Chair's Message
Mark Landy, CPA
I attended the AICPA Fall Meeting of Council this October. It was my last Council meeting before George Cohen, the Society’s chair-elect, takes my position as a council member. The meeting was momentous on three accounts. Number one, Peggy Ullmann was elected to the board of directors of the AICPA; number two, Doug Haywood and Ken Husband were elected for two-year terms as Arizona’s Representatives to Council; and number three, Council voted to relocate the AICPA’s Jersey City, New Jersey office to Durham, North Carolina.
One of the issues discussed at the Fall Meeting of Council was recruiting and retaining staff. This issue was also of great concern to the members of the Southwest and Northern Arizona Chapters of the Society that I met with at their respective October meetings. The Private Companies Practice Section (PCPS) of the AICPA prepared a white paper titled “Best Practices in Recruiting and Retaining Talented Staff” in response to this management challenge.
While the white paper, which addressed staffing problems, was prepared with non-national CPA firms as its audience, many of the best practices can also be adapted to industry. The PCPS conducted a study of approximately 500 firms, gathering data from surveys and interviews. The results of the study confirmed that while CPA firms seek to attract and retain the best and the brightest, few have formal, documented programs to help achieve that goal. Ninety-three percent of the firms participating in the survey had no leadership development program.
The white paper describes the best practices used by firms participating in the survey and offers suggestions on how to implement those practices. This paper is organized into two sections: one section deals with recruiting, and one section deals with retention. The section regarding recruiting is further broken down into subsections discussing college relations, internships and rehiring. The section on retention is broken down into subsections that address employee orientation, career development, the nurturing of future leaders, motivational programs and business development.
The white paper provides a good starting point to help in the preparation of a formal plan to recruit and retain talented staff. The competition for talented staff has never been greater and does not appear to be subsiding in the near future. The white paper is a great tool to assist in recruiting and retaining the best and the brightest. A copy of the white paper can be obtained at the AICPA Web site at http://pcps. aicpa.org/Resources/Staffing/ Recruiting+and+Retention/Best+Practices+in+ Recruiting+and+Retaining+ Talented+Staff.htm.
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