Show off: firms share their strategies for recruiting the best and brightest.

Where have all the qualified job candidates gone?

That's what CPA firms across the country are asking in a job market short on supply and heavy on demand.

While attracting qualified staff has always been at the fore of a CPA firm's practice management concerns, the increased demand for qualified employees driven by Sarbanes-Oxley engagements and the decreasing number of available accountants has given the recruitment process a new urgency.

In fact, attracting and retaining qualified staff is the No. 1 business concern facing California CPAs, according to a December 2005 CalCPA survey of more than 1,400 member and nonmember CPAs.

And strategies such as focusing on your firm's culture, offering flexible working hours, instituting internship programs and beefing up benefit packages can help secure entry or mid-level personnel.

WHAT YOUNG RECRUITS WANT

But what are these hot recruits looking for in a prospective employer?

Jimmy Campos, a staff accountant in the audit division of Rothstein Kass' Beverly Hills office, received a job offer before graduating college. While a senior at Woodbury University and a CalCPA student member, Campos made contact with several Los Angeles-area CPAs by participating in chapter events.

Campos says the most important aspects of his job search included good compensation and finding a firm with a good reputation--as well as professional development the firm could offer. He wanted to balance large firm resources with the smaller firms' meritocracy.

"I wanted a firm where I would be given the opportunity to grow as fast as I possibly could, and that had the resources to help me do it," he says.

Though his accounting professors painted a rosy job market outlook, "it did surprise me to get a job as quickly as I did," Campos says. "But RK made a great impression on me through the recruitment process."

Underscoring the phrase "little things can mean a lot," Campos says Rothstein Kass set itself apart during the recruitment process by using a nontraditional calling card.

"One small thing they did was to send me a box of chocolates during my final exams. I really appreciated that. Although I hadn't decided to go with RK at that point, it sparked a greater interest in the firm," Campos says.

ACCENTUATE THE POSITIVE

Small and mid-size firms often have a hard time competing with their bigger brethren when it comes to recruiting, but their size can be used to differentiate themselves and entice candidates.

Such firms often emphasize flexible hours, work/life balance and a congenial atmosphere when pitching to recruits. And small firms often can offer more rapid advancement and a wider breadth of training than the larger firms.

"A mid-size firm like us is a little more cognizant of work/life issues," says Laura McHugh, a human resources director at Hood & Strong LLP in San Francisco. "We offer flexible work arrangements. In fact, we have a woman who was just named partner that is not a full-time employee."

The 100-person firm also touts the level of exposure young accountants can gain in a mid-size firm. When selling the firm to potential recruits, Jennifer Dizon, a partner in the firm's Menlo Park office, often talks about education.

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"At a firm our size, you get to see a client's whole business, not just one particular area," she says. "You get to see a project from start to finish."

A firm's culture is its main distinguishing attribute, says J. Russell "Rusty" Roy, a shareholder in Paso Robles-based Roy & O'Connor and a member of CalCPA's MAP Committee.

"Our firm really emphasizes family--we take time off to watch our kids play sports, for instance, and make up the time later," he says.

While the six-person firm doesn't work quite as many hours as the biggest firms, that attention to balance is all part of the sales pitch to new recruits. "We'll have some overtime in tax season, but during the summer we'll work part days," Roy says. "That's one difference in our firm."

Smaller firms also may offer more and swifter career advancement.

"With a smaller firm, you have more contact with the client, and you can move up a little quicker," says Gary Kramer, a partner with Santa Ana-based Kramer, and Olsen and a member of CalCPA's MAP Committee. "As good as you are, that's how fast you're able to accelerate and move on. If you're good, we'll put you out there as far as we can."

And smaller firms like the 15-person Kramer & Olsen often can protect their employees when times get rough. During the economic recession in the early 1990s "many firms were laying people off," says Kramer, "and what we tried to do was cut back all the employees 20 percent and gave them a day off. That way we didn't have to fire anybody."

In the end, the firm wasn't hurt as badly as it thought it might be. "We were able to bonus back the money, almost the full amount that they lost, without them having to make up any hours," Kramer says.

INTERNSHIPS

For many firms, internships are one way to secure the best and brightest--before they even graduate. In fact, 76 percent of employers offering such programs reported higher retention among hires that came from their internship program, according to the 2005 Experiential Education Survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers.

Deloitte and Touche LLP offers mostly summer internships and counts more than 70 interns this summer in its Los Angeles office, split between the tax and audit and risk services practices.

While the biggest accounting firms have offered internships for many years, the realities of the job market have given such programs a new popularity.

"The number of interns has grown in the last few years. All of the major firms have moved up the recruiting process," says Herb Perlmutter, partner in charge of Deloitte's Los Angeles audit practice.

"If we don't get them as interns, they're going to be somebody else's interns, and we won't get a shot at them next year."

