Accountants face double-edged hiring dilemma

The math isn’t adding up when it comes to accounting jobs. Too many baby boomer retirements and too few graduates find the industry part of a losing equation.

“At graduation last year, I said, ‘I wish I had a thousand accounting students graduating today because I would have a job for each of them,’” said Becky Rhoades, a 35-year Evangel University accounting associate professor.

Though it sounds far-fetched, Rhoades’ prediction is actually low. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, accounting and auditing firms are expected to add 11 percent more jobs in the next decade to an existing workforce of 1.3 million. That’s roughly 146,597 new positions, making it one of the nation’s fastest-growing professions. Couple that with the American Institute of Certified Public Accountant’s recent study which expects more than 60 percent of today’s CPAs to retire within the next 15 years and the coming need is explosive.

“There is no question this is a statewide – no nationwide – problem,” said The Whitlock Co. partner David Myers. “This is going to continue for at least 10 years as boomers retire.”

Myers, a recent past chairman of the Missouri Society of Certified Public Accountants, said Whitlock currently is hiring three before December – two new positions and one replacement – a big impact on the firm’s current staff of 32.

Larger Springfield-area firms, such as BKD LLP, are seeking to hire even more. With a local annual turnover rate of 11 percent – or about 17 people – Managing Partner John Wanamaker said the firm would like to hire at least 30 people annually. Enter Molly Davis, BKD’s full-time college recruiter.

Covering eight colleges in Springfield, Joplin, Branson and the Wichita, Kan., area, Davis said her role is to help students get from point A to point B or if she has her way, from A to BKD.

Making offers to students as young as college sophomores, Wanamaker described the recruitment process as “fiercely competitive” and essential.

“If we don’t ID them early, another firm will snatch them up,” he said.

Rise in recruitment
A BKD recruiter for nearly two years, Davis said the process is pretty simple – get to know the students on campus. That involves a lot of career fairs, but also being active in organizations such as Missouri State University’s accounting club and the Beta Alpha Psi fraternity, an international honor organization for accounting, finance and information systems students.

“Before a student commits to being a CPA, they need to understand everything involved and we can be that resource to help,” she said.

Davis also works to cultivate relationships with professors, such as Drury University accounting program coordinator Penny Clayton.

“It started as me seeing a star, a real standout student, and passing their name along to BKD,” Clayton said, noting the process is a bit more formal now with BKD hosting presentations and lunch and learn sessions. “Just last night [Aug. 15], we had the fall event. BKD took the standouts to the Escape Room and dinner.

“They have a lot of working years ahead of them; they need to make sure it’s the right fit.”

Evangel’s Rhoades also works with Davis. If she becomes aware of a high-achieving accounting student from this area, Rhoades will request a meeting with the recruiter.

While BKD may be the largest local prescience, Clayton said recruitment efforts are happening across the industry.

“It’s rare that one of my students doesn’t have a full-time offer before they graduate,” Clayton said, noting she currently doesn’t have enough students to fill the intern demand.

According to the BLS, the median accountant and auditor salary in 2014 was $67,190.

Jeff Shore, shareholder with BRS CPAs & Advisors, said the 12-person firm recently has tried to increase its presence on the MSU campus.

“We are not a big firm – we don’t have a recruiter – so that makes us unique on campus,” he said. “We are there for the students looking for something different. Students who say, ‘Those big firms aren’t for me.’”

While BRS doesn’t need a constant stream of talent like BKD, Shore said the firm is starting to keep an eye on the ball – and the other eye out for competing talent scouts.
 
“Firms are taking staff profiles off their web pages because recruiters are using them as ammo,” he said. “There’s a shortage of incoming students, yes, but also that mid-range talent, those eight-to-10 year people.”

Changing of the guard
According to the Pew Research Center, 10,000 American workers hit retirement age today and another 10,000 more will cross that threshold every day for the next 13 years.

In his 12 years at BKD, Wanamaker has seen turnover in 20 of the firm’s 23 Springfield  partners.

“It’s not only important that we hire new people, but every day we must be working on succession planning to transition these young folks,” he said, noting BKD employees can start retiring at 55, with a mandatory retirement age of 62.

Baby boomers – the 75 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964 – account for more than a quarter of the U.S. population and a significant but declining portion of the workforce. At smaller accounting firms, that succession plan oftentimes includes an acquisition by a larger company.

“There is a lot of conversation in that space right now,” said Shore. “Look at all those deals KPM (CPAs PC) did in the last couple years. We’ve talked with multiple firms.”

2014 was a busy year for KPM as the Queen City’s second-largest accounting firm finalized mergers with Springfield-based Davis, Lynn & Moots PC as well as Hlavacek Morris McIntyre Yates & Danielson PC.

Whitlock’s Myers said the retirements also are affecting universities, where boomer professors have begun to retire – only compounding the problem.

“I’ve seen five or six retire from MSU already,” he said. “The colleges are having some success in hiring adjuncts, but it’s going to be tough.”

Roughly 1 in 6 baby boomers now report they are retired, up from 1 in 10 in 2010.

“There is going to be a void in some form or fashion, whether it be at the top or the bottom,” Shore said. “There is a lack of talent and exodus of talent. Those two things don’t mix well.”