The Need for Speed

It’s a sign of the times a tight labour market such as today’s that McDonald’s in Calgary are prepared to pay $20 an hour to flip burgers. Even at those rates some students are reluctant to apply.

If those types of jobs are proving difficult to fill, how then are our accounting firms fairing?

It depends on how quick they are to make an offer to a good candidate.

There are fewer and fewer people entering the accounting profession, as I have said within these pages once or twice before. As a result, we are looking at a shrinking supply of young talent coming into the accounting stream.

Meantime, demand for people with public accounting experience has never been higher.

As the decline of new entrants coming into the market, the domino effect is that today, we have a smaller supply of people with two to three years experience.

At the more senior level there are fewer ‘bright young stars’ around who entered the profession a few years ago, and when firms look for a new manager, for example, there can, at first glance, appear to be pretty slim pickings to choose from.

That is not to say that the talent is simply not out there. They’re just a little more difficult to find. More accurately, it means that more and more accounting firms are seeking help in their recruiting drive, and turning to search firms (or ‘Head-hunters’) to help them out.

But that’s not the end of the story. Not by a long way.

Once you’ve found a good candidate, there can be the inevitable delays in getting an offer put together and delivered to the candidate. Meantime, who knows where else they may have applied and what other offers they might be getting – either through their own efforts or through a different recruiting firm.

So, whether you’re searching for a technician, a new CA or CGA, a more experienced person, or even a Senior Manager or Partner, here are a few tips to help you be successful:

· Prepare a comprehensive job description, with ‘Must-have’ and ‘Nice to have’ attributes
· Focus on the ‘Must haves’ in search and interview process
· Set a realistic (given today’s market) salary level for the open role
· Prepare a reason why the position is open
· Think about where the successful candidate can go within your firm, a sort of career plan if you like
· Once you have the resume of someone who looks promising, act with haste – if they’re available today it doesn’t mean they won’t have an offer from someone else tomorrow
· Try to get as many people from your firm involved in the initial interview so that both sides can truly assess each other and decide if they want to move forward
· Follow up quickly if you’re truly interested in the candidate
· Start the reference process before the second interview if you’re very interested
· At the end of the second interview, if you’ve seen and heard enough and want to make an offer, do it verbally there and then in order to let the candidate know you’re keen. You don’t have to put a firm salary on the table at this point, but it would be fair to say ‘We see this role in the $X salary range before we put an offer in writing, how does that fit with what you’re looking for?’
· If you’re using a search firm, speak with them before the second interview to talk in more detail about the candidate’s realistic salary expectations so that you know that if you do make an offer verbally you’ll be in the right ball park
· Put it in writing asap and seek an early decision if at all possible

In multi-partner firms, it would make sense to make one partner responsible for the interview and negotiation process in order to avoid delays in getting a consensus on what the offer should be. If that means delegating powers to an individual that would usually be managed by committee, do it.

That partner may not be responsible for all recruiting decisions. It doesn’t make sense for an Audit partner to be managing the hiring of a Forensic Manager, let common sense prevail and distribute the hiring ‘power of veto’ to suitable partners for each position.

It is a fact of life that candidates will not tell you all about other opportunities they are considering or have offers for. They often keep their cards fairly close to their chest.

If you’re using a search firm, the candidate should only be presented to you for your job, and not blasted across the province to any and all potential employers – you pay the search firm a fee to find people specifically for you. But that does not mean that the candidate isn’t interviewing elsewhere through another recruiting firm.

If the recruiter is any good, they should have a reasonable idea of what else they are looking at through their own efforts, but(now don’t be shocked by this) candidates don’t always tell us everything either.

If the recruiter has taken the time and trouble to build a relationship with the candidate (and all good ones do) then they may be more forthcoming in this area, but even the best of us can sometimes get blind-sided.

When putting an offer together, please, don’t be penny-wise, it really is dollar-stupid.

If $78,000 is available for this position, why waste time offering $75,000 in the hope of saving a few bucks? The additional time and effort required to negotiate or, worst case scenario, find an alternative candidate who is just as good, often far outweighs the difference in salary you were hoping to save.

Yes, it is a hot market. Yes, talent can be difficult to find at times, but when you find it, act with haste, or repent at your leisure.

MFA Group 2006