What Do They Really Want?

Last week I completed my annual pre-Labor Day pilgrimage to New England for a host of in-person visits to several client firms.

Thankfully I ended my journey on a Thursday, one day before the Massachusetts Turnpike and I-95 did their best impressions of parking lots with thousands of vacationers making their way to Cape Cod or other local beach destinations for the final weekend of summer.

Wasn’t it just Memorial Day? But I digress.

After exchanging the requisite pleasantries with each managing partner I asked them point blank about their pressing issues of the moment. Want to know what the unanimous answer was for all six practices?

H-E-L-P!

Specifically, the secrets, if any, to hiring and retaining younger staff.

Since five out of the six MPs were Baby Boomers I took that specifically to mean “how do I hire these Millennials?”

Good question.

Although I’m a Boomer myself, I have the advantage of having raised two Millennials and that has given me somewhat of an insider’s perspective on their wants and needs. Not an expert mind you, just a leg up on most.

The first thing I usually do is role play with the MP. I ask them to pretend I’m young CPA who spent two years with a large firm or even a Big Four practice and is looking for a roadmap to becoming an equity owner and part of a succession team.

Then I challenge them to convince me why I should work there. Unfortunately, more often than not, the most common pitch I receive in these sessions is usually “we’re an established firm that has been around since (add the year here.)”

So has the Department of Motor Vehicles, but I doubt you’d want to work there.

I then ask about mentoring programs and community involvement.

I tell them it’s 2016 not 1975, young potentials are not going to be placed in a dreary cubicle for two years and be tasked with what I refer to as Type 1 audit or tax work.

They want to be up close and personal with clients, not a voice on the other end of the phone or an email. They want to be challenged, not perform routine work that can be done between TV commercials. They want a firm that is up to speed with regard to IT – particularly paperless. Then don’t want to wade through stacks of paper and risk a citation from the local fire marshal.

Sometimes the partners get it, but too many times I get the impression they’re just being polite to me and they know better.

That is until next year’s visit and I get an earful all over again.