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In brief: researchers study impact of audit employee turnover in a private company setting

08/18/2026

3 min

Employee turnover in accounting firms has long challenged the profession, and these challenges have intensified in recent years. Yet, it remained unclear whether issues related to employee turnover, including its potential impact on audit quality, were also relevant for private company audits, which dominate the European auditing landscape and are characterized by lower litigation and regulatory risk. To address this question, an international team of researchers studied turnover data from 27 Belgian audit firms and a large sample of primarily private company audits over an 8-year period from 2009 to 2017.

Understanding the implications of employee turnover is crucial for both audit firms, in terms of human resource management, and for regulators seeking to ensure consistent audit quality. Disruptions to the audit-production process can significantly affect the reliability of financial reporting.

“If specific types of turnover, such as voluntary departures, are found to systematically impair audit quality, it suggests that standard-setters and regulators may need to enhance transparency requirements or refine quality control oversight”, note the authors in their study.

Study analyzes a panel of Belgian audit firms

In their study*, the researchers from IÉSEG, Audencia (both in France), Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium) and Florida State University (USA) analyzed a panel of Belgian audit firms. These companies were required to file human capital statements (including total employees, hires, and departures) which enabled the researchers to gather precise data on turnover. Additionally, the data included information on the reasons for employee turnover, allowing them to distinguish and compare the impacts of voluntary departures and dismissals.

Their results show a negative link between employee turnover and audit quality in a setting dominated by private firms – that is, increases in employee turnover led to a fall in audit quality – confirming findings of studies of publicly listed firms in the US. However, the study reveals that not all turnover has the same implications for audit quality. More importantly, the negative association is driven by voluntary departures and abnormal levels of turnover, whereas dismissals showed “no negative association and may even relate to increased audit quality.” This suggests that dismissals likely reflect quality-control mechanisms rather than disruptions to audit teams.

“Interestingly, we found that some audit firms are better able to absorb the negative effects of staff departures on audit quality. This happens particularly when there are more audit partners relative to employees and when staff who leave are quickly replaced.” explains Linde KERCKHOFS, one of the coauthors and professor at IÉSEG.

Implications for firms and regulators

Their study offers relevant guidance for audit firms. By recognizing that different types of turnover have distinct effects, firms can implement targeted retention strategies to reduce voluntary and abnormal turnover. Discussions about talent in audit should move beyond simply measuring turnover to consider which employees leave, why they leave, and how firms respond.

For regulators, their findings suggest that transparency and accountability could be enhanced by requiring annual disclosure of firm-level turnover and other human capital metrics.

*Find out more in their full article here:

Audit Firm Employee Turnover: Implications for Audit Quality (Auditing: a journal of practice and theory, 2026) Linde Kerckhofs, IÉSEG; Christophe Van Linden, Audencia Business School; Marie-Laure Vandenhaute, Vrije Universiteit Brussel; Aleksandra B. Zimmerman, Florida State University.