Being an accountant can be stressful.
Rather than being dismissed as an inevitable part of the job, businesses must recognise stress and burnout have tangible consequences for individuals, teams, clients, and firms.
In this article, we explore how recognising and managing workforce stress properly enables firms to better protect their people, maintain standards, and reduce the likelihood of complaints and professional indemnity (PI) claims.
Growing burnout in the accountancy sector
When stress is unmanaged, it can contribute to ill health, lower productivity, performance problems, and professional risk.
In late 2024, caba, the occupational charity supporting the ICAEW community, published an industry report (opens a new window) that highlighted the scale of the challenge. Findings revealed that:
74% of the chartered accountants surveyed reported experiencing some form of burnout symptoms, such as exhaustion, detachment, or reduced job performance.
45% of the respondents stated that symptoms of burnout had impaired their ability to do their job or caused them to take time off.
41% had considered changing careers or even leaving the profession because of feelings of burnout.
The impacts of stress
A certain amount of occasional pressure can be beneficial and improve focus and performance. However, being under stress for prolonged periods is not healthy. Long-term stress can affect both mental and physical wellbeing.
Much of the commentary on wellbeing focuses on workforce preservation and the impact that stress-related illness can have on an organisation. Beyond its effect on employee health and attendance, workplace stress can also represent a significant risk factor in relation to PI claims.
The PI perspective: why stress matters
PI claims against accountants often come down to simple errors or oversights: missed deadlines, poor communication, or failures to keep proper records. Stress can play a significant role in increasing the likelihood of such mistakes occurring.
When staff are under sustained pressure, the quality of their work can suffer as their ability to concentrate, exercise sound judgement, and retain important information is adversely affected. Stress can also impair decision-making, reduce attention to detail, and make it more difficult to manage competing priorities effectively.
Additionally, accountants may rush client work, overlook inconsistencies, or fail to escalate concerns. Supervisors and partners may also have less time to check assumptions or ensure that advice has been properly documented. These are precisely the sorts of issues that feature in PI notifications.
Stress can also affect service delivery. A stressed accountant may be slower to respond, less clear in their communications, or less able to manage client expectations. In a PI claims context, gaps in communication and poor records often make it harder for a firm to defend its position.
How can your firm improve risk management?
Business leaders are recognising the human and commercial benefits of a healthy and engaged workforce – devoting considerable attention to understanding how to minimise workplace stress and promote positive wellbeing among employees.
Wellbeing and client service should be treated as connected issues, and effective wellbeing measures should be embedded at organisational level. An accountancy firm that invests in manageable workloads, effective supervision, and an open workplace culture is not only supporting its people; it is also reducing the likelihood of complaints and claims. Risk controls should not rely on individuals simply “coping”. Good systems are essential.
Accountancy firms can take practical steps to reduce the risks associated with workplace stress. These include:
Monitoring and assessing workloads
Encouraging early escalation of capacity concerns
Building realistic deadlines into client work
Ensuring that critical work is reviewed
Addressing cultural issues within the firm (the tone should be set from the top)
Ensuring performance reviews cover issues relating to stress and work-life balance
Collecting and analysing data to assess the impact of any new wellbeing measure, by using pulse surveys, for example
Managers should be trained to identify warning signs of stress and burnout. Being able to recognise changes in behaviour, engagement, or patterns of absences can help ensure concerns are addressed before they escalate. Early, supportive conversations can encourage employees to discuss any challenges they may be facing, allowing issues to be identified and appropriate support provided before they become more serious problems.
A comprehensive approach to wellbeing
To ensure employees are adequately supported to manage stress, firms may consider investing in comprehensive employee benefit packages (opens a new window), many of which typically provide mental health support at no cost to employers or employees.
For example, an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) can be a vital resource for employees to use if feeling overwhelmed and stressed. A strategic employee benefit and wellbeing programme should form part of a firm's wider risk management framework, supporting both employee health and organisational resilience.
Other benefits and approaches that could help manage stress, reduce people risk, and improve wellbeing, include:
Flexible working
Reviewing working patterns may save employees money and valuable time, helping to relieve stress.
Salary exchange
In return for cycle-to-work schemes, season ticket loans, and increased employer pension contributions.
Buy/sell annual leave
This can give employees more regular breaks to reduce burnout, or additional salary.
People risk audits and reviews
Regularly assess wellbeing, absence trends, turnover data, and workforce pressures to identify emerging risks before they impact your people, service delivery, or client outcomes.
Early intervention and absence management
Implement clear processes and support mechanisms from the first day of absence to help employees access support quickly and reduce the risk of longer-term health issues.
Occupational health support
Provide access to occupational health services or utilise those that many insurers offer that help employees remain in work, return to work successfully, and manage health conditions before they affect performance.
Inclusive wellbeing strategies
Design support programmes that recognise the diverse needs of different employee groups and ensure benefits are accessible and relevant across the workforce.
Firms are increasingly viewing employee wellbeing as closely connected to their overall risk profile. Monitoring key people risk indicators and PI notifications helps firms understand the effectiveness of wellbeing initiatives and moves wellbeing from a standalone HR initiative to a measurable business risk management strategy.
Through collaboration between our People Solutions and PI specialists, we help accountancy firms understand how workplace culture, burnout, absence management, and employee wellbeing can influence service quality, operational resilience, and claims exposure.
By taking a strategic approach to people risk, firms can support healthier, more engaged employees while reducing the likelihood of costly mistakes, complaints, and PI claims.
To reach out to a member of the team, visit Lockton’s Accountants (opens a new window) page.
For information on employee benefits, visit our People Solutions (opens a new window) page.
