acquisition vs. recruitment.
by anthony zecca
leading from the edge
in my recently published book, “leading from the edge – creating a standout, high-performing organization,” i focus on the leadership accounting firms need to succeed in a future driven by seismic disruptors.
more: teamwork drives firm success | the two sides of the culture coin | four accountability steps for firm success | how to build a standout team | five keys to becoming a high-performing firm | assessing your firm | the 4 traits of great cpa leaders
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leadership has a responsibility and impact on creating the standout, high-performing talent necessary to drive the firm’s long-term strategy. we all understand and believe that at the end of each day, the firm’s greatest asset walks out the door (or in today’s world, disconnects). the quality of a firm’s talent directly relates to the success and performance of the firm.
some quotes to frame this discussion:
- “there is no way to spend too much time on obtaining and developing the best people.” – larry bossidy
- “people will be at the forefront of strategy.” – turner and kalman
- “outstanding people have one thing in common, an absolute sense of mission.” – zig zieglar
the above quotes focus on the key responsibilities of firm leaders relating to creating and maintaining a standout, high-performing team throughout the firm:
- building the best talented team from partner down for every position in the firm
- understanding that it does not end with recruiting the best; that is only the beginning. the leader’s responsibility is to ensure that every person is provided the opportunity to develop their talent to become the best
- developing and executing a transformative long-term strategy that can only be accomplished if talent aligns with the strategy
- clearly communicating an inspiring and aspirational long-term mission and ensuring that every member of the firm shares that mission, believes in that mission and operates every day and in every way grounded in an absolute understanding of and commitment to the firm’s mission
somewhere i read a statement that said, “talent is the multiplier. the more you invest, the better the yield.” when firm leaders and culture actively support talent development at all levels and invest in that talent both time and $$, the result is the creation of an outstanding, high-performing team throughout the firm. everyone wins – the firm, the clients, the talent and the community. the challenge for firm leaders is how do they, through their actions, communications and leadership, ensure that the firm is successful in attracting, acquiring and developing the best talent.
for any service organization, talent is the face of the organization. for accounting firms and other professional service firms, the quality of talent directly impacts the quality of client service, which directly impacts the strength of client relationships, which directly and in a meaningful way impacts the firm’s profitability and growth. firm leaders and the entire leadership team must be active in and committed to a talent model based on a holistic talent strategy for acquisition, retention and development. edge leaders understand that although hr and related systems are important to the talent strategy, without the active participation of firm leadership at all levels, the talent strategy will fall far short of expectations.
talent strategy is a key business strategy centered on the firm’s commitment to acquire, retain and develop the most talented individuals. the success of any talent strategy depends on a few factors with one baseline factor being the ability to attract top talent in the first place. talent acquisition is not the same as talent recruitment. talent recruitment is what most firms do, which is using a process to create interest in the firm with the hope of generating potential candidates who choose to join the firm. the recruitment plan is most often based on the annual budget that indicates how many individuals are needed at various levels to meet the firm’s revenue target based on billable hours and assumed utilization. talent recruitment is a reactive, transactional process.
talent acquisition is a proactive continuous process that although encompassing various aspects of recruiting such as sourcing, screening, interviewing, assessing, selecting, hiring and onboarding, is not about simply filling open positions. talent acquisition is focused on building a network of potential talent that have the potential of being exceptional team members. it is based on aligning talent with the firm’s long-term growth strategy. shifting the talent strategy from recruiting to acquisition is a complex endeavor requiring firm leadership to “lead the way” through its actions, communications and commitment. edge leaders understand that when talent strategy is based on filling “spots” versus alignment with the firm’s growth strategy, the result will continue to be a talent pool that is fine, but not great – a talent pool that will get the job done, but not reflect a standout, high-performing firm.
talent acquisition is a continuous and a fully integrated process encompassing all aspects of recruiting. it differs from traditional recruiting in two very significant ways. as mentioned earlier, recruiting is a transactional process focused on filling specific requirements based on a point in time. talent acquisition is about building and maintaining a pipeline of the highest quality candidates through following a few key steps:
key to a successful talent acquisition model is building relationships with those identified prospective individuals much like the firm focuses on building strong client relationships. not every individual in the pipeline will join the firm and may choose another firm or a different career altogether. the intent is that enough highly qualified talent enters the funnel at the top of the process and joins the firm when the timing is right for both the individual and the firm.
