(taken from the May/June 2006 issue of On Balance magazine)

Competing for talent
By Donna Pinsoneault

Matt Partridge joined Virchow, Krause & Co. in 2004 to take up a human resources challenge. Skilled in communicating effectively with young candidates, Partridge is charged with taking the firm’s long-standing commitment to attract the best and brightest to an even higher level.

“People development has always been important at Virchow Krause,” said Timothy L. Christen, CPA, chief executive officer at VK in Madison. “Attracting and developing the right people is what helped us grow from a small, local firm to a large regional firm. We brought Matt in because attraction and development is now the top strategic focus of our company.”

Partridge leads a full-time staff determined to make the most of recruitment opportunities.

“To build strategies that attract and retain the best people is an exciting proposition,” he said. “In this industry, our people are our product. The quality of our people has everything to do with our success.”

Grant Thornton is also taking proactive steps to ensure that top candidates enter and remain in the accounting profession. The firm’s recruitment process begins as early as a college student’s sophomore year.

“Students make commitments to firms earlier and earlier in their college careers,” said David M. Klumpyan, CPA, Wisconsin managing partner at Grant Thornton in Fond du Lac.

Carefully building an applicant profile is an effective way to begin recruitment.

“The key is being able to define and create your strategy around your ideal applicant,” Partridge said. “Then build a plan for a search and assessment process to create a match.”

College students traditionally learn about accounting firms through on-campus recruiting, accounting-specific events, partnerships with accounting-related organizations and internship experiences. Grant Thornton also offers Footsteps, a program that gives college sophomores and juniors opportunities to experience the firm firsthand for a few days and participate in various mini-leadership sessions.

“The goal is to create the impression for these students that this is a firm they will want to be part of when they graduate,” Klumpyan said.

Spotting potential
Programs like Footsteps also provide opportunities to assess candidates for quality and fit.

“We look for candidates who demonstrate the same behavioral traits that successful professionals in our firm possess,” Klumpyan said. “We conduct in-depth behavioral interviews to make these determinations and also to ensure that candidates espouse our guiding principles of respect, integrity, professional excellence and leadership. Not all top talent will fit because their goals might not match the firm’s goals.”

Because cutting-edge curricula in Wisconsin schools ensure that candidates are technically prepared, recruiters focus on developing relationships with potential hires while they are still in school. Partridge avoids the “scatter-shot” approach. Instead, campus relations teams consisting of alums and human resource professionals focus on the campuses that have historically produced students who have done well at Virchow Krause.

On campus, professors keep eyes open for the qualities that make students good candidates for the accounting profession.

“We recommend students who demonstrate a high level of curiosity,” said Lucretia S. Mattson, CPA, DBA, CFP, accounting professor at the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire. “We look for students who are intrigued with ‘what ifs’ and possibilities, who go beyond the routine to wonder what would happen if we tried a different way or looked for a better way.”

Although fields like science and engineering continue to compete with accounting for the “best and brightest,” top students realize that accounting offers a worthwhile background even if they eventually decide to take another career path.

“You can make a difference, have an impact on the health of a business,” Mattson said. “Accounting is an excellent way to get in on the ground floor and understand what is going on in any business.”

Initiatives to attract women to the profession remain strong but Mattson believes recruiting efforts must be directed to the full range of diversity.

“We need to get more men in the profession as well,” Mattson said. “We are starting to recruit students from the Hmong population and we especially need to pay more attention to American Indians.”

Once high-potential candidates are identified, firms consider candidate preferences for business units and locations and provide guidance in interviews.

“It’s a mutual interview process,” Partridge said. “We are both getting and giving information.”

What happens after hiring is equally important. Grant Thornton offers a unique “campus to partner” approach that provides robust training, leadership development and delivery of the “Grant Thornton Experience” through a variety of shared experiences at the local, regional and national level.

“We provide cutting-edge technology, continuous learning and mentoring programs,” Klumpyan said. “Our LEADS program offers an accelerated structure for career advancement within the firm and continues to build capabilities at the executive level.”

Fresh strategies
Enhanced recruitment practices mean the Big Four firms may no longer have the advantage in attracting high potential candidates.

“It is not as hard to compete with the Big Four as it used to be,” Christen said. “A much larger percentage of students is seeing that the Big Four is not the only choice. University professors are helping students understand that smaller firm careers can be equally lucrative and professionally fulfilling at a much lower cost in lifestyle.”

Competition for talent among experienced accountants is also significant. Virchow, Krause uses its full-time recruiting staff, proactive letter campaigns and person-to-person outreach to attract and retain professionals who may also be pursued by Big Four firms. “Ten years ago, that would have been unheard of,” Christen said.

Grant Thornton has doubled its referral bonus program. The firm also created an internal sourcing function to establish a pipeline for accounting professionals who are not engaged in active job searches. They offer attractive sign-on bonuses to alumni to encourage them to rejoin the firm.

“Organizations that approach talent recruitment and development like they did in the ’90s will be out of step,” Klumpyan said. “The No. 1 strategic initiative of any professional services organization and the foundation to effectively implement a strategy rests on the ability of its people. How do you build great organizations? You build great people. You provide for the growth of intellectual capital.”

Ultimately, a successful recruiting effort comes back to values. “The values of the organization come first,” Christen said. “The critical mass of candidates enables us to enforce our values across the organization. Smart firms see this time in our profession as a window of opportunity, a time to make an investment in their future.”

 

Donna Pinsoneault is senior public relations executive at Emerald Isle Marketing Public Relations, a New Berlin-based, full-service communications firm. She is a feature writer, researcher and strategist.

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