This is part 1 of a 6 part series.
Introduction
Accounting and Legal firms have traditionally found it difficult to attract the right talent, at the right time. These industries, especially accounting, are undergoing a significant amount of change at present and the importance of having the right people on board has never been greater.
The premise on which a professional services firm works is “we have the people who possess the required skills to undertake this engagement as required”. Accounting and Legal firms aren’t necessarily selling a tangible product that a client can hold, touch, or feel. What they are selling is the capability to complete accounting and legal work as required.
We are selling the skills and capabilities of our teams, yet our talent pipelines are insufficient.
From an Accounting firm perspective, advisors to these practices talk about the influence of technology, the need to build a greater advisory focus, the need to build a content marketing platform, and to their merit, they comment on strategies to build these areas. According to these advisors, of which CAANZ and CPA Australia are included, people are crucial to the ongoing success of firms. But nobody is commenting on how to build a strategy around this. Considering that this is what our consulting arm does, I’m going to outline how we build this for clients.
We look ahead to the clients we seek to attract – why aren’t we consistently looking for our next team members?
This blog series will go through:
Understanding the goals of the practice and what skill gaps exist
Defining the culture and employer value proposition (EVP) of the firm
Who is the right person and person description vs position description
Promoting your brand
365 day recruitment
It’s a long journey and there are a lot of factors to consider. If you want to build a business that stands tall in this market, you need the right people. Right is subjective. Find who’s right for you and build your team!
