The talent conversation among small and medium-sized practices (SMPs) has shifted. The question is no longer whether or not SMPs can compete successfully for the next generation of finance professionals; it is whether they are making the most of an opportunity that the evidence suggests is already theirs.
That evidence is compelling. What finance professionals say they want from a career – meaningful work, direct impact, breadth of experience, the chance to build genuine relationships and real entrepreneurial possibility – as reported in ACCA’s Global Talent Trends 2026 research, is the daily reality of working in a small practice. The challenge for many firms, it seems, has not been the offer but how to sell it.
‘We look for people who are curious, not just credentialled’
According to ACCA’s SMP talent management toolkit, which has been updated ahead of UN MSME Day on 27 June, ‘the opportunity for SMPs to grow in today’s business environment is unprecedented’. Digital transformation is allowing them to reimagine the services they offer and, as a result, SMPs ‘are redefining what an accountancy career can look like’.
Automation has also changed the skills that modern finance professionals need, which is why SMPs tend to recruit for attitude as much as technical ability.
‘What matters now is how you think about a problem, how you approach it,’ says Priyan Edirisinghe, managing partner of Baker Tilly Sri Lanka. ‘We can teach technical skills. We look for people who are curious, not just credentialled.’
Once routine work has been automated, what remains – advising clients, building relationships and exercising judgment – is what SMPs have always been built around. ‘For practices that embrace this shift, it is not a threat to the profession,’ argues the toolkit. ‘It is an argument for it.’
A bigger game
SMPs, though, must compete for talent not just with each other but with the Big Four and every other industry sector – including one with a magnetic pull for young people.
‘We are not really competing with other accountancy qualifications,’ is how Joe O’Regan, a fractional CFO from Ireland, puts it. ‘We are competing with: “I want to work in Big Tech.” That is the real competition. And that means we have to tell a different story.’
‘In larger firms you gain a niche. In SMPs, you gain exposure to the full picture’
The modern SMP needs a recruitment brand that is as considered and compelling as its client brand, and that actively tells the story of what a career in an SMP can offer at every stage of professional life. The toolkit brings together a range of resources designed to give SMPs the language, evidence and practical tools to make their case for a fulfilling career.
Breadth of experience
One of the most compelling arguments for an SMP career is the breadth of exposure that entry-level professionals are exposed to, early and quickly in their career. In an SMP, the qualification journey and the client work happen side by side, not in sequence.
By the time an SMP-trained accountant qualifies, they will have built a portfolio of practical experience that is genuinely portable, and a set of client relationships that many of their peers in larger firms are unlikely to have encountered so early. That is a strong foundation for whatever comes next.
This take is reinforced by the views of several finance professionals, some of whom have moved between large and small practices, or between SMPs and industry. ‘You’re not limited to one specific area,’ says Rachel Sloane, who works for a small firm in Ireland. ‘In larger organisations, you might be assigned to fixed assets, intercompany or aged payables – that becomes your niche. Here, you work with clients across all of it, giving you exposure to the full picture.’
‘If you are coming here, you are going to learn and grow – that is our promise’
The right culture
A learning culture may be an SMP’s most powerful tool in attracting talent. Edirisinghe says: ‘From day one, what we say is: if you are coming here, you are going to learn and you are going to grow. That is our promise – and our strategy.’
Dulce Baterisna, who worked for EY in the Philippines before a successful career as a CFO in industry, has since joined an SMP and argues that younger candidates are particularly attracted to the culture of smaller firms.
Gen Z candidates, she says, are increasingly choosing mid-tier firms deliberately, rather than as a fallback. ‘I’m hearing recently from Gen Z that they prefer a mid-sized firm. They don’t want to join the Big Four because they always have this idea that there’s no work-life balance there.’ Mid-tier firms, she argues, combine the culture they are looking for with the opportunity to work with international clients.
Not everyone recruited to an SMPs will stay, of course, but smaller practices arguably have more to gain from transient employees than their larger counterparts. Former trainees may become managers at client firms, referrers, collaborators or even clients themselves. Practices that genuinely invest in their people, even if they know that some will move on, build relationships and reputation that compound over time – and that’s an opportunity that should be embraced.
More information
Access additional resources from the ‘Celebrating Talent in Practice’ campaign – read ‘Why choose a career in a small or medium-sized practice’ and view the webinar ‘Bridging the skills gap: building tomorrow’s accounting talent today’, live on 30 June or on demand