firm leadership needs to be creative and take responsibility for the firm’s talent acquisition. in simple terms, linking talent strategy to the long-term growth strategy requires leadership to identify what talent is needed to successfully execute the growth strategy. what skills (technical, soft, personal) are needed? how many are needed and when? based on this, hr should focus on building a pipeline of potential hires who meet the criteria defined in the talent strategy. the entire leadership team as well as others in the firm should be involved in nurturing and building the relationship with each identified prospective individual so that each prospective individual builds a strong bond with the firm before they ever join.
the firm leader needs to make it clear to the entire firm the continuous and mission-critical commitment to creating and maintaining a standout, high-performing team based on a holistic, strategically aligned talent strategy. the firm leader must demonstrate the firm’s committment to not just sourcing and recruiting the best talent, but also to investing in developing the skills that are needed for the firm to create a strong competitive advantage based on its talent. building and maintaining a pipeline of the best talent coupled with investing $$ and the time of the entire leadership team to developing strong relationships with all those in the pipeline will ensure that there will be a compelling shift in the recruitment process. that shift will be that instead of convincing an individual to join the firm, which is what happens in a “recruitment” process, individuals will market themselves to the firm, so the pursuer becomes the individual versus the firm.
there is no question that a well-executed talent strategy aligned with a strong long-term strategic plan and talentcentric culture will create a clear competitive talent advantage that other firms will not be able to copy. i recently came across an acronym i had not seen before – vuca. i don’t know who came up with it to give credit to them, but it is a great acronym to apply to the world accounting firms are living within and will for some time. accounting firms must operate, compete and succeed in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world. all of us living in the cpa firm world today completely understand the impact of vuca so no further explanation needed.
the challenge vuca creates for a firm’s talent strategy is how to communicate to highly talented individuals why a career in our profession, which lives in a vuca competitive landscape, is a great choice for them. a lot of talented people like consistency and predictability and not necessarily beginning or continuing their careers in the messy world of vuca. the reality is as we look to the future, edge leaders understand that to be successful, the firm needs talent that is nimble, creative, inquisitive, critical thinkers and problem solvers – talent that will thrive in a world that is vuca and clientcentric.
winning the war for exceptional talent will not abate in the near future and in fact, will never disappear because every edge leader in every highly successful firm will always look to attract and retain the best of the best. a successful talent strategy is not a short-term strategy but one that is fundamental and continuous for any firm that is highly progressive and successful or wants to be.
like most things, leadership is a blending of art and science in a broad sense of those words. science is objective (metrics) whereas art is subjective (most performance evaluations). science is based more on theory (billable hours impacts revenue) whereas art is conceptual (if we create an environment where every team member can excel, the firm will grow).
science studies how everything functions, whether in business or other aspects of life. take billing for example. if we have the same input and same procedure to achieve an invoice, the output will always be the same, uniform and standardized. this is science, and this is the process through which we get standardized results.
art, on the other hand, is anything but standardized. a good example outside of business is give a piece of paper and crayons to five kids and ask them to draw a sunset. you will get as many pictures as the number of kids you asked. every kid has their own individual perception of a sunset and will use various colors to come up with their unique picture of the sunset. in business, art is reflective in something as simple as performance evaluations. when asked “does this individual possess leadership potential,” the answer will reflect the perception of the evaluator much like the perception of a child’s view of a sunset. different evaluators will answer the question based on their perception of what a good lead is.
it is common for a business activity to be both an art and science. for example, when leadership discusses its talent strategy, each member of leadership may use their intuitive sense about what good strategy is (art), but also include data (science) about predicted future trends and expected growth to help form their opinion about what a good talent strategy is. when discussing talent, there are clearly aspects that are fact-based (science) as well as conceptual/perception-based (art). to be successful in developing and executing a great talent strategy, firm leadership must effectively blend the science and the art to optimize the results of its talent strategy.