Play to Stay: Reimagining the Profession Through IFAC’s Lens and Practice Innovation

9 May

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The global accounting profession is facing a real problem — fewer people are choosing it, and too many are quietly exiting early. The International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) recently sounded the alarm in its paper “The Attractiveness of the Profession,” urging professional bodies and firms to rethink how we recruit, train, and retain accountants.

At the same time, U.S. practitioner and founder Kendale King shared a radically different, but complementary idea: what if accounting firms borrowed tactics from gaming culture to create work environments people actually want to stay in?

Put together, these two perspectives offer a powerful and urgent mission: IFAC shows us the why, and King gives us the how.

⚠️ IFAC’s Wake-Up Call: The Profession Is at Risk of Losing Relevance

In its global paper, IFAC lays out several hard truths:

Perception problems: The profession is still seen as rigid, boring, and overly technical.
Access issues: The traditional qualification path may be too long, too costly, and too exclusive.
Structural inertia: Many firms haven’t adapted to the expectations of new generations — like flexibility, purpose, and fast-tracked growth.
Public misunderstanding: The narrative about accounting is being shaped by outsiders — and it's not doing us any favours.

IFAC argues that if we don’t shift how we position and deliver accounting careers, the talent pipeline will dry up, and our profession's influence will shrink.

🎮 The Game Plan: Make Work Feel Like Progress, Not Punishment

In a recent article for Accounting Today, Kendale King shared how gamification — using game-like elements in real-world settings — can boost CPA recruitment, development, and retention. His approach is about making people feel seen, valued, and challenged in creative ways.

Here are a few of his top suggestions:

Gamify recruiting: Use simulations, team challenges, or arcade-style job fairs to attract talent and assess soft skills.
Make training fun: Turn CPD into interactive game shows, milestone quests, or peer-vs-peer challenges.
Track growth visually: Level-up systems, progress dashboards, and “badges” for skill development build momentum and motivation.
Transform mentorship: Treat onboarding like a co-op game with shared missions, feedback loops, and organic relationship-building.
Infuse culture with play: Office-wide competitions, daily micro-challenges, and recognition systems help people feel connected — especially in hybrid teams.

🇿🇦 Local Relevance: How South African Firms Can Plug In

For many South African firms — especially small practices — these ideas may feel distant or impractical. But they don’t have to be.

Here’s how local firms can adapt the thinking to our context:

Host Accounting Game Days in partnership with schools or TVET colleges to get teens excited about the profession early — linking directly to IFAC’s call for earlier engagement.
Turn intern onboarding into a “mission map” where recruits unlock real responsibilities as they progress.
Use tools like Microsoft Forms or Kahoot! to run live CPD trivia during lunch-and-learns.
Create simple digital “skills boards” to track internal learning and reward CPD milestones with small perks.
Run a firm-wide “Team Ledger Challenge” where teams spot and correct fake entries (à la King’s Post It! game) — great for ethics training.

💬 Ready Player One: Your Turn

If IFAC is asking us to rebrand the profession and create more pathways in, then practice owners need to take the lead — not by rewriting the entire system overnight, but by injecting some curiosity, creativity, and humanity back into the workplace.

As Kendale King puts it: “Gamification doesn’t replace professionalism — it enhances it.” And IFAC reminds us: “We’re one of the most trusted professions in the world.”

So what’s stopping us from making accounting a career people are proud — and excited — to pursue?

📣 Tell us how your firm is reinventing culture, training, or recruiting. Tag @Accounting Weekly on LinkedIn or send your story to editor@accountingweekly.co.za. Let’s spotlight the changemakers and build a profession worth playing for.