Firms across the country are complaining about their inability to recruit experienced people in any of the technical disciplines in which they practice. I believe there are several reasons for this.
The first is probably that the number of accounting graduates has remained relatively steady the last four or five years, while the demands of the marketplace, both in industry as well as firms in public practice, have continued to increase. But perhaps more important, the profession may have created its own problem.
If you think back to five or six years ago, you will recall that the economy was in a recession. During that period, the accounting profession cut back its campus recruiting activities. The people not hired then would be the seniors, supervisors, and managers of today. Because they were never hired, they simply arent available.
Another reason for the lack of available trained staff might stem from an apparent reduction in entry-level hiring at college campuses by the large international accounting firms over the past several years. As a result, these firms are not developing as large a pool of trained staff as they have in the past.
In addition, I surmise that the large national and international firms now try much harder to retain staff they hire from the colleges and experience less turnover than in the past. The impact of these trends on local firms is that the pool of national- and international-firm graduates available to them has been severely reduced. So, whats a firm to do?
Following are several initiatives firms might undertake to try to improve their recruiting of experienced staff.
Bounty payments
Firms are having some success in offering bounty payments to current staff. In a typical arrangement, the staff member responsible for locating an experienced individual who is ultimately hired by the firm earns a bounty of $500 to $2,500. Usually, one half of the bounty is paid when the new recruit signs the employment contract and joins the firm, and the remainder is paid at the end of six months or a year, assuming that this individual is still with the firm.
Signing bonuses
In addition, firms are paying signing bonuses to recruits. These payments range from $1,000 to $7,000. As with bounties, the bonuses tend to be paid over timethe major portion being paid when the recruit signs the employment contract, and the balance paid six months to one year later.
Creative advertising
Firms are trying extra hard to create advertisements that will stand out in the classified section of the chosen publication. To draw attention, these advertisements are amusing, interestingeven intriguing. The idea is to write nontraditional advertising that may elicit a response from somebody who was not even thinking about getting a new job prior to reading the announcement.
The Internet
Firms are using the Internet to recruit in two ways. One method is to "surf" the Internet looking for people seeking employment and to read their resums. The other way is for the firm to place its own help-wanted advertisements on the Internet. Some firms are enjoying modest recruiting success using either approach.
There is obviously something else at work here. A person who has advertised his or her talents on the Internet may be judged to be more technically up-to-date than the average individual looking for a position. Similarly, people who read a CPA firms help-wanted advertisements on the Internet tend to think that firm must be at the cutting edge of technology.
Firm newsletters
A few firms have taken to advertising their needs in their own client newsletters. The hope, of course, is that the newsletters will be read by clients, referral sources, and others who might let the firm know of somebody who may be interested in a new opportunity. This seems to be a viable approach to broadcasting the firms message in the business community, although the results of this are indeterminate, as yet.
Campus recruiting
Beyond all of the above, an increasing number of local firms are back to recruiting on college campuses because of their lack of success in hiring experienced people. They have come to the conclusion that they need to be willing to invest sufficient time and money in hiring recent graduates and in the necessary training process to turn these recruits into functional accountants and, ultimately, CPAs.
The primary need is for these firms to commit to providing adequate, internal training and development activities for inexperienced personnel. Young staff members need to be equipped with the right tools, trained in the use of technology, and given the opportunity to acquire the necessary knowledge if they are to be successful in public accounting.
The main burden for this type of training is falling on the shoulders of the firms middle-management staff, such as the in-charge accountants, supervisors, and seniors. Partners, generally, dont have the time to do the entry-level technical and systems training and they are empowering middle-management staff to take the time to get the job done.
Advantages of campus recruiting
One advantage to campus recruiting, these days, is that most young graduates of a school of accountancy have at least an adequate knowledge of how to use a computers capabilities. Computer training in a firm, therefore, can focus on staffs learning about the specific software used in providing various services.
If you are prepared to make the commitment, you will find there is another major benefit to recruiting and hiring on campus. If you can provide the requisite training and retain staff in the firm over an extended period of time, you will have formed a group of people who have developed in the style, philosophy, and mores of your firm. There will be no need for any re-training and coaching to get people to buy in to the way "things are done" in your firm. And more than just your firm will benefit. The record book shows that many "one-firm" people have made outstanding contributions to the profession during their careers.
by Donald B. Scholl, D. B. Scholl, Inc., P.O. Box 3152, West Chester, Pennsylvania 19381-3152, tel. (610) 431-1301, FAX (610) 429-1086
