About once a month, we get a similar comment from clients: “one of our partner candidates is lacking in emotional intelligence, are you available to coach him on this issue over the next six months?” It’s amazing how prevalent this issue is today. To us, it’s a siren call for teaching emotional intelligence much earlier,…
An excerpt from Accounting Today’s article by Richard Stanger and Carolyn Carlson, Winning the War for Talent. It’s a win-win for both your firm and candidates: firms that offer summer internships get to lock up great candidates early and the candidates can secure a permanent job before their senior year. That’s why the best approach…
An excerpt from Accounting Today’s article by Richard Stanger and Carolyn Carlson, Winning the War for Talent. Great firms acquire and develop talent from the bottom up, starting with entry-level hires. There are three keys to successful campus recruiting: Get your partners involved, beginning with campus interviews. Nothing gets the attention of candidates more than…
An excerpt from Accounting Today’s article by Richard Stanger and Carolyn Carlson, Winning the War for Talent. Many accounting firms have programs that give bonuses to staff for sourcing candidates. In some cases, these programs are highly successful, but in many they are not. What makes the difference? The answer is culture. The firms that…
An excerpt from Accounting Today’s article by Richard Stanger and Carolyn Carlson, Winning the War for Talent. Winning the War for Talent at all levels is the most critical issue facing the accounting industry today. In fact, the first sign that a CPA firm is in trouble is when the firm is not able to…
When we discuss succession planning with clients, the position of managing partner(s) and group leader(s) are quickly mentioned as critical. This is understandable since these individuals run the firm and have deep institutional knowledge. Then we further press clients: “Name other people in the firm whose departure would seriously hurt the firm’s business?” This query prompts…
We all know the classic management principle: “what gets measured gets done.” This maxim has been around so long that no one is sure who said it first. Is it correct? Not always. It is clear that measuring results is not enough. You must also reward them. Let’s modify the management principle to: “what gets…
We’ve just completed a series of three blog posts on behavioral interviewing, each focusing on different levels of candidates. It’s a good time to point out that there are actually three key aspects to interviewing: Selling the firm — At the end of the day, when it comes to the best candidates, you are interviewing…
Building talent from the bottom up is a persistent challenge for accounting and advisory firms. We get the question all the time: “How can we accelerate staff from hours-based compliance work, to being able to deliver real value to clients?” Paradoxically, many Millennials ask the same question in reverse: “How can I quickly develop the…
When interviewing experienced staff, the key is to understand their behaviors in the context of their experience. Here are three examples of good questions to help you do this. As you read them, you’ll notice that the questions are actually statements rather than true questions. They are open-ended — making the candidate think and synthesize…