plus interview questions, ideas for small firms and more.
by marc rosenberg
cpa firm staff: managing your #1 asset
“in looking for people to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence and energy. if they don’t have the first, the other two will kill you.” – warren buffett
“we believe hiring to be the most important first step toward the organization’s success.” – anonymous
more: why developing women partners matters | a better way to provide performance feedback | training? cpe? they’re not the same | six tips for setting compensation | staff crave advancement and challenge | what leadership looks and feels at cpa firms | eleven things that good mentors do | give the recognition your staff needs | the importance of great bosses | how remote work is impacting accounting firms | make work flexibility work for everyone | why staff leave cpa firms … and how to stop them | how to solve the big disconnect in talent management | what relevance means for staffing in accounting | how accounting staffing has changed
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this post offers a plethora of ideas and techniques to recruit staff. all of them can be sorted into eight high-level strategies:
- abr: always be recruiting. we all know that staff are very hard to find and retain. it’s been this way for decades and seems to get worse every year. in the past, firms recruited only if they had an opening. progressive firms proactively recruit 24/7. given the 15-20 percent turnover rate at cpa firms, they never know when a staff person will resign or need to be terminated. but one thing is sure – turnover will occur. if your firm website doesn’t have a section on the careers page that encourages applicants to submit their resume even if there are no openings posted, add one immediately.
here’s another justification for continuous recruiting: when firms come across outstanding candidates and feel that adding staff will create a financial strain, they terminate a marginal staff person to open up a spot. this may sound ruthless, but staff shortage has caused many firms to carry marginal performers because they are (barely) better off with that person than with no one at all.
- offer internships. a seismic shift in firms’ use of internships has occurred since the turn of the century. years ago, internships were almost exclusively a partner perk; many interns were partners’ relatives, clients and friends. and the work assigned was largely clerical. rarely were internships viewed as a recruiting strategy.
today, internships are the major way that firms recruit entry-level staff. clients tell us that 70-80 percent of their new college hires come from internships. this is a fabulous win-win strategy; both the firm and the staff person get a chance to try each other out. also, the majority of the work assigned to interns now is real client work, not clerical work.
- focus on entry-level hiring. for decades, most firms actively recruited experienced personnel as well as entry-level people.
the shakespearean outcry heard at partner meetings was: “my kingdom for a senior.”
but the universe of quality experienced staff has shrunk dramatically since the turn of the 21st century because (a) majoring in accounting is less popular and (b) the decades-long migration of staff from national and megaregional firms to local firms has dried up considerably. many staff become so disillusioned by the heavy workload at big firms that it turns them off to exploring work at smaller firms.
also, firms have been more successful in training entry-level staff in their own image than hiring experienced staff, who were marginal performers at other firms or have developed bad habits from previous employers. to support this shift in recruiting strategy, firms have beefed up their staff training programs considerably.
- differentiate. from a recruiting standpoint, how different are typical local firms from all other firms in their market? the reality for most firms is “not much.” prospective hires, especially the better ones, often have a choice of firms to work for and receive multiple job offers. your firm competes not only on compensation (which tends not to vary much from firm to firm) but on the extent to which your firm stands out. look for differences, even small ones, that can make your firm more attractive to talent than your competitors. for instance, if you are a smaller firm that provides auditing services to clients, market to candidates that your staff will be involved in preparing all (or multiple) sections of the audit, thus widening their experience. compare that opportunity to a larger firm, where they may spend weeks auditing cash.
- remember that recruiting is not just a job for the hr department. all firm members should make an effort and beware of opportunities.
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- firms are finding that many of their new hires come from the relationships that firm members have with others, a form of networking. partners regularly tell their clients and referral sources that they are always looking to hire to sustain their firm’s growth plans. young staff spread the word to their friends at other firms.
- young prospective hires are greatly influenced by meeting with staff close to them in age, so firms should make sure to involve their young staff in the recruiting process.
