Today's Technology for Tomorrow's Firm.
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34 August 2015 • www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com BRIDGING THE GAP By Jim Boomer, CPA.CITP How to Retain Your Firm's IT Superstars Accounting Focused Career Paths CPAs and accountants in the tradi- tional accounting frm have a formal career path. Tey spend one to three years at entr y level staf f and then move up to senior staf. Afer another 3 or so years they make manager and then on up the steps to Senior Man- ager and Partner. Although it gets more competitive as you move up, there are multiple positions for people to work toward on t he a c c ou nt i n g f i r m . O f t e n , expectations and performance cri- teria to move to the next level are clearly outlined and communicated. And there is ofen atrition as those t hat don't move up, move out to industry, another frm or something that beter fts their desired lifestyle. Functional Career Paths W hen you look at the more f unc- tional, operational roles within the f i r m (I T, M a r k e t i n g , H R a n d Tr a i n i n g / L e a r n i n g ), t h e s a m e formal career paths don't exist. A nd it's typically a prety fat structure. If we look at IT specifcally, you' ll have a CIO or Director of IT at the t o p a n d t h e n , p e r h a p s , a t e a m underneath. Some of the larger frms may have a not her level of t wo i n between but for the most part there a ren't a lot of clea r adva ncement opportunities for those that aspire to make it to a leadership role. Advancement Options Faced with limited opportunities to rise to the next level, many of these talented professionals are faced with a decision. Either they leave for other opportunities or they wait for some- thing to happen that will propel their advancement. Tey can wait for the person above them to retire, be lured away by an amazing opportunity and more money at another organization or they make a major misstep and are asked to leave. From a more morbid perspective, there are also the alterna- tives to wait until they literally hit their end of life. Rejected O ne of t he lead i ng C IOs i n ou r profession said this lack of advance- ment hit him square in the face while inter v iew ing a young ma n for a n intern position. Te candidate was working retail at a local GameStop and the CIO was interviewing him as a favor to a client. A fer several meetings and discussions, the can- didate was ofered the job. He pro- ceeded to turn down the opportu- n i t y b e c a u s e h e d i d n't s e e a n y opportunity for advancement. Tere was one CIO and he had visions of hav ing that position someday. To meet that goal, he would have to wait until the CIO was gone. Without a c le a r e s t abl i shed c a re er pat h to present to the young man, the CIO realized he'd just been turned down by someone that would rather con- t i nue to work at Ga meStop t ha n accept an opportunity to work at one of t he lead i ng f i r m s i n t he C PA Profession. It was time to focus on the careers of IT professionals. Invest, Invest, Invest So how do IT leaders (a nd ot her functional leaders) keep the top notch talent they work so hard to recruit and hire? And how do frm leaders keep the IT leaders? You can invest in them, create an infectious culture and engage them in such a way that they won't want to leave. Or invest in them and accept the risk that they will leave and go somewhere else. Doing so will create goodw ill so that, if they do leave, when they come across top talent and don't have a spot for them, they could potentially send them your way. Tere is also the possibility that the grass won't be greener on the other side and they'll come back. You'll notice that regardless of the choice, you need to invest in your IT experts. W hether they stay or leave, you need to focus on career develop- ment for them. Investment isn't just about compensation and training. It's about puting in the work to develop a career path for non-Accounting profe s s ion a l s a nd he lpi ng t hem progress in their career. Many employers worry that they'll invest time and money in developing people only to have them leave. While not ideal, this is much beter than the alternative of not investing in them and they stick around forever. 3 4 A u g u s t 2 0 1 5 • w w w . C P A P r a c t i c Jim Boomer is a shareholder and the CIO for Boomer Consulting , Inc. He is the director of the Boomer Technology Circles™ and an expert on managing technology within an accounting frm. He also serves as a strategic planning and technology consultant and frm adviser in the areas of performance and risk management. In addition, Jim is leading a new program, Te Producer Circle, in collaboration with CPA2BIZ and the AICPA. jim.boomer@cpapracticeadvisor.com R etention is a huge challenge for CPA frms across the country and most of t h e f o c u s a n d d i s c u s s i o n i s o n accounting staf. What isn't addressed nearly enough in articles, presenta - tions and the general structure of frms is retaining talent in important functional areas such as IT, HR , Marketing and Training/Learning. Filling these positions with a superstar who truly understands our profession and what makes the frm successful can be quite challenging. So when we fnd these people, at least some of our retention focus should be directed at them.