Human Capital and Learning
Highlighting a firm's greatest asset - its staff! Meet the industry's biggest challenge head on with the latest innovations in finding and keeping the best, and keep them on top of their game with cutting-edge training.
The Elements of Learning 2.0
October 2007
Earlier I introduced to our readers to the concept of Learning 2.0, which takes advantage of new technologies and theories about learning to expedite the transmission of knowledge. In this article I intend to begin a series that further explores the elements that comprise L2.0 and how your firm can best make use of them.
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On-Boarding: A Key to Employee Retention
September 2007
Many firms have developed and implemented New Employee Orientation programs but remain unsatisfied with the results. Some have lost people simply because they do not know how to effectively integrate new hires. The resolution to these frustrations may be On-Boarding—a strategic employee assimilation process that is catching on fast in the industry.
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Training & Learning Nets Rewards for All Star Firm
August 2007
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Mentoring & Coaching: Are Both Necessary, and What's the Difference? - Part II
August 2007
Having both a mentoring and coaching program is a tremendous aid to the growth and sustainability of an accounting firm. Often the two are confused, and it is therefore the purpose of this paper to clarify the difference between coaching and mentoring and to suggest how to create successful programs. In the June edition of the Boomer Bulletin you were introduced to mentoring. Now it’s time to clarify coaching.
Continue reading Mentoring & Coaching: Are Both Necessary, and What's the Difference? - Part II
Part Time Partners - A Look at Your Future
July 2007
During the first ever Women’s Forum in May I had the privilege of speaking to a group of 200 professional women who are smart, fun, and had plenty to say about what is working and not working in our industry. One of the most interesting ideas bantered about was Part Time Partners as a common concept for the firm of the future.
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Remote Access as a Retainment Strategy
July 2007
When Misty O’Brien, tax manager for Taketa Iwata Hara & Associates in Hilo Hawaii, decided to follow her new husband to South Carolina, it was a “non-event” according to partner Janet Hara. Instead of losing an extremely important employee, Taketa Iwata Hara supplied Misty with a cell phone from Hawaii along with a contract that allowed her to continue working for the firm from her new home in South Carolina.
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5 Steps to Effective Delegation
June 2007
Delegation is an essential tool that frees up time to focus on those things we do best and that add the most value to the firm. Unfortunately, it is often a tool that never makes it out of the toolbox.
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Mentoring & Coaching - Part I
June 2007
Having both a mentoring and coaching program is a tremendous aid to the growth and sustainability of an accounting firm. Often the two are confused, and it is therefore the purpose of this paper to clarify the difference between coaching and mentoring and to suggest how to create successful programs.
Continue reading Mentoring & Coaching - Part I
Strengths and Training - How We Do It At McKonly & Asbury, LLP
May 2007
In 2001, McKonly & Asbury began its first executive book study group, reviewing First, Break All the Rules. In this groundbreaking book, the Gallup Organization discusses its extensive research in the field of management, specifically asking “What do talented employees need from their workplace?”
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Performance Consultant: The New Role of the Firm Training Director
April 2007
What does it really mean to be in the field of Talent Development? True talent development is far beyond the role of training manager, compliance tracker, course developer or trainer. The role has morphed into that of the strategic partner, process improvement specialist, meeting facilitator, interviewer and consultant, advocate for employees and finally the “champion of effective change.”
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Secrets To Keeping Your Star Performers
February 2007
It is a difficult event for a firm when an employee leaves. Often, it feels like the decision was sudden and completely unexpected, when in reality an employee’s resignation is not a single and impulsive event. It is the culmination of a process called disengagement, and an employee who leaves has been going through it for at least a few months prior to his or her departure.
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Using Conflict as a Strategic Asset
February 2007
Wouldn’t life be easier if we could just make decisions in a vacuum and not worry about what others thought?
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An Introduction to Learning 2.0
February 2007
You and a friend are enjoying a cup of coffee at the corner shop. She shares a compelling idea. You respond with a slightly altered version, informed by something you read earlier that week. As the minutes pass, you build the framework for a new company initiative. Welcome to the world of Learning 2.0.
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Creating Technology Teams that Engage the Firm
February 2007
2007 will be one of the busiest technology years in recent memory. For the first time in many years, Microsoft will simultaneously roll out a new operating system and a new Office application suite. These upgrades will require firms to replace a great deal of hardware on both employees’ desks and in the server room. New training is essential, and even the best planned rollouts will invariably deal with unexpected issues.
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A 10 Step Team Challenge for 2007
January 2007
Welcome to 2007! As we begin another year, the number one challenge continues to be Human Capital—how to retain people, how to find them and how to motivate them to do their best. If solutions to human capital dilemmas were easy, we would have solved them years ago, but (as we all know) they are anything but easy!