- hire people who fit your firm’s personality. we talked earlier about how difficult it is for local firms to differentiate themselves from the competition. that is from an external viewpoint – how the firm appears to people outside the firm. but internally, every firm has its own personality and culture.
the traditional way that firms hire is to place an ad, cull the resumes received, conduct interviews and hire those with the best resumes and most sparkling personalities.
the new school of thinking uses a three-step approach:
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- first, define your firm’s culture and personality.
- during the interview process, decide if the candidate’s personality is a good fit with the firm’s personality.
- match the two and hire accordingly.
- use social media. these days, social media affects just about every walk of life. recruiting is no exception. in fact, recruiting is one of the top reasons organizations use social media. use as many social media outlets as you can to help market your firm and job openings. most younger applicants look to social media not only to find jobs, but also to get better insights on your firm and its culture.
- consider mergers. we all know that the cpa firm merger market is in a feeding frenzy. the traditional reason for a larger firm merging in a smaller firm was very simple: to increase revenues and make more money.
as merger activity has continued, many firms see merging in smaller firms as a way to acquire talent, not just revenue. here’s an example:
marc rosenberg was representing a four-partner, $3 million firm in merger discussions. they met with a large regional firm. one of the larger firm’s opening lines: “we’ll write you a check immediately for $3 million. we want your clients, but we’re much more interested in adding the four of you plus your staff.”
the remainder of this post delves into many of these strategies.
advanced ideas to enhance your firm’s recruiting strategy
once again, we call upon our colleague jennifer wilson, cofounder of convergencecoaching, a national consulting firm that helps cpa firms develop and implement leadership, succession, marketing, training and development plans.
much of this section is excerpted from a wonderful presentation jennifer gave on recruiting strategies for cpa firms.
differentiation
differentiation places your firm in the right spot compared to your competitors. how do you create a differentiated firm?
- assess your firm’s strengths, which become your recruiting marketing messages.
- assess your competitors’ strengths and how they position themselves as employers:
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- what are they saying about their culture to job candidates? this is often on their websites.
- do their websites have a career section?
- identify your differentiators:
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- the differentiators will be met with either “wow, that’s important to me” or “so what?”
- differentiators will probably vary depending on candidates’ years of experience and/or age.
- examples of differentiators:
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- expertise in a niche or specialty service
- state-of-the-art technology
- largest firm in your geographic area
- curriculum-based training for staff
- exceptional mentoring program
- unlimited pto
- no mandatory saturdays
- heavy contact with partners
- casual dress permitted every day
- during tax season, one long weekend off a month
- annual firm outing for all personnel and their guests
- promote and position your differentiators:
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- incorporate them into your recruiting messages
- post videos and pictures to social media and keep updating with posts that reinforce your positioning
- teach all personnel the do’s and don’ts of how to position the firm effectively
social media
- use social media for recruiting. in a labor shortage, firms must continually reach out to passive candidates to fill the pipeline. if you don’t do this, when a recruiting need surfaces, the recruiting cycle will be longer than it needs to be.
- get all firm personnel on linkedin, build their profiles and make connections. connection count matters! run internal contests for getting the highest number of connections.
- identify how people are connected to others and devise ways to reach those who look the most promising.
- for every job opening, the firm should create a short message that personnel can post on their own linkedin sites.
social media and recruiting
the chicago tribune’s rex huppke often writes on workplace hr issues. a recent article cites new research showing how social media can be the best predictor yet of an interviewee’s success on the job. says huppke:
interviewing people for a job is like an unsolvable riddle. we’re eternally in search of an interviewing process that guarantees hiring the ideal person. but we know from years of experience that perfection is unattainable because candidates know how to game the interview.
huppke opines that a quick review of a facebook profile may give an employer valuable insight into the candidate’s personality. he bases this on research by donald kluemper, a management professor at northern illinois university.
kluemper cites several elements to look for:
- “people who are agreeable are trusting and get along well with others, which may be represented in the quantity of personal information posted.”