The program has been highly effective for Deloitte. In the firm's Los Angeles office's audit practice, for example, the 2005 internship class yielded more than 40 young accountants.

"The number of new hires is probably about 25 percent higher than it was three years ago," Perlmutter says.

When Deloitte pitches potential recruits, it boasts of the learning experience unique to the Big Four environment. "Having that experience on your resume is similar to having graduated from a top university," Perlmutter says. "The amount of experience you can get in a firm like ours is invaluable."

TAKING IT INTO THEIR OWN HANDS

While recruiting employees out of college is a challenge, it's often more challenging to find an experienced CPA. So Stonefield Josephson, a 150-person firm, has taken recruiting matters into its own hands.

In May, the company launched Stonefield Josephson Executive Search, a recruiting team specializing in placing financial executives in various industries.

While the business unit is an extra resource for Stonefield Josephson's business clients looking for finance professionals, the unit serves the dual purpose of helping the firm--which has hired 50 employees in the last 18 months--by recruiting finance professionals for itself.

"We were constantly getting requests from clients looking for a CFO or controller," says David Rice, the firm's Los Angeles-based COO. "But the other side of it had more to do with our needs--and we saw the fees that we're paying to recruiters going through the roof each year."

The new unit already has placed a senior manager in the firm's Walnut Creek office. The department's synergistic approach to recruiting takes a long-term view--establish contact with qualified candidates and keep in touch with them, even if they're not yet ready to change jobs.

"The model on recruiting is to really nurture a long-term relationship with the candidate," says Rice. "It shouldn't be the short-term approach of 'I need someone now so I'll interview people now.' It's about maintaining a relationship over a number of years, so that when that candidate is ready to make a change, you're the one they're thinking of."

BENEFIT PLANS AND CAREER DEVELOPMENT

Firms also have been beefing up their benefit packages--sometimes in creative or nontraditional ways--to attract the best and brightest.

Stonefield Josephson, for example, recently shortened its probation period for receiving health benefits from three months to one month. The firm also supplements gym memberships out of its Los Angeles office and gives commuter credits for employees taking public transportation in its San Francisco office.

In addition to offering 401(k) and profit-sharing plans, Kramer and Olsen has instituted a plan to help its employees pay for day care. "We have a 125 plan, a cafeteria plan, for child care," Kramer says. "Somebody working for us can get up to $5,000 a year for child care in lieu of salary."

Professional development opportunities also can differentiate firms.

"We pay for CPE and we work around their study schedules," says Joe Kovar, a partner with Danville-based Sweeny Kovar, LLP. "We also have a program that's a little unique: If someone wants to get their masters in taxation, we'll pay for it."

Another differentiator firms can employ is a focus on attaining licensure. While more accounting majors are graduating every year, it's taking longer for them to become certified.

The number of candidates sitting for the CPA exam has plunged from about 82,000 in 2003 to 52,000 in 2004, according to a report from the AICPA, NASBA and Prometric.

The top reason candidates gave for not taking the exam is a lack of time to prepare.

Firms can help pay for the review course, as well as offer flexible time off for taking the exam, which is offered in four parts. Stonefield Josephson, for example, "pays for them to take the exam and reimburse them for the first time they need to take a review course," says Rice.

Roy and O'Connor also focus on licensure when recruiting. "We've grown a couple of CPAs, and one in fact became a partner in our firm," says Roy.

This trend is not lost on Deloitte. "When we started looking at the stats about how long people had been with us before they passed the exam, we found there are more people who have been here three or four years that haven't passed the exam than ever before," says Perlmutter.

In response, Deloitte introduced incentives to entice candidates to get licensed. Deloitte helps pay for review courses and offers bonuses to those at the senior level (meaning they've been with the organization for two years or longer) who have passed the CPA exam.

ALUMNI NETWORK

One nontraditional avenue firms can employ for hiring leads is its alumni network--contacting former employees for candidate referrals.

Hood and Strong is beginning to ramp up just such a program.

"Keeping in touch with alumni and letting them know what's happening with our firm is one of the focuses we're moving to," says McHugh. "We recently had an alumnus refer an entry-level candidate for our Menlo Park office.

"Letters were sent out about a year ago asking for contact information, and I'm hoping to send out newsletters soon," McHugh says. The firm also hosts occasional company events, and more than 90 alumni attended its latest get-together.

GIVE THEM WHAT THEY WANT

With such a tight job market getting tighter every day, it's no wonder CPA firms are breaking new ground in their search for the best and brightest potential employees.

A focus on your firm's culture, work/life balance, internship programs, beefed up benefit packages and career development are all ways to help ease the recruiting process.

But central to any recruitment effort is the golden rule.

"I think as an employer, we try look at what we would want if we were the employee," says Kramer. "And if we can give them that, then hopefully we're going above and beyond and we'll get it returned to us in some way from our staff."

Jerry Ascierto is CalCPA's managing editor. You can contact him at [e-mail].