Search, Selection & Recruiting of Professional Staff "Finding Tomorrow's Partners. Today." Using a search firm has its pros and cons - consider us the pros.
Market Update... April/May 2010 For those of you visiting our site for the first time, welcome. Something has probably happened recently in your practice to lead you to investigate alternative methods of recruiting talent. And that's not unusual. For returning visitors, welcome back. Many practitioners will probably have tried any or all of the following recruiting techniques before calling in a 'headhunter':
and still you haven't found the right candidate for your firm. Frustrating, isn't it? Some will even have taken the plunge and engaged a 'contingency-based' recruiter and still not found the calibre of individual they seek. Why? Well, most of the techniques listed above all have one fatal flaw... they are only reaching candidates who are actively looking to move or are presently out of work. Even contingency-based recruiters often focus on collecting resumes of individuals who respond to advertisements, rather than doing any real 'head-hunting' because of the nature of their engagement - on a contingency basis. Sure, we advertise in CA Magazine too, but mostly for name recognition, or 'brand awareness' rather than candidate generation. As a retained search service, we go elsewhere to find the talent you seek - direct to CAs at work, those who are unreachable by any other means, and because we write for the Bottom Line, and CA Magazine, teach for the Ontario Institute of Chartered Accountants (and all other provincial Institutes nowadays) and have a published book 'The Succession Planning Toolkit' by none other than the Canadian Insitute of Chartered Accountants, (with 5 more books commissioned by them) many candidates already know of our name and are more likely to take our call. But the market right now is extraordinarily hot. Talent is in short supply, and 'stars' are even fewer and farther between than ever before. Even the assignments we are working on can take time to fill. Candidates often have multiple offers (thought they'd only get one offer through us) as the mid-sized firms scramble to pick up people as their firms grow, and that can effect salary levels being offered as a 'Dutch Auction' develops for the best talent. Many firms are experiencing the disappointment of having good candidates turn-down their offer in favour of another firm. Unfortunately it is simply a sign of the times. The economy is hot, and so the war for talent heats up. For our own clients - public accounting firms - finding clients is not difficult, serving those clients is the battle many public accounting firms face, and that's when having great people on-board counts even more. Thus firms are becoming more and more desperate to fill gaps in their rosters as their major audits are coming up over the horizon and are due for commencement. Planning is they key. Establishing a need early and sourcing the right search firm to satisfy your recruiting needs with ample time before you need to put 'bums on seats' will make the process much more likely to be successful. As a retained search firm, we have to be careful which firms we choose to work with and the circumstances behind the opening, but you too want to be careful in which firm you select as your recruiting partner. So here is some information about us and our process, which we hope you will find useful. Why Us? We have been involved in the public accounting profession for over 25 years. Here are just some of the lessons we have learned in that time that we have built into our system: Quality Search Firm Experience Our founder, Steve McIntyre-Smith has been a candidate and a client of search firms throughout his career in public accounting and has spent the last few years in Canada (to 2003) working with one of the GTA's leading 'boutique' CA search firms before establishing his own 'shop'. He was also Vice President of one of Canada's biggest and longest-established executive search firms, heading their accounting and finance practice, and since early 2002 has been (and continues to be) the human resources columnist for Canada's financial newspaper, 'The Bottom Line', where he has a national audience for his writings on the trial and trivulations of being in public practice. Only Public Accounting We are the recruiting arm of MFA Group Inc. This is a specialist consulting organization who ONLY work with public accounting firms, on marketing, practice management, strategic planning, recruiting, training and mergers & acquisition projects. You are now at our recruiting web site. As a result, we know the public accounting marketplace better than any search firm in the GTA. No Learning Curve = Quick Results This in-depth knowledge means that you have no learning curve to guide us through when discussing a hiring need - we 'get it' straight away. We also appreciate, when a hiring situation occurs, that time is of the essence, and that you want results from your recruiting partner. Specialization Some of our competitors would take on your assignment, but also search for a wide range of other people, from retail store managers to forklift drivers, and from manufacturing workers and labourers to call centre representatives. That begs the question: 'What do these people really know about the accounting profession?' Others happily recruit for the 'enemy' - accounting and finance positions in industry, while also recruiting for public accounting. How they balance the concept of serving two masters in direct competition for talent is, quite frankly, beyond us. The answer often lies within the level of service provided by these firms; the accuracy and detail of the job descriptions, the quality of candidates presented, recruiting methodology used and the time taken to find suitable candidates. Working with a specialist usually gets better results. Value For Money Unlike working for a fortune 500 company, working with a Partner in a public accounting firm means that you are investing your own funds into a search, not dipping into the limitless coffers of a public company. So a fee scale based on 30% to 33% of the successful candidate's first year salary just doesn't cut it for you. We fully appreciate that, with Steve having been a partner in a public accounting firm and a sole practitioner for many years, so we have developed a unique service and competitive fee structure designed to deliver maximum value for money to our clients. An Unconditional Guarantee We back our own service 100%, in two ways, not just one: 1. We offer an unconditional money back guarantee - if at any point during the search process you are unhappy with progress, simply address the fact with us and if you are still not 100% satisfied after that discussion, we will cheerfully and unconditionally, refund every cent you have paid as a retainer. No quibbles, no hassle, guaranteed, period. 