What can a small CPA firm do to recruit and retain staff?

Tips on how to find them and keep them.

There is a good article in the July 2008 CPA Journal by Mark Steadman “What small CPA firms are doing
to recruit and retain staff “

In this article, Mark gives some good background on prior surveys done on this topic (most notably, the one
by the AICPA’s Private Companies Practice Section) and provides the results of his own survey.  A few
of the results follow. 

Top 5 recruiting activities

Employee referrals
Internships
Firm website
Personal relationships with college faculty
Increased starting salary

Top 5 retention activities

Open door policy
Flextime
Paid overtime or time off
Improved technology to reduce mundane work
Providing professional growth opportunity

Note: the average size of the responding firms was 10 professionals,  so some of these activities
need to be scaled for smaller firms.

The very best part of the article in my view is the ending comments about the advantages
of smaller firms including:

More relaxed environment
Career advancement opportunity
Skills development in multiple area such as tax, audit and consulting
Ability to work with clients directly and help them grow
See the “whole picture” of a client business

The smaller firm that can broadcast these advantages via existing employees, their website
and other means will surely do better in the competitive CPA
recruiting world.
 

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