The most critical issue facing the accounting industry today is the war for talent at all levels. In fact, the first sign that a CPA firm is in trouble is when the firm is not able to recruit, develop and retain great people, especially to succeed their current leaders. These firms have only three choices:…
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. There are two components to hiring great experienced partners and staff: sourcing and interviewing. Staff referral programs can be a good source for experience partners and staff. However, in today’s market many times experienced staff come from recruiters.…
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…
Interviewing stakes are highest when the candidate is a lateral partner. This makes the quality of the interview critical. Here are some key issues and questions organized by the prospective role of the lateral partner candidate. Client Service Partner Partners in this role make up the overwhelming majority of the partner group in all firms.…
Many accounting & advisory firms have programs that give bonuses to staff for sourcing candidates for open positions. In some cases, these programs are highly successful, in many they are not. What makes the difference? The answer is culture. The companies that do this well begin the process before staff join the firm. During recruiting…
In many ways, entry level interviews present the greatest challenge. Here are a few reasons: The candidates have little or no work experience on which to base probing questions The interviewer needs to strongly sell the firm to candidates who have limited perspective on different firm cultures The generational difference between interviewer and candidate can…
We regularly assess leadership succession candidates and outside applicants against desired behaviors for a role, determined by using the Bizet Job Activity Rating online job profiling instrument. When we do this, the behaviors where the candidates show weakness are given a lot of scrutiny. Recently, a client executive whose role was going to be open…