2. All candidates placed by us are guaranteed for a full 12 months. The industry standard is six months. We truly beleive in making the right match and so we confidently offer a guarantee that simply blows the industry standard guarantee out of nthe water. We double it and offer a full year's guarantee. If, during this period any candidate we place leaves your firm, for any reason whatsoever - at your request or theirs - we will conduct an additional search, completely free of charge, until a suitable replacement has been found. Exit Interviews We offer to conduct, free of charge, exit interviews with people leaving your firm, whether we placed them or not, in order to get a deep insight into what the reasons were for their decision to see if anything can be learned from this experience that will help your firm a better place to work in the future. Realistic Salary Counsel As we know the public accounting field intimately, we are able to offer counsel on salary levels for your firm, to help keep ahead of the curve and ensure that you are aware of what is available elsewhere for your staff. This helps you to develop a winning employee value proposition. We publish an annual salary guide, available as a 'pdf' file from this site, free of charge. Staff Training & Coaching We can help you identify the rising stars within your firm and develop tailored training programs to help you develop them. This helps you to provide a more rewarding, enjoyable and professionally challenging work environment. Talent tends to gravitate towards (and then stay at) places where people are continually stretched and growing as professionals and individuals. In turn, these professionals provide a better return on investment to their employers by being more productive and capable of managing higher value projects sooner than their less capable peers. Mentoring Tomorrow's Partners Public Accounting is a tough profession. First an individual has to tackle highly demanding professional exams, while still performing at their peak in a full-time job. Once qualified, if they want to make it to Partner level, they will have to acquire some critical new skills, fairly quickly as they start to take on more responsibility with clients and provide leverage for today's Partners:
Fortunately these skills can be acquired through an effective mentoring program, but usually the very people within the firm that have the capability to pass-on such valuable experience are the ones who least have the time to do so. We work with a number of firms, to provide a mentoring service to their rising stars, teaching the key skills they will need to develop their careers within the firm and to add value to the clients they work with in the interim. This service is usually sponsored by their employers, but we also work directly with some CAs and CGAs who see the value in investing in themselves. By now you may well have some questions, so let's address the most frequently asked ones here and now... A Different Kind Of Search Firm… …Dedicated To Ontario's Public Accounting Firms. Our Group of companies is built on “The Seven Foundations”: 1.
Integrity As such, we have high professional standards in the way we conduct our business. Yes, we know that the recruiting business unfortunately has some - shall we say 'unethical'? - players in the field, so, let's get the first question usually asked by clients dealt with: Q: "If I use you for my recruiting needs, you're not going to entice my existing staff away to another client firm are you?" No, we're not. When you become a client of ours, for either search & selection, merger & acquisition work, or any other project, you get our total commitment guarantee. A: “We will NEVER recruit people away from our clients, either directly or indirectly. Period." We also guarantee NEVER to recruit away an individual we have placed with you, and been paid a fee for doing so, for the duration of their employment with you. The next question we're usually asked is this: Q: "What type of guarantee period do you offer for people we hire through your firm?" Glad you asked. Here's our response: A: "The industry standard guarantee period is six months. We offer a twelve month guarantee with every recruiting project we undertake. We are also the only firm to offer a money-back guarantee for retained searches." Usually we're asked about our previous experience and recruiting methods: Q: "Why should I use you when I have previously used XYZ Inc in the past?" Another great question, let's look at the reasons... A: "We ONLY work in the public accounting field, and are active in the market 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year. We're from public accounting ourselves, and so really do understand the profession, the marketplace, the challenges you face and, ultimately, what to look for in candidates with your firm in mind. We have no conflicts of interest - recruiting for industry on one project and for an accounting firm on the next, and we don't recruit forklift truck drivers, salespeople or engineers etc, we ONLY work with CAs, CGAs and CMAs, and ONLY for public accounting roles. Our search methodology is based upon direct approaches to suitable candidates who meet the criteria we are looking for, and are not necessarily looking to move firm right now. These are often the best candidates. We do not rely on simply posting an advert and waiting to see what the response is like - you could do that yourself - but our exposure in the national and regional professional press (The Bottom Line & CA Magazine) gives us a high profile in the marketplace, meaning that candidates usually take our calls." Then, we are often asked about pricing: Q: "How much is it going to cost to use your services?" Another good question. The answer is 'not as much as you might think': A: When we started out, we offered a three-tier service, 25%, 20% or 15% of the successful candidate's first year salary. As we have matured and have a thriving search practice, we now only offer the one option, 15%. This is an exclusive, retained search service (the only way we work now) whereby you pay a small retainer up front to initiate the project, and the balance only upon successful completion of the recruiting assignment. The retainer covers our research and recruiting, but we don't ask for a huge sum up front, it's more a sign of good faith. Appointing us on an exclusive basis and paying a modest retainer is a sign of good faith on your part, and it secures our lowest rate of 15%, total dedication to your project, and success guaranteed, or your money back." Finally, we are often asked about success rates... Q: "What is your track record like, and do you have references I can check out before I write you a cheque?" A: "Our success rate is almost 100% on retained searches. And yes, we have a long list of highly satisfied clients who have kindly agreed to provide references should you require them." So, what’s the catch? There isn’t one. Honestly. We look to develop long-term relationships with our clients, where trust, mutual respect and value-added all play an important role. The retainer provides us with working capital which funds our initial research into the marketplace for exactly the skills, the experience and the personality that you require. Our understanding of your world, built over 25 years in the Accountancy profession ourselves, gives us a truly unfair advantage over any other search firm. So, what are you waiting for? To get your project started today, or if you just want an informal, confidential discussion, please call our President, Steve McIntyre-Smith at 905-842-2284.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
© 2004-2010, MFA Group Inc.