How Mid-Year Audits Can Help Assess Your Staffing Needs and Team Efficiency

A mid-year audit isn’t just for financial data—it’s also a valuable tool for assessing staffing gaps and team productivity. This blog discusses how to evaluate workload distribution, identify skill shortages, and make staffing adjustments to optimize team performance. If you realize you need staffing assistance in the second half of 2025, you’re in luck. Our team at PrideStaff Financial is ready & excited to help you find the talent you’ve been missing.

Are workloads balanced across the board?

Busy seasons are part of your firm’s natural ebb and flow—whether they are tax time crunch periods, or as a result of your clients with seasonal businesses. During these busy times, it’s not uncommon for workloads to pile up. An efficiently run firm prepares to handle this by adding seasonal or temporary staff, for example. But if your firm experiences this peak-level demand frequently and across specific team members, it’s time to take a closer look at roles and responsibilities. You can take these steps to help recalibrate your team’s workload. Review each team member’s key daily, monthly, and quarterly responsibilities—are they even across the board? If not, consider redistributing work, tasks, and/or clients across team members. Implement daily or weekly ‘stand-up’ meetings with your team to check in with their workloads, any areas of concern, or suggestions for improvement. Assess your firm’s traffic flow—how effectively you manage the activity in and out of your firm.

Do you have the right people performing the right tasks?

Mis-hiring can slow your growth, resulting in decreased productivity and increased stress levels. For example, if you have a client-facing team member who lacks people and communication skills, or a new hire struggling with the details of daily tasks and unable to meet key deadlines, then maybe that team member might not be in the right role. Start at the top and work your way down to realign team members to the right tasks. Having senior team members helps retain clients and bring in new business. Identify strategic people-leaders who bridge the gap between new business being brought in and the entry-level workers to keep work moving forward. Also, look for staff who are ‘in the weeds’ daily, like entry-level workers who can take instruction well. Doing these steps can help increase your team’s productivity.

Is your structure set up to handle when staff are out sick?

Creating a solid organizational structure typically looks like a triangle or pyramid. But while skillsets and character traits can define the best natural role for each current staff member, your structure needs to withstand the inevitable: staff turnover and multiple illnesses at the same time. And that means embracing cross-functionality. This is known as a ‘deep’ vs. ‘narrow’ team structure. Get the best out of your accounting staff by adopting a culture of continuous learning and cross-training. You’ll cultivate a healthier organization that can run smoothly with multiple staff out at one time. And allows you to slide staff into work assignments for other teams when needed.

PrideStaff Financial has consistently won awards for exceptional client satisfaction. Our highly skilled staffing consultants can support your management teams during the upcoming tax season. Contact us to learn more about our accounting & finance staffing services.