here’s what you’re looking for: marc rosenberg

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:

1. 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.

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several experts on offer tips on how.

by marc rosenberg
cpa firm staff: managing your #1 asset

“if i have 500 partners and 400 are men, i figure i have 150 underperforming partners.” – a big 4 managing partner

the cpa profession suffers mightily from a shortage of labor. there are several reasons for this, in no particular order:

1. accounting is not a popular major in college.

more: 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
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2. since the turn of this century, a dreadful shortage of accounting professors has challenged universities’ ability to meet student demand for accounting courses.
3. the cpa firm industry has high turnover, generally in the 15-20 percent range. reasons include the technical demands of the work, busy seasons, long hours, the profession’s requirement that people wait 10 to 20 years before making partner and the failure of partners to mentor staff.

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yes, we included a form. but we almost didn’t.

by marc rosenberg
cpa firm staff: managing your #1 asset

“feedback is the breakfast of champions.” – ken blanchard

“average players want to be left alone. good players want to be coached. great players want to be told the truth.” – doc rivers, nba basketball coach

more: 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
exclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

 

this post is divided into two sections:

• the progressive view of providing performance feedback, which a minority of firms today practice. whenever something new to the field of practice management appears in a major way, many firms are slow to embrace it. examples: proactive selling, going paperless, adopting the cloud and managing a cpa firm like a real business.
• the traditional view of providing performance feedback, which a majority of firms still practice today. if asked why the traditional practice continues, partners often respond, “that’s the way we’ve always done it. it ain’t perfect, but we are reasonably satisfied with it.”

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plus 17 extraordinary benefits to consider offering.

by marc rosenberg
cpa firm staff: managing your #1 asset

“if you pick the right people and give them the opportunity to spread their wings and put compensation as a carrier behind it, you almost don’t have to manage them.” – jack welch

“pay your people the least possible and you’ll get from them the same.” – malcolm forbes

every cpa industry survey we’ve seen for decades shows that compensation is either no. 1 in importance to staff or close to it.

more: 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
exclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

 

our feeling is that compensation is the ante to enter or stay in the game. put another way, according to jeremy wortman:

if college graduates are looking for their first job, or if a young person with a little experience is job hunting, compensation is huge. if a person has two offers, one for $60,000 and the other for $65,000, the higher offer will get the person almost every time. but if the offers are $500 apart and the person likes the firm offering the lower salary better, it’s likely that the lower-paying firm will get the nod.
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fifteen common ways that firms do it.

by marc rosenberg
cpa firm staff: managing your #1 asset

“i could live two months on one compliment alone.” – mark twain

suppose you ask staff (or partners, for that matter), “how important is it for the firm or your boss to recognize your accomplishments and efforts?” a knee-jerk response may be this: “it’s nice but not that important. i’m self-motivated and don’t need others to tell me when i do something good.”

more: 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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we usually regard these responses as somewhat defensive because everyone wants recognition. it’s a fundamental human need.
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do your employees want to spend time with you?

by marc rosenberg
cpa firm staff: managing your #1 asset

in most organizations, everyone reports to a specific individual. early in his career, marc rosenberg was the controller of a valve manufacturing company. the company grew to the point where he needed to hire an assistant controller. guess who that person reported to 100 percent? guess who was totally responsible for the success of that assistant controller? marc, in both cases. if that person failed because of no fault of marc’s, it still reflected negatively on him. marc was held accountable.

more: 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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but cpa firms operate differently, and therein lies the rub. staff have multiple bosses because each client they work on has a different team consisting of a partner, a manager and/or a senior. we call this the “who’s my boss” syndrome. staff often feel like they have no boss and therefore, no one is looking out for them. or they feel like they have too many bosses when each of their engagements is with a different team.

these are two of the many reasons mentoring is so important. one of the mentor’s jobs is to make their mentees feel like someone is looking out for them.
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question: can remote employees become partners?

by marc rosenberg
cpa firm staff: managing your #1 asset

remote work is undeniably changing how the cpa industry works. it’s been incredibly challenging for firms – from grappling with how to handle staff onboarding, training and mentoring to trying to maintain pre-pandemic client relationships and business development levels.

more: 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
exclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

 

in light of the pandemic that began in 2020, rosenberg associates surveyed more than 130 firms in 2022 asking them a multitude of questions about what options they are offering their staff (remote, hybrid, in-person) and how remote work has impacted various aspects of their business, including business development, client relationships and staff development. our findings were enlightening in many ways and provided great insights. here are some of the results from that survey as they pertain to flexible work options and the effects on their staff:

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bonus: a sample flexible work arrangement policy.

by marc rosenberg
cpa firm staff: managing your #1 asset

this post originally by convergencecoaching, cofounded and led by jennifer wilson; updated by rosenberg associates

what is work flexibility?

convergence coaching uses the terms “anytime, anywhere work” and “work flexibility” very similarly. both refer to increased flexibility around timing and location, around one’s work schedule and the place where work is done, while simultaneously meeting the needs of its staff and the goals of the firm.

more: 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
exclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

 

“we like to give people the freedom to work where they want, safe in the knowledge that they have the drive and expertise to perform excellently, whether they (are) at their desk or in their kitchen. yours truly has never worked out of an office and never will.” – richard branson

“be stubborn about your goals and flexible about your methods.” – anonymous
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