Kula Consulting Blog

My last posting discussed my job market forecast for 2010.  Once again I was swamped with responses - - - thanks Mom, for reading!  But, the beauty of blogging is believing you have something valuable to say, and that someone else will think so as well.  But, I digress.  Let’s start with a premise that I think we will all agree with:  There has been, is and will be a shortage of top accounting and finance talent in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Do you know any CPA’s or MBA’s with strong academic background and strong career progression who are worried about their jobs or prospects for getting the next big thing in their career?  Note:  If you do know one, please send them to me and I’ll place them.  The people who make up the 12% unemployed in the Bay Area are primarily comprised of folks who formerly worked in construction, retail, financial services, and non-high tech manufacturing.  Not many of the unemployed are experienced technical accounting and tax professionals.  Of course, in the past eighteen months many accounting professionals did lose their jobs due to mergers (thanks Oracle), failed start-ups, and down-sizing.  Most of these people were not out of work very long.  So, are we in agreement on my main premise?

Going back a few blogs, I presented a macro view of the local population of accounting professions who are CPA’s.  That blog showed that the market is not producing enough CPA’s to meet the market demand.  In fact the number of new CPA’s licensed in California has been pretty steady at round 3,000 a year for the whole state.  This means we are not growing the pool of highly skilled technical accounting and tax professionals required to meet both public accounting and corporate needs.  The supply of world-class accounting talent is even smaller when you, rightfully, limit your searches to the top twenty percent of this talent pool.  The talent pool is limited and the most talented are mainly employed.  Incidentally, if you feel this blog is not applicable to you because you are “set” for 2010, think one word:  Turnover.  People on board who appear “happy” until they learn there are great opportunities just waiting to be explored.  And, I do know they will listen.  Last year, we probably heard this a hundred times a week in response to our recruiting calls:  “I’m waiting for the economy to pick-up before looking.”  We kept all their contact info and are calling them now.

How To Attract Top Talent

Top Talent is often in the eye of the beholder.  What Google considers a top person may not be what a telecommunications start-up considers top talent.  But, every company seeks people who are:  technically strong, hard working, good team mates, creative (well, maybe not in accounting.  Perhaps “think on their feet” is a better way to put it.), self-motivated, good communicators, and meet deadlines.  And please don’t forget, they stay for a while when hired.  Top Talent people are career mindful.  They care about their results and the results of their team and company.  They are the people who are often classified as “passive” candidates.  Actually, I think they should be viewed as poised to look at better opportunities.  Top Talent are definitely not passive people.  But they are the seller’s in a seller’s market.  Here are a few tips for attracting them to your opportunity:  1. Make the job opening a compelling learning and/or career advancement opportunity, 2.  Be prepared and prepare others for the interview cycle, know what you want and make sure other stakeholders are in agreement with you, 3.  Let the candidate know who you are and make a case for why people work on your team, 4.  Share the dream with the candidate,  5.  If possible, hire when you find them not by a staffing plan (see New York Yankees/LA Lakers for examples), and 6.  Respond quickly with offers or rejections.

All six of these points are key, but the most key are numbers 2. 5., and 6.  I am a believer in preparation before execution.  Preparing a job or position description that is compelling and attractive to the “poised” candidate is step one in attracting them to your opportunity.  Make sure the people involved in the interview and evaluation agree with the job description and share your views on the attributes that define an ideal candidate for the position.  Without such preparation and buy-in, I’ve seen flame-outs after four or five rounds of interviews due to basic differences of opinion between stakeholders.  It’s always best to get these issues addressed prior to the start of a recruiting effort. 

When you find a “star” hire them.  In sales the number one maxim is “ABC”, always be closing.  In a seller’s job market, the mantra should be “ABR”, always be recruiting. When you see or hear or learn about a person who may be a “star”, bring them in and evaluate them.  If they meet your criteria, hire them immediately.  They will not be around when your staffing plan, or unforeseen need arises.  I hate to bring up this point, but, I think it’s important to “always be upgrading” your workforce. Top talent always increases the bottom line.  Yes, even accounting people impact the bottom line.  How much more money would a company make if they were able to close the books in two days versus ten?  How much more money would a company make if inventory turns were increased by 15%?  Or cash collected 15% faster?  Or, the daily dashboard was more useful? Or the revenue accounting team and sales were working towards the same goals? Top accounting talent make bottom line impacts, and the more of them you have, the more money your company makes.

