mobile app while waiting for a doctor’s appointment. While that can never be the only way to study, every minute helps and microlearning has been shown to aid in this type of studying.
3. Provide them with tips and training for study management.
It’s no small task to balance work and studying for the CPA exam, so coaching your team on study management will help them out immensely.
Many exam review partners offer great planning and calendarization tools, so students know when they are on track or behind. UWorld’s personalized exam planner maps out exactly what associates should be studying and how well they should be doing to be ready for exam day. Having a consistent study plan that they stick to will help your associates retain more of the information they are studying. And it will reduce the need for a last-minute cram session. Having strong time planning tools within your learning platform can make all the difference.
4. Incentivize them.
Make sure your associates know their increased expertise will result in increased compensation.
Getting CPA certified is a win-win for both you and your employees. It bolsters your associate’s standing as an accountant, and it adds to your firm’s expertise. Giving your employees extra incentives to get certified will reinforce the expectation and quickly motivate them to increase their expertise. Incentives can be in the form of a raise, bonus, or other reward.
5. Provide them with tips and training for overall time management, not just for the exam but for their life.
As you know, juggling a demanding job and obtaining your CPA can be daunting. And no one wants to feel like they’re drowning in a never-ending pool of work and studying. This is why providing tips and positive perspectives on how to balance life’s demands will have a positive impact on your employees.
Providing basic guidance on how to prioritize, how to conduct work sprints, and the importance of taking breaks can go a long way in making both the workday and the study day of a new associate more productive on all accounts. This lowers stress levels and will result in happier, more productive employees in the long run.
6. Teach them how to sprint.
Studies show that working for 52 minutes at a time can result in maximum efficiency.
Support your associates in their attempts to work in bursts by encouraging them to turn their emails on “do not disturb” and putting their phones on airplane mode during focused work times. These strategies can be effective ways to ensure they get the most out of their time.
UWorld CPA study materials are built with sprints in mind.
7. Encourage employees to take frequent breaks.
It’s easy to get overwhelmed, so encourage employees to take breaks throughout the day.
Without proper breaks, your associates risk experiencing burn out from studying too long. In fact, the research shows that after a 52-minute sprint, the most productive workers take a 17-minute break. Share this information with your employees and empower them to take frequent breaks. It might sound counter-intuitive, but the science is clear.
8. Help them find a mentor.
Pair employees with a mentor who can help guide them through the early years of their career.
When paired with a mentor, employees can quickly learn how to make a bigger contribution to their employer. Mentorship can also help your associates feel supported and valued, which leads to higher employee satisfaction and lower turnover.
As your employees move through the CPA certification process, if they study with UWorld, they have access to professor mentoring so they feel that same support as they move through the study process.
9. Condone a supportive culture.
Implementing the advice in this list will go a long way in developing a supportive culture.
Attending to individual needs, giving advice and tools on study management and time management, encouraging breaks, and providing mentorship are all emblematic of a supportive culture. You can also consider conducting office hours or another way that your employees can ask questions when they are stuck or need work advice in a non-judgmental environment.
10. Fill your L&D portfolio with a strong vendor who has proven success.
UWorld is a trusted provider of the most relevant CPA materials on the market. In fact, 9 out of 10 UWorld CPA candidates pass the CPA exam. And that’s particularly impressive when compared with the national average of only a 50% pass rate.
The quality of UWorld courseware will help your associates learn faster and pass the CPA exam in an accelerated timeline (which means you see a positive impact on your bottom line faster). And UWorld Success Tracker makes it easy to monitor and understand candidate progress as your employees move through the CPA material.