- “openness is related to intellectual curiosity and creativity, which could be revealed by the variety of books, favorite quotations and other posts which show the user being engaged in creative endeavors.”
- “extroverts interact frequently with others, which could be represented by the number of activities on social networks.”
the researchers followed up with the candidates after six months. they got access to performance reviews from supervisors and used them as the indicator of success. across the board, facebook profiles predicted success more accurately than the standardized tests did.
harry steindler is a partner in a chicago-area cpa firm. harry plays a special, though unofficial role in his firm in the hr area and had this to share:
“we look for people who held leadership roles in school, have outside interests such as athletics, music, etc. and are open about themselves. i always look to see if a candidate is accessible on social media.”
huppke predicts that this could be a harbinger of how our online lives will continue to bleed into our professional ones.
max drucker, president of social intelligence corp., says: “interviewers should have clear criteria for what they’re looking for online.”
other recruiting ideas
- consider hiring a dedicated recruiting director. if your firm is truly committed to hiring and retaining a high-quality staff, recruiting must be a major focus. firms make the mistake of assigning recruiting to a more junior employee or accounting professionals with other duties that diminish the focus on recruiting.
- advertise. yes, it still works. try state and national accounting society publications, local chamber of commerce job boards, alumni job boards at local and regional colleges and universities, and online recruiting sites.
- firms need to step up their game. alan koltin, a luminary in the realm of cpa firm consulting, suggests this: “partners complain about a shortage of staff all day long, but they’re not being the talent scouts they need to be. firms should be developing and continuously updating a database of people who work at other firms. names are provided by all personnel, from partners to entry level to administrative staff. periodically (at least monthly) the firm should send emails, blogs and podcasts to those people, a classic drip marketing campaign. firms can really step up their game by bringing marketing into the equation. historically, most firms ring the bell when they land a big client, a whale in our world. today, the biggest bell is when we steal a star from another firm.”
- teach your people to network and build a contact web. one great way to get people involved in networking is to have them join your state cpa society. often these societies will allow professionals to become members even before they pass their cpa exams and become licensed.
- cultivate your alumni. many firms have staff who left and came back after seeing that the grass was not greener on the other side. assign a “shepherd” to keep in touch with rehirable alumni every three or four months. reach out to alumni who relocated and see if a remote working relationship is feasible. convene alumni events.
- conduct campus activities.
- host events for college accounting majors. invite them to soft skill classes. invite students to firm social events. host open houses at your office during recruiting season. feedback from several accounting department heads at universities shows that the firms that maintain continuous contact on campus enjoy far more recruiting success than those that are invisible.
- assign someone in the firm to create and implement a recruiting strategy for each school. get to know the president of beta alpha si and other accounting clubs. develop relationships with professors and offer to speak in their class.
- create a program for paying bonuses to staff who refer candidates to the firm who are eventually hired. the cash awards range from a thousand or two to as much as $25,000 for senior managers. these bonuses are typically paid in two parts, one on the candidate’s start date and the remainder at a time in the future to ensure the candidate sticks around and is a good fit for the firm.
the $10,000 hour
this gem came from a speech we heard from bob bunting, the now-retired, legendary longtime managing partner of moss adams, a west coast regional powerhouse that is one of the 20 largest cpa firms in the country.
as bunting tells the story, the light bulb went on for him during a meeting of his management team. the group kept reiterating, as it had in previous meetings, that finding good people was the biggest obstacle to the firm’s growth and was holding the firm back. he knew that the best people rarely respond to ads and recruiters because they rarely look for new jobs.
that was when bunting decided, as the firm’s leader, to personally participate in recruiting. if this was the firm’s greatest challenge and need, as the ceo he had to make it a personal priority.
it was determined that moss adams needed to hire 40 senior managers and partners. through various sources, the firm identified 100 people from competitors who were prime candidates for the jobs moss adams needed to fill.