A Few Other Points

I could write a book on how to attract and retain accounting professionals, and might someday when I find a good ghost writer, but will just offer a few other points to consider in this job market.  Check these out if you have a few more minutes to spare.

Don’t let H.R. take two weeks, or two months to “try to recruit” for a critical position before selecting a good recruiting firm or two to work on the assignment.  Everyone with a job board subscription and a LinkedIn account thinks they can recruit for any position.  While some H.R. departments actually can recruit top accounting talent, most cannot.  The time you spend waiting for candidates gets noticed by the passive candidate pool.  When jobs are on a company website, job boards or discussion groups for a month or more, red flags go up in the candidate community.  Stale jobs grow hair, and who wants a hairy job?  To avoid going stale, select a recruiting firm or two to compete with your internal resources from the beginning of your search.  You will get better performance from all your recruiting resources when they all leave the starting gate at the same time.

Take time, even during the monthly close, to interview top talent as they are identified or introduced to you.  Informational meetings are good for both the interviewer and the interviewee.  Let your staff, colleagues, H.R. and trusted recruiters know about the kinds of people you would like to hear about.  Often your best new hire will come from just being open to learning about people who are interested in your company, or industry.  If you don’t hire them, your competitor might.

Finally, think about trying to fill some of your openings with contractors who are open to regular fulltime employment.  The market for good contract accounting people is also on the rebound, but there is a window of opportunity right now to find some great talent who would start now and convert to employee status when both parties are confident that the match is a strong one.  Try before buying is a great way to go. We are here if you need us!

 A major part of a recruiter’s success is knowing what’s going on in the job market and getting in front of trends in the local market.  Since we talk to hundreds of people every week we get an opportunity to ask them what they think about business trends in the Valley and how they are feeling about their own career prospects.  We also read lots of articles, blogs and tweets about technical developments, V.C. funding, professional publications (ours and the accounting profession), economic reports, earnings releases, job postings, etc. to stay informed about our local business market.  One of my jobs is to evaluate all this information for its potential impact on the job market for accounting professionals.  What I’ve learned recently leads me to believe that the following two trends are emerging in the job market for accounting talent:  1. Valley firms will increase their use of contract and/or temporary services significantly in 2010, and 2. Regular full-time hiring will be stronger than 2009, but will not be as strong as the pre-Great Recession levels. 

Contract Services

The January 8^th edition of Forbes magazine had a great article about employment and its corollary, unemployment.  The article stated that a recovery in the temp services business is a leading indicator of a rebound in employment.  Nationally, temp services added 166,000 new jobs from July through December, 2009.  47,000 of those new jobs happened in December.  The use of temps is trending up, and indicates that fulltime hiring will begin to increase in 2010.  Kula is also seeing an increase in temp/contract orders and a decline in the number of candidates currently available to take these assignments.  The demand for exempt-level accounting temps/contractors is increasing and the supply is starting to tighten.  For Kula, this means we need to spend more time recruiting temp service candidates to be able to meet the needs of our clients.

Regular Full Time Hiring

My twenty plus years of staffing industry experience tells me that hiring will improve in 2010.  As I mentioned earlier, temp services have always led the jobs recovery in the Valley, and I believe the same will happen again in 2010.  Our new order flow began to pick-up in the Fall of 2009 and is continuing to grow.  The year end survey we made of 200+ financial executives shows that the business climate is much improved compared to a year ago particularly in technology.  While the mood is much improved it is still a cautious optimism.  There are still some clouds in the sky:  The record high unemployment, the budget crisis in California, two wars going on, and the unresolved commercial and residential mortgage problems come to mind.  Any of these issues could spark a “W” economic trend (another dip before “final” recovery).  In spite of these issues, about thirty percent of Valley firms expect to add staff this year.  When you add normal staff turnover to the mix (and historically we have seen that turnover is higher after a recession), over three-fourths of Valley firms will need to hire accounting staff in 2010.

