Leslie Murphy, AICPA chairperson and partner in Plante & Moran, Southfield, Michigan, moderated a panel of CPA firm staff members at the AICPA Practitioners Symposium. Following are highlights of their discussion:

• Veteran practitioners have difficulty understanding and empathizing with today’s young staff members.
• A big 4 firm staffer told how he left the firm after 9/11 because of confusion and lack of communication about the firm’s future. If partners had only communicated their uncertainty, he would have been satisfied. He subsequently returned when friends at the firm indicated things had changed for the better.
• This same person is now a manager at the firm. He says mentoring is a powerful retention mechanism.
• Easy access to the managing partner of a big 5 firm practice area was a powerful attraction for a staff member in Ohio. When that practice leader became managing partner for the office, communications suffered. She left the big 5 firm for a 20-person firm that provided access to partners and flexibility. Her life had changed, and she appreciated the flexibility of working on her own schedule as long as she got her work done. She and other panel members said people on flex time work as hard or harder than others.
• A tax manager at a regional firm in New Jersey says his goals are short-term—to get a master’s degree in taxation and to expand his knowledge. He became dissatisfied with his first firm’s direction and found other firms were eager to offer him opportunities. He agreed that flex time is important so he could spend time with his new child and work at home.

  He says his is a generation of job-hopper. It is easy to move.

  Things that are attractive to staff today include high-speed Internet connections, access to the firm’s system from home, laptop computers, and Blackberries.

  He also believes staff should be used in the recruiting process and involved in sales calls and proposals.

Based on this feedback, Murphy offers the following recommendations:

• Don’t expect staff to be loyal. If you don’t provide what they want,they will leave.
• Focus on the advantages provided by small firms—partner access, client contact, impact on the future of the firm, ability to reconfigure job descriptions, etc.
• Culture is important and you must be honest about your depiction of your firm’s culture.
• Staff generally leave because of people, not because of the firm in total.
• Staff need individual recognition and mentoring to feel like they are part of the firm.
• Small firms can compete in recruiting. They can establish relations with local school faculty members and conduct guest lectures.

From Accounting Office Management & Administration Report, August 2006, p. 1. For subscription information contact Institute of Management & Administration, Inc., 3 Park Avenue, 30th Floor, New York, NY 10016-5902. One-year subscription $349. 212-244-0360, [email protected]. For the complete article, click here
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