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Why I Hate Change
December 2006
The New Year is almost upon us, and it beckons for change. For reasons almost too mystical to understand, human beings perceive a new number at the end of the year as a benchmark for changing habits and beginning new endeavors. But for most of us, few changes will actually stick.
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The How To Guide To Goal Setting
November 2006
In our industry today, performance management has become an essential tool in the retention strategy for firms of all sizes. Management is finally “getting it” that employees need to know the expectations and responsibilities for their job roles. They realize that workers need a plan for where they are going and the need to tie-in employee ambitions with firm goals.
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Business Writing For Success
November 2006
Communication is the nervous system of any organization. A healthy connection keeps all parts functioning properly. In a business age that demands regular, precise discourse, good writing habits are a must. The key functions of fluent business rhetoric are precision, clarity, and grammar. Mastery of these will ensure the desired effect and purpose of your message.
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Have You Reviewed Your Economic Model Lately?
October 2006
According to the most recent salary survey conducted by The National Association of Colleges and Employers, the average starting salary this past recruiting season for accountants was $45,656. With starting salaries at these levels and escalating salaries for experienced staff, firms should be reviewing their economic model.
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What Motivates Me Today May Not Tomorrow
October 2006
Once upon a time employees worked for a paycheck, some health insurance and the promise of a nest egg for the golden retirement years. But their kids heard stories about pension plans “gone bad,” and parents died months after leaving their jobs.
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Job-Descriptions---Accounting
October 2006
Download this document to see job descriptions for the following positions:
- Accounting Team Leader
- Staff Accountant
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Job-Descriptions---Technical
October 2006
Download this document to see job descriptions for the following positions:
- Network Administrator
- Assistant Network Administrator / Help Desk Coordinator
- Systems Administrator
- Chief Technology Officer
- Executive Director of Information Technology
- Director of Internal Information Systems (Large Firm)
- Director of Internal Information Systems (Mid Size Firm)
- Application Support Specialist
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Job-Descriptions---Training
October 2006
Download this document to see job descriptions for the following positions:
- Learning Coordinator
- Training Manager
- Training Coordinator
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Job-Descriptions---Consulting
October 2006
Download this document to see job descriptions for the following positions:
- Director of External Consulting
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Flex Appeal
September 2006
Balancing our lives and our work is a challenge for everyone these days, and it’s not getting any easier—just when work demands more of our attention, so, it seems, does the rest of our lives: family, friends, relaxation, hobbies, other responsibilities. Striking the balance is difficult, and can seem impossible. So what’s an accountant to do?
Building an Ethical Firm Beginning with Human Resources
August 2006
Building a firm based on good ethical behavior is more important today than at any other time in history. Professional services firms are trusted advisors to their clients. Before unforeseen events “rock” that established trust, you must re-examine and re-commit to operating in a way that maintains the trusted advisor status with your clients and within the communities where you work.
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Evaluating IT Personnel
August 2006
How do you evaluate your professional IT staff? Who is responsible for that evaluation and how often do evaluations occur? While these are basic human resource questions, we find many firms do not have fair and equitable systems in place to ensure anticipated results or provide a professional career path for internal information technology professionals.
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The Strategic Plan - The Foundation for Retention and Attraction
July 2006
Retention and attraction of people is definitely the number one challenge in all professions. The accounting profession will face a crisis if it doesn’t make significant changes in the way it practices firm management. This is demonstrated most clearly in a recent survey conducted among firms across the country that reveals less than 1/3 of them reported having a strategic plan. Of those that did have a plan, approximately 50% shared it with managers and staff.
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The Time Sheet is Only One Measurement of Performance
July 2006
While the time sheet is an integral part of most accountants’ lives, it is not the measurement of performance that many believe. A time sheet is nothing more than an accountability tool. In my opinion, the profession has erred because the time sheet was never intended to be a measure of value or a pricing tool. Value is defined as the monetary worth of a good or service. The time sheet is simply a historic record of the cost of delivering a service. Yet many firms don’t even utilize their practice management systems to calculate total labor and overhead costs. They simply use them to calculate a standard rate or price.
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Life With Kolbe
July 2006
Several months ago Sandra Wiley and I agreed that I would write an article about Kolbe. To those of you who hoped that this article would provide further insight into the personal life of Kolbe Bryant, I must apologize. While, I must admit that I have a latent desire to become a correspondent for People Magazine, I must confess that I agreed to write an article about our CPA firm's use of the Kolbe Index.
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Inside Secrets for Learning Success
June 2006
Great initiatives in a firm are often conceived at the top with an owners vision of what “could be” in the firm. However, a vision would simply be a vision if the wrong person is selected to carry out the plans and make the vision become a reality.