These hiring trends bring me to my last point:  The job market for technical accounting and tax professionals will turn from a buyer’s to a seller’s market.  The talent pool has not grown much from pre-recession levels while demand continues to increase.  Take a look at the San Jose Business Journal’s Book of Lists published this month.  Unless they forgot to update the numbers, the Top Twenty-Five Accounting Firms listing shows very little movement in the number of accounting professionals and the sub-set of those who are CPA’s.  For example, the Big 4 firms have a total Silicon Valley headcount of 3153 and about 1050 of those are CPA’s.  These numbers are identical to the numbers listed in the January 2009 Book of Lists.  2009 was not a great year to work for one of the Big 4.  Almost every one of them had a workforce reduction (or two) in 2009.  Most of the Big 4 moved out promotions and elected fewer partners than in past years.  The recession took its toll on the accounting profession.  At their current staffing levels, I’m predicting that less than 400 of these Big 4 CPA’s will enter the job market in 2010. I posted a blog a month or so ago about the number of CPA’s in the San Francisco Bay area.  If you haven’t read it, please do as it will give you a more complete picture of the size of the talent pool.

So what does all this mean?  The longer companies put off adding technical accounting or CPA talent the harder it will be for them to attract “A” talent.  My advice for 2010 is to always be looking for top talent and hire them when they are available.  Think like the Yankees do and go get the best people, even if that means stockpiling a couple for future needs.  Plus, the IFRS/GAAP convergence issue (and others) will begin to be a big deal in 2010, and big deals mean more work for finance and accounting departments.

Next week I will post a blog about how to hire in a seller’s market.  Of course, I’ll recommend using Kula to help you attract the talent you need to succeed in 2010!  That’s part of my job, too. Like Mr. Good Wrench (before GM went BK), pay us now (and beat the rush) or pay us later (and be one of many seeking the same “A” players).

 Since my last posting we have been in contact with over 200 senior financial executives to get their thoughts on the economic climate for 2010.  This wasn’t a scientific survey, as we contacted people we knew and have done business with over the past two to three years.  So, it’s not a random sample of Bay Area CFO’s, but we trust the people we spoke to and feel the information is pretty reliable.  Here are the questions we asked and the responses we received.

1. How do you feel about the economic climate compared to this time last year?  The overwhelming response was better than last year.  Only a few people feel things are the same or worse than last year. 
2. During 2009 did your company do any of the following:
   1. Have a RIF or hiring freeze?  Less than 15% did either of these.
   2. Cut employee pay or reduce work hours?  Less than 15% Yes.
   3. Freeze pay, promotions, or reduce or eliminate bonuses?  About 25% did one or more of these things to get through the downturn.
   4. Cut back on the use of or eliminate temp or contract workers?  About 25% did.  But most of these firms are starting to use temp services again.
   5. Experience a tightening of credit from your firm’s financial institutions?  A very surprising less than 5% felt this.

3. How are you feeling about economic prospects for the Valley for 2010?  Over 90% of respondents feel the Valley will be stronger in 2010.
4. Most respondents feel their own firm’s prospects for 2010 will be stronger than 2009.  But none of them see 2010 as a boom year, but a definite improvement over the past year.
5. Close to 40% of respondents plan to increase staff in 2010.  Less than 10% feel they will reduce staff.  The remaining half believes they are adequately staffed for 2010.
6. When asked if they think the Great Recession is over, over 75% responded that it is over.  But, several qualified their response.  There is still some anxiety about the overall economy, but most feel the worst is past.
7. Our last question was:  What’s your biggest remaining economic concern?  Over half of the respondents are concerned about the future of California. The recent budget mess, and sales tax increases were a frequent concern.  Next on the list was the high level of unemployment in the Valley and the USA.  No one mentioned healthcare or China, which surprised me.

The overall mood is much more upbeat than this same time last year.  We are also feeling good about 2010.  We are seeing an increase in search assignments and an up-tick in contract activity as well.  Please accept our best wishes for 2010!

Please forgive me for posting this number crunching blog, but I cannot help it!  I spent about fifteen years in accounting before getting in the placement business, and always seem to be the person in this business that takes on the “number” tasks.  Hopefully, some of you reading this also appreciate knowing the facts and figures I’m about to relate.  If you just want to cut to the chase, skip down to the last two paragraphs!  I did the following analysis in an attempt to quantify the supply of CPA’s for the San Francisco Bay Area market.  Since the sole purpose of Kula Consulting is to place technical accounting and tax professionals (CPA’s) with Bay Area companies and firms, it’s important for us to know where and how many CPA’s there are.

