Private Equity in Accounting (Part 3)

The final part of the Private Equity in accounting newsletter is here! This edition will be covering a comparison on job satisfaction and hours worked in PE backed versus non-PE backed firms.

And not to spoil the festive vibe you’ve no doubt got going on, but just a quick check-in: have you completed your CPE / CPD requirements for 2024 yet? It might be time for you to get acquainted with our sponsor, Earmark!

Earmark is your answer for not having to worry about cramming in all your CPE while you should be doing your holiday shopping instead!

Earmark allows you to earn CPE while driving, walking the dog, or even doing the dishes! Earmark allows you to earn CPE by listening to podcasts then taking a short quiz to receive your CPE certificate. They have an awesome catalog of content, including some episodes with yours truly! Join 14,000+ accountants who use earmark for their CPE here. They’ll even let you get started for free!

Okay now let’s get into it!

To start us off, lets look at average weekly self-reported hours worked. For the non-PE group, the average came in at 46.6 hours, and for the group of PE backed firms, the average was 47.5 hours, so a 2% difference between the samples. What was interesting is both samples showed a consistent trend of decreasing hours since 2021.

When comparing job satisfaction ratings, the average response for non-PE backed firms in 2024 was 6.9 out of 10, whereas the average response for a PE backed firm was 6.75 out of 10, so a small spread but one that is larger than in 2023. There were 2 firms in particular where job satisfaction responses decreased significantly following a PE deal - responses for Baker Tilly decreased from an average of 7.16 to 6.74 after the PE deal occurred, while BDO dropped from 7.2 to 6.55 since the PE deal. The overall average responses for job satisfaction have been quite steady across the rest of the industry since we began collecting this data in late 2022.

Overall, it seems like not all PE deals are created equal and some seem to have more negative impact on employee morale than others. These results are probably not as negative around PE as folks expected - I honestly thought it would be a much bleaker picture before looking into the data as well if I’m being honest.

So if they’re not here to squeeze every last billable hour out of us, what is the play here with PE? Well I’ll be discussing all of that in the next newsletter, but if you’re extremely eager, I’ll be linking some relevant episodes of the podcast that helped shape my opinions on PE in the accounting space below.

The Big 4 Transparency Podcast has been a huge 2024 project for me and I’ve learned so much from the great folks I’ve had the pleasure of speaking with so far - I would greatly appreciate if you were to go check out the pod! And as promised, here are some episode that are relevant to the topics of PE in accounting: