Does your firm provide an attractive career alternative to candidates?

There’s a myth that you only need to find the right employees and the rest will take care of itself.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Finding key employees is only the beginning. The real problem is how to keep hold of them once they’re “on-board”.

Fair compensation is a right, not a reward but it pays to go one step further.

Think about your key people, your “star” performers. Do you really want to risk them being tempted away to a competitor for the sake of $5,000 or $10,000?

Just imagine the cost in lost productivity and the additional recruiting and training costs to find their replacement. Wouldn’t it make sense to pay a little above market rate to deter any defections based on the almighty dollar?

A genuine career path.

One of the biggest challenges most accountants provide, either in industry or in practice is career planning. “When can I expect to make Senior Manager?” “When can I expect to make Controller?” and similar questions pepper the interviewer at the selection stage. You seek talented and ambitious people, so guess what needs satisfying?

Yes, the very thing that makes them attractive to you as an employer, their ambition.

Having a clear, realistic and achievable career path is an important factor in the decision process that a candidate goes through over a potential career move.

Demonstrate promotion from within.

Demonstrating promotion from within can be used to gain faith and confidence in the promises made to them about their opportunities to advance.

For example, let’s look at two different scenarios that I came across recently. Both companies were looking for a Controller, and both indicated that their career path should take them to VP Finance within two to three years.

Company A

Company A had been seeking a new Controller for about a month when they started interviewing short listed candidates. The previous Controller had resigned to move to a competitor, as their new VP Finance.

During the course of the interview, it became clear that the previous Controller had been in that position for six years and had been passed over for the VP Finance position when it became open around two years ago.

The previous VP Finance had been in that position for 22 years and only her retirement had created the vacancy. They brought in a CMA from outside at that time, even though, on paper the Controller, a CA, had the experience and credentials to step up to the plate and take on the VP’s position.

Company B

Company B had also been seeking a new Controller for about a month when they started to interview candidates.

In conversation with the hiring authority, the candidate discovered that the present VP Finance, a CGA, was the Controller himself until recently. The previous VP Finance had become CFO and he had been moved up to VP Finance, hence the vacancy.

Which company do you think offered the best career path for the candidate?

Of course, Company B, which could genuinely demonstrate promotion from within.

The bottom line? It’s not what you say that counts, but what you do.

It’s not just about the opportunity for advancement.

The quality of the work the candidate can expect to do, the challenges they will face, the training available and the quality of the other people within the organization all contribute to the overall picture the candidate paints of your company during the interview stage.

When meeting candidates, they are very much interviewing you and your company as potential employers. It is therefore important to get your “ducks in a row” before your meeting.

This involves looking at your career management policy, compensation packages, training programs, employee benefits, the type of work employees will have the opportunity to do and much more.

Your goal should be to create a powerful argument that your company provides the best career alternative on the market.

For example, you might prepare a fact sheet or case study about the present Director of Finance.

This could tell the story of how they joined the company, went into the CGA or CMA program, and describe the type of work they performed at the beginning of their tenure.

Once they qualified, how their duties were changed. How they faced more demanding work, supervised a team and implemented a new accounting system. How they moved up to Controller and what that involved and then their move to their present position.
It might seem like a lot of work, but if you follow a format, the details can be put together in under half an hour.

Winning the war for talent.

To be seen as the employer of choice by candidates and maintain a low turnover rate there are a number of tools you can use to give you the edge.

Use this checklist to get an advantage:

• Have a formal “on-boarding” procedure for new employees
• Have a written career policy
• Have regular progress meetings with key employees and give feedback
• Recognize special effort or achievements – “Thank You” are the two most powerful words in staff retention
• Select a number of your rising stars for a rotation program – where they get to see other parts of the business before deciding on where they might like to specialize
• Develop a history of promoting from within – this will help attract the stars of tomorrow
• Pay over the market rate to avoid losing key people for the sake of $10,000
• Award long weekends or days off with pay after stressful periods to those who put in an extra effort
• Have an open door policy so that any potential problems can be discussed and resolved before it’s too late

The war for talent continues, battles will be won and lost along the way, but with good preparation you can attract and retain tomorrows star performers.

© 2004, MFA Group.com