In California

From November 1, 1999 to November 30, 2009, the California Board of Accountancy has issued about 28,500 CPA certificates.  That’s for the whole state, and for “A” and “G” licenses and for transfers from out of state.  In the past year the State issued about 3,500 certificates. So, in ten years we have produced 28,500 CPA’s in California.  This means that when a client asks us to find a CPA with three to five years experience, we have about 9,000 possible candidates, maximum, in the whole state to recruit.  If the client also wants candidates with a tax background, the recruit pool drops to about 4,500.  With Big 4 firm experience?  Drop it to less than 2,000 possible choices.  Take out the “happy” people who are not looking for new opportunities and the total talent pool drops to less than a thousand people in the state.  If the client wants time in both Big 4 and “industry”, the talent pool who might be interested in making a job change drops even further.  Let’s not even talk about adding a Master’s in Tax requirement, as the talent pool is really going to be shallow.

In the Bay Area

Let’s look at the talent pool for CPA’s with less than twelve years and at least two years experience who currently work in the San Francisco Bay Area. To do this we need to take out the CPA’s in San Diego, Orange, Los Angeles, and every other non-Bay Area counties from the 28,500 CPA’s in California (check it out on the state board of accountancy website).  My calculation came up with roughly 10,500 to 11,000 people who fit the profile. Obviously, the total number of CPA’s is higher when the years of experience level is raised, but the Bay Area grand total is less than 30,000 CPA’s when the time frame is expanded to thirty plus years.  So, let’s break down the11,000 people in the two to twelve year segment some more:

1. At least 3,500 of them are working for a CPA or professional services firm.
2. The split between tax and audit professionals is 35% to 40% tax and 60% to 65% audit/technical accounting backgrounds.  That works out to be roughly 4,100 tax and 6,900 audit/technical people by primary discipline.
3. About 5,100 of the 11,000 total have a combination of public accounting and “industry” experience.  About 1,800 tax professionals and 3,300 technical accounting people.  Almost half of this group have between nine to twelve years experience, most are manager level and above.
4. Roughly 30% to 35% of accounting professionals change jobs per year (about a three year per job average).  This means that AT MOST 1,450 tax and 2,450 technical accounting professionals with two to twelve years of work experience will change jobs in a year.  Of these totals, 650 tax and 1,175 technical accountants have a combination of public accounting and “industry” experience.
5. The numbers go even lower when only the top 25% of these people are considered acceptable.  There will be about 200 tax and 300 technical accounting “stars” with a combo background making a job move in 2010.
6. CPA’s in the Bay Area work lots of hours.  Most work in excess of sixty hours per week.  Most do not have time to actively look for a new job.  Most are looking for a combination of the following:  A better work/life balance; an increase in compensation; better benefits; an increase in job responsibilities; and/or a stable or growing company.  They rely on their professional and social networks to learn about new job opportunities.  And, they enlist the help of a specialized recruiting firm (Kula Consulting, maybe?) to help them find their next job.

Next To Last Paragraph

I must admit to you that my breakdowns between all of California and the Bay Area should not be considered to be precise.  There’s a reason I’m no longer an accounting professional!  My definitions of materiality have always been a little on the high side, shall we say, but the breakdown in this posting have got to be within plus or minus 5%.  Close enough for my business.  The point is:  We are still a short supply market.  Our clients still need us to recruit tax and technical talent for their openings, even in this economy.  For the past six plus years, Kula has been calling, recruiting and getting to know as many CPA’s in the Bay Area as will take our phone calls or read our emails.  We know dozens of CPA’s who want to make a move before the “busy season”/ “tax season” starts in January, 2010.  Now’s the time to add CPA’s from Big 4 firms - - - with a January 5^th start date.  Otherwise, they are tied up until May, 2010.

Last Paragraph

Given the shortage of CPA’s in the Bay Area, think about ways to change job requirements to widen the talent pool.  Changing a job spec from ten to twelve years of experience to nine to twenty years, for example, might double the number of qualified people for the job.  A CPA with twenty years experience might cost five percent more; but also might stay longer than the three to five years that is the norm.  And be prepared to move quickly when a highly qualified CPA candidate is available.  They will still be going fast in 2010. We recruit and keep in touch with a very high percentage of the total Bay Area talent pool of CPA’s.  We know how and who to contact when our clients engage our placement services.  Let us help you get your unfair share of the CPA’s in our market.