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Retain Staff - By Rewarding Them!
May 2006
Firms across the country echo one common theme again and again – “How can we retain our current staff?” The question is a good one because firms certainly want to keep the talent pool they have, while increasing their level of productivity; however, they seem to be clueless as to how to achieve the goal. There have been many books written on the subject of retaining staff, however in this article we will look at one aspect only – Rewarding Staff.
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Five Steps to Distinguishing Yourself
April 2006
Firms are looking for leaders. While that is not big news, some individuals within the firm think that they have the capabilities to be those leaders, but for some reason are just not being recognized by management. If you are one of those people, what can you do to distinguish yourself from the pack and jump start your career within the firm? There are some specific steps you can take – starting right now.
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Performance
March 2006
Performance is defined in the Merriam Webster dictionary as, a) the execution of an action or b) something accomplished. The question is: are people accomplishing the right things in firms today? Charge hours have been the primary measure of performance in many firms. However, the accounting industry is moving from an effort based to results based economy and charge hours may be only one of many gauges the firm pilot must watch as he flies the plane.
HR and Learning Symposium a Great Success
March 2006
One of the premier events of the Boomer Consulting, Inc. year was held on February 21 and 22 in Kansas City: The Human Capital and Learning Symposium 2006. This event drew over 80 people representing over 50 firms and businesses. As the name implies, it was a dual discipline conference focusing on both Human Capital issues and Learning and Training issues.
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Accountability Begins With You
March 2006
Too many people in life look to others for motivation, discipline and accountability. Are you this type of person? This year try looking at doing things in a new way. This year hold yourself accountable to higher standards than would normally be expected of you by others.
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The Importance of Firm Culture
January 2006
Culture is a system of shared beliefs. These beliefs about goals, values and behaviors are required in order to achieve the firm's vision. Culture is strategic and directly affects everyone in your firm. It is often inherited, but it can change if required to do so. Firms can be successful with shared services. However, it is impossible to move the firm from generation to generation without a shared vision.
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The Roadmap for Developing a Learning Culture
January 2006
In order to reach a destination, we all know that one of the best tools to use is a roadmap. In this article, we will discuss a roadmap that will take your firm on a journey to one of the greatest benefit destinations that can be offered in the industry today - both from an employee and a management point of view; this is commonly referred to as "training".
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Creating Work-Life Balance Within the Firm
January 2006
In your firm today, an increasing number of staff members – from the partner level to the administrative staff - are experiencing burnout, low productivity, dissatisfaction and stress related illnesses…due in large part to a lack of balance between their work and personal lives. It is time for your firm to look at how they can create greater balance between work and personal lives of the number 1 asset in your firm – its people.
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Termination Checklist for IT Issues
January 2006
The following checklist will be completed anytime an employee leaves this company. This includes voluntary and involutary departures. The goal of completing these actions is to ensure proper security for the information systems of the company. The Firm Administrator will ensure that the checklist is properly completed prior to final payment of the former employee.
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Prescription for the Profession
November 2005
AICPA chair Leslie Murphy in her recent address to Council stated “one out of six CPAs left their firms during 2004.” The cost to replace these people is estimated at 1.5 times their current salary. Enrollment and graduation are up in accounting programs according to the most recent statistics published by the AICPA. The bad news is that the percentage of graduates going into public accounting has dropped to 29% of the total.
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Paid Time Off: Considering Your Firm´s Options
November 2005
In the past year a topic that has been raised by many firms that we work with is that of paid time off or PTO. Many firms are wondering if a traditional leave program that they have offered for many years is the best fit for their firms now, or maybe they should consider a policy providing a PTO bank.
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Creative Recruitment Strategies
October 2005
No matter where you turn today, one of the top concerns facing Firm leadership is attracting and retaining the best Human Capital. One crucial aspect of attraction and retention, that is a challenge for every firm, is RECRUITMENT. How do you find the best? How do you entice them to come to your firm? What are the unique aspects of your firm that would be a “draw” for candidates? How do you communicate the benefits of working for your firm to the candidates that you come into contact with?
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Selecting Firm Leaders
October 2005
Many in the accounting profession are experiencing a human resources crisis and a corresponding shortage of future leadership. What are most firms doing about it? Sadly, the problem is not going way. In fact, it will probably increase in intensity. Some firms have implemented leadership development programs in an attempt to focus on the leadership issue. However, isn’t the identification of leaders as important as the development of leaders?
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The Firm Integration Event - An Interview
September 2005
Ask any firm in the country what their #1 concern is and they will tell you that it is “attracting and retaining” staff. In this article, let’s concentrate on a service that your firm can hold that has been developed to deal with the “retention” portion of this highly important issue – The Team Integration Event.
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Behavior Based Interviewing