the firm didn’t call headhunters to contact these 100 people. bunting called many of them himself. now, you’ve got to understand that on the west coast, bob bunting had star power as a living legend, known by hundreds if not thousands of experienced cpa firm personnel.
his pitch on the phone:
“hi. i’m bob bunting, managing partner of moss adams. we’re looking for people to lead our firm into the future and we’ve identified you as a potential leader. can we have breakfast and discuss our firm’s plans and the role we think you can play in them?”
the “$10,000 hour” was a general value that bunting placed on his time making the calls. as ceo of a large firm, he felt he needed to personally solve the firm’s top problem, and the payoff was worth it because he hired some star talent.
the program was amazingly successful. of course, if it hadn’t been, bunting wouldn’t have made his speech!
small firm recruitment challenges
recruiting in an age of staff shortage is difficult for all firms, large and small, but more so for small firms. to recruits, small firms may be unfairly seen as unattractive employment opportunities:
- less prestige
- less sophisticated technology and training
- smaller clients
- less diversity of staff and work assignments
- fewer advancement opportunities
- lower compensation
- fewer perks, including offices that are not as fancy as large firms’
one way a small firm competes for staff
one client of mine, a two-partner firm with each partner in his mid-50s, each earning $500,000, wrote this to us:
“we have worked hard for 30 years to create a business we are proud of. i have difficulty understanding why young professionals aren’t banging down our door for the opportunity to eventually take over our firm, be their own boss and make $500,000 a year.”
“we recently decided to take a very bold recruiting approach. when we pitch recruits, we don’t just tell them about the usual things like the job and the pay. we told them that if they work out, in a short period of time they could take over the firm and earn $500,000 or more per year, just like we do.”
“once we got over our hangup about revealing our incomes, we were able to hire two very bright, talented individuals. so while most small firms struggle to find staff, we believe that some of us can find top talent.”
interview questions
these questions are in no particular order. some are more geared to entry-level recruits than those with experience, but most can be used for both.
- why do you want to work at a cpa firm after graduation instead of other areas such as industry, government or grad school?
- what interests you about a career in public accounting?
- what do you think will be the most important key to success at our firm? explain your choice:
- doing great work; technical excellence
- how many hours you work
- your relationships with clients and co-workers
- as a brand-new hire, it’s clear you’ll be expected to master the technical aspects of your job. what are some other critically important traits you’ll need to master to be successful at your job?
- what are your goals for the next five to 10 years? spoiler alert: this is a trick question. most entry-level candidates have no clue what their goals are for five to 10 years.
- from your review of our website, what have you learned about our firm? what do you want to know more about?
- tell me something about yourself that’s not on your resume.
- we know that the #1 reason why staff leave firms is their relationships with their bosses.
- what things could your boss do to make you feel great about working at the firm?
- what things might your boss do that would make you unhappy or unenthusiastic about the firm?
- describe a situation in which you were able to persuade someone to see things your way.
- describe a stressful situation you experienced in the last few years and how you handled it.
- tell me about a past job. what did you like best and least about it?
- please describe yourself using five adjectives.
- discuss an important document you were required to complete.
- when you are overloaded with too many commitments and too little time to do them all, what do you do?
- i’m going to assume that you believe you are an organized person. convince me of this.
- do you have any idea what area you may wish to focus on? audit? tax? neither? explain why.
- what do you feel are your greatest strengths?
- what are areas in which you need to improve?
- what do you want to ask me about?
soft skills to interview for
make sure you look beyond candidates’ technical skills. here are some personality traits and skills that are valuable in any employee.
- systematic; not just living in the present but always thinking ahead; organized
- able to hold emotions in check
- has emotional intelligence
- effective, articulate, self-confident and persuasive in all forms of communication
- honest in all communications; has integrity
- pleasant, engaging demeanor
- a good listener
- curious; asks questions
- not easily intimidated
- team orientation vs. individualist
- client focus; understands that the client is #1
- self-directed, yet knows when to ask questions
- reliable; good follow-through
- productive multitasker
- good judgment
- energy and drive