This past week I’ve spoken to several people who have been doing contract/temp assignments for at least a couple of years.  I asked them why they worked contract instead of regular fulltime, and what they liked and disliked about contract work.  Their responses are very similar to the ones I’ve heard over my twenty plus year’s in the accounting staffing business.  But, I did ask one question that I’ve rarely asked:  Why did you consider contract work in the first place?  The staffing industry “spin” on why people choose temp/contract work is for the flexible lifestyle it provides, and the variety of assignments provide new learning opportunities.  While this may be true for a very small portion of the people “working temp”, I don’t believe it’s the main reason.  The main reason is:  they needed to earn a living.

What I’ve learned is that most people take temporary assignments for one of two reasons:  1. they need an income and are out of work, and/or 2. they hope the assignment becomes a “permanent” job.  A third reason for doing contract/temporary work is more complicated.  Many seasoned finance and accounting professionals become independent consultants and/or temporary workers because they feel there is no other alternative left for them.  I know many people in this category.  At one time they were the pre-IPO controllers, smaller company CFO’s, or big company accounting and finance managers whose firm was either acquired or went bust.  Their networks were unable to help in their job searches; the bankers and V.C.’s they knew weren’t able to help either.  Since job opportunities were not available to them, their only options then were to teach at a community college, or start their own one-person consulting firm.  Or do both.

There are many very successful “single shingle” independent contractors in the Bay Area.  Many make the same as or more than they made as a regular fulltime, corporate accounting manager.  But they need to hustle all the time to keep their pipeline full of assignments.  Many of the people doing this type of work tell me they love it and would only go back to a traditional job if it was too fantastic to pass up.  It’s a great lifestyle if you are good at networking, and are able to sell your services well.  It also helps if you have a great skill set such as revenue recognition, mergers and acquisitions, or SEC reporting and you are able to stay fresh in it.

But, as I said above, for most people working temporary assignments is the best option available to earn a living or have a chance at a “permanent” job.  Doing the work is the easy part of being a temporary employee.  You win the assignment because you have the closest skill set match to the job requirement and you are the best value available. In fact, feeling good about job performance is the number one thing people like about temporary work.  They feel great that they are able to provide good quality work.  They also like seeing how different companies are run; learn about new products and services and be able to expand their professional networks.  What isn’t so nice about temporary work is:  knowing its temporary and knowing the assignment can be terminated at any time for any reason.  The other major issue with temporary work is not being treated as part of the team.  Even long-term temporary employees often feel left out. 

I once placed a person on a temporary assignment that was expected to last for three months.  The assignment lasted eight years!  Not once did the client have a birthday lunch for this person, or invite him to the company holiday party (he came to my company’s party).  I tried every six months to get him converted to regular fulltime, but the client would tell me that he didn’t fit the regular employee profile for the job!  When the client did offer to “convert” him (six years later), he turned it down and stayed on as a “temp”.  Good for him!  One needs to grow a thick skin to do temporary work, and be great at budgeting one’s personal finances.  On the other hand, I have had many clients treat temporary workers the same as their regular fulltime people.  It’s all in how a company defines “employee”.

Now that the economy is showing a stronger heart beat, the employment market will begin to expand.  In prior downturns, temporary employment leads the way.  Right now there are many highly-qualified accounting professionals available for or currently doing temporary assignments.  Most of them would like the opportunity to show what they can do and be considered for a permanent assignment.  All the ones I know perform their job functions at the same or higher levels than the regular fulltime employees they work beside.  Our clients’ next great hire may be the temporary employee we placed with them.  Thanks for all the hard work.

With our national unemployment rate at 10.2 percent and the broader measure of unemployed and under-employed’s at 17 percent, it’s not easy being optimistic about the future.  Throw-in global warming, a continuing global banking crisis, two wars (with just USA involvement) and the collapse of both the Niners and Raiders and having a positive outlook begins to look ridiculous.  When the good news is “Home prices only declined 10% in October” and “The H1N1 vaccine seems to work” it’s easy to slip into depression.  But, I am not depressed and see only clear sailing ahead.  I’ve been feeling this way since February when I learned my son and daughter-in-law were going to have their third child.  I’m feeling even better as Claire Elizabeth Williams was born at 1:30 a.m. today!  The future is bright for baby Claire, and her sister and brother.  My son and daughter-in-law must be optimistic people.  They must believe there is a bright future for their children; a future with educational opportunities, meaningful jobs and a place to raise a family.  Many of us felt that way when we started our families, and most of us still believe in a bright future.

While it is possible that we could experience another economic aftershock in the next year or so, it is more probable that we are at the beginning of an economic expansion. We have already seen an increase in hiring in the third quarter over the first half of 2009.  We expect hiring to continue to grow in 2010.  I’ve read forecasts that housing prices are close to the bottom, but could drop another ten percent over the next year. While this seems to be bad news, it is much better than it has been. Interest rates are also expected to stay low throughout 2010.  Here in the Bay Area, we have many reasons to be optimistic:  we live in California, the best place to live I’ve ever seen; we have a strong innovative workforce; we have great colleges and universities; and we have growing “industries” that lead the world in all tech areas; and we have the attitude and skills to work our way out of any difficulty.  We are all blessed to live and work in the Bay Area.

So, we have a number of good reasons for be optimistic about 2010.  For you long-term thinkers (my son Karl, for example), 2031 will be a great year to graduate from college, and I hope to be around to attend Claire’s graduation!  Please accept my best wishes for a wonderful Holiday season and a great 2010.

Now that summer is over and vacations are becoming a faint memory, it’s time to buckle down and finish 2009 strong.  For those out there who have filed two extensions for their 2008 income tax returns, you have about a month to complete and file them.  But that’s personal stuff. 

Here’s what’s ahead on the work calendar.The time period from September first through mid-November usually coincides with preparing next year’s operating plan; working on the annual audit plan; doing audit prep and reviewing bonus plans and computing pension plan contributions.  Lot’s of work to finish in a little less than thirteen weeks from today.  Plus, three month end closes and a quarterly report filing will help fill the work day from now until the end of December.  And, M&A activity is expected to be strong throughout the rest of 2009.  But, this level of work means employment for us accounting types!  Speaking of employment, it’s also time to fill those open positions and get new employees ready for the New Year.

All of us at Kula are busy performing search assignments and are seeing an increase in demand for the technical accounting and tax professionals we recruit and place.  Our biggest deadline for the remainder of 2009 is Friday, November 20^th.  That’s the last day in 2009 our clients can make employment offers and expect the candidate to start work in 2009.  The date could flex to Monday, November 23^rd, but it would be pushing a new employee start date to December 14^th.    A December 14^th start date would give a new employee eleven or twelve days to get up to speed before the year end close begins in January, 2010.  Offers made after Thanksgiving (this year the 26^th and 27^th), usually have a January start date (in 2010 the first work day is January 4^th), due primarily to the impact of year end holidays on work schedules.

The November 20^th deadline means Kula and our clients have about nine weeks left to get offers made and accepted, finish background checks, and have new hires give adequate notice to their current employers in order to fill the remaining open reqs for 2009.  Why is it important to fill open reqs by year end?  Here are three reasons to consider:  Candidates considering a move from a Big 4 firm often want to make a move prior to the start of “busy season” and take themselves off the job market from January through April 15^th; a December start date (or October or November) gives a new employee time to become acclimated to their new job and be more productive at year end close; and, at some companies, unfilled employment reqs at year end are canceled and must be reviewed and re-issued.  Oh, here’s a fourth one:  Annual bonus plans, and most employee benefit plans are triggered by employee start dates.  A 2009 start date helps attract candidates when they know they may earn full bonuses and pension plan matches in 2010.

I’ll leave you with this last thought.  Now that the Great Recession appears to be ending, competition for top flight accounting talent will become more intense than it is right now.  Now is a great time to attract and hire the technical accounting and tax talent needed to meet next year’s challenges.

We just ran across an issue that, I believe, could become a significant source of friction between management and Generation Y (Millennial’s) employees: Using an employer’s electronic equipment for personal business.  When an employer provides a laptop, work station, iPhone, BlackBerry, anything with internet access, or communications ability, are employees at risk for losing their jobs for using these resources for non-work activities?  Is listening to music on a company computer a misuse of company property?  What about checking out Facebook, MySpace, or LinkedIn sites?  How about streaming a movie from NetFlix, texting, Tweeting, IMing during work?  Is it o.k. to check personal email on a company supplied device?  What if people use a company email address for personal communications?  “I’ll bring home a quart of milk and some Twinkies.”  Where is the line drawn on “personal” use?  Plus, in many Silicon Valley firms the concept of work time and life time is very blurred.  If an employer has day care, dry cleaning, volleyball, and massages, is viewing a Facebook page a misuse of company assets? Most Gen X and Y people see these uses as perfectly acceptable, and, if fact, essential elements of their work day.

Pretty much anyone born after 1980 views electronic devices like I view a toaster - - as an appliance, not a precious resource.  A new Mr. Coffee is a computing device, and no one gets fired by using it to make a cup of coffee, right?  In this always connected world, isn’t keeping in touch with your e-world almost a civil right?  I have a son who texts with his girlfriend when they are in the same room!  Of course, she’s working on her masters thesis, downloading music, making a sandwich, and he’s checking emails and watching a football game, all at the same time.  It’s called multi-tasking.  I don’t know how they do it, but it works for them, and for the 60 million other Millennial’s out there.  Throw in the Gen Xers and there are close to 80 million people who grew up around computers and mass communications devices.  Those iPhones and iPods are an integral part of who they are.  And internet usage, they feel entitled to it.  Their work experience from age five through twenty-one (school time) was all about multi-tasking and communicating.  They did their homework at a computer, listening to music and talking on a cell phone.  This is a normal work mode for this group of workers.  Their parents didn’t (or couldn’t) change this behavior; their schools reinforced it with a “whatever works” attitude.  It has worked well for them.  They stay connected to more people than earlier generations did.  They use technology well.  Can do several tasks at the same time.  So:  “What’s the big deal? I’m getting my work done on time and correctly.” 

I know there is a problem brewing between management and Gen X and Y employees around this issue.  I recently learned about a CPA who was fired for using the employer’s internet access to check out Facebook postings, streaming videos from Netflix, and view Craigslist postings during “company time”.  The company doesn’t have a computer usage policy, and didn’t discuss improper usage during new employee training or orientation.  The CPA’s former employer had no problem with this type of activity.  And, there were no job performance issues found in this situation.  The employee did the job, on time, on budget, and the work was acceptable.  In this young employee’s mind, there shouldn’t have been a problem.  The employer saw this as a gross violation of workplace rules.  I think it’s a shame; the employee is out of a job, the employer needs a new employee, and it could/should have been handled better.  I see “a failure to communicate” here.

What do you think about this issue?  Haven’t some of the “rules” changed?

Someone once told me that I was one of the most optimistic people they had ever met.  Since the person was a banker reviewing my business plan, I’m not sure he meant it as a compliment.  But, I’ll take it as a positive trait!  With that caveat, I would like to announce the following additions to our team.  We are adding resources in order to be prepared for the increase in finance and accounting hiring that I believe is just starting to happen. As you will see, we have added a new service - - retained search - - and three new experienced recruiters to our team.  And, if my belief in a recovery is correct, we plan to add three more recruiters by the end of 2009.  Here are the backgrounds for the three people who recently joined our team.

The Luciani Group

Tom Luciani recently merged his retained search practice, The Luciani Group, with Kula.  I have known Tom for many years and am very proud to have him working with me again.  Tom first recruited me when I worked for Ernst & Ernst (now E&Y), and later taught me the staffing business when we co-founded Management Solutions Inc. in 1987.

The Luciani Group will operate under this brand name, as they have for the past fifteen years, and Tom and his staff will continue to provide high quality retained search services for senior financial management and executive opportunities.  By joining Kula, The Luciani Group will be able to offer contingent search and contract staffing services to their clients.

Maria Burns

Maria joins Kula as a senior recruiter with ten years of recruiting and placement experience.  She is a very hard working, well networked placement professional with a passion for technology.  She has extensive experience with high tech companies, including gaming, social networking, e-commerce, software and telecom firms.  Her placements range from three year technical accounting professionals to V.P. levels. Maria is a proven performer and I very glad to have her on our team.

Dolorez Dumas-Aris

Dolorez has also joined us as a senior recruiter.  She has over nine years experience recruiting technical accounting and tax professionals, with six of those years recruiting for a Big 4 firm in the Bay Area.  Prior to becoming a recruiter, Dolorez had a ten year career in banking, with the Bank of America, with the last two years there on the recruiting team.  Dolorez has worked with hundreds of CPA’s, from financial audit, internal audit to tax professionals, in her career and has developed a great reputation with them for honesty, and follow-through.  Plus, she is one of the easiest people to talk to that I’ve ever met.  Her recruiting focus is San Francisco, the north peninsula and the east bay area.  She has experience placing accounting people with both regular fulltime and contract assignments.

Kula now has a total staff of eight people.  Still a boutique firm in size, but big enough to be able to meet our clients’ needs from three year exempt-level staff through senior financial management and executive talent.  We are ready for the upturn!

Does this experience sound familiar?  After two rounds of interviews, the first round with the hiring manager and an H.R. representative and the second round with a prospective colleague, the company brings you back for a “courtesy” interview with a few of the executive staff, or the CEO, or your prospective team.  It’s billed as no big deal, just a get acquainted meeting, sort of an informal thing.  You have a nice meeting with everyone and then you don’t get the job.  What happened?  The “courtesy” interview is what happened.  All interviews are job interviews, they all have an agenda and you didn’t know the agenda.  The major means of evaluating prospective employees are:  1. A close match to the particular job’s requirements, 2. Strong references and “proof” to back-up qualifications and 3. Performance(s) during interviews.  The candidate has some control over the first two items.  A clearly written resume and cover letter will detail skills sets, work experiences and accomplishments, and educational and professional achievements, and will provide a prospective employer with a means to check your fitness for the opening.  Strong references and documented “proof” of skills and accomplishments provide independent back-up to the claims and information provided by the resume and cover letter.  In fact, strong references by someone known to the prospective employer are powerful tools to getting the job.  But, I believe, the most important evaluation tool is the interview process.  I’ve read somewhere (I always seem to remember the info, but not where it came from!), that sixty percent of the hiring decision is made during the first interview, and usually the positive or negative feeling is made in the first few seconds/minutes of the interview.  Of course, this goes both ways.  A candidate makes decisions right away as well.   

Let’s say that you sail through the first and second rounds of the interview and are told: “You are the top candidate for this position, and, as a courtesy, we would like you to come back in to meet X, Y, and Z.”  This is good news and a warning.  The good news is you have almost reached your goal.  The warning is:  “The evaluation process isn’t over!”  In fact the true decision makers, or parties with veto powers, are now being revealed.  Here’s an example:  We had a regional CPA firm client who loved our candidates, but never hired any of them.  The fall-out always came after they had our candidate go to dinner with the rest of the staff.  The staff gave a thumb’s down every time.  After some digging, we found out they had a conflict of interest:  The firm offered a $5000 referral bonus to employees and the staff saw our candidates as competition, plus - - they liked going out to dinner!  Here’s another one:  Recently a client decided not to move forward with an “A+” candidate after two rounds of interviews.  The reason?  While doing a “courtesy” interview with the accounting staff, the candidate detailed how he/she had improved the close process at “ABC” company.  The staff liked the status quo and voted thumb’s down because the candidate might not “value the way things are already done here”.  Now we submit only status quo people with a “Gee, you guys are great!” attitude to this client.

How do you get over these hurdles?  Research and preparation for each round of interviews are the keys to reaching your goal:  A great job offer.  What this means is learning whatever you can about the people you will meet with.  Do you know anyone who knows them?  Do you or a friend know anyone who currently works or recently worked for the company?  Press releases, financials, social networking sites, biographies on the company website, all provide information about the people you will be meeting.  Another key is to ask what the purpose of the interview is, and how the person you are meeting ties into the hiring decision-making process.  Do whatever you can to determine what it is they want to find out about you and how that fits with who you are.  If you are well prepared for each round of interviews, you will be ready to be yourself and present the skills and personal qualities that match well with your perceived needs for the job.  If you have prepared well, you will also be able to connect with all who interview you and gain that crucial 60% positive bump at the beginning of every interview, “courtesy” or not.  By the way, if you are working with a recruiter, they should be doing most of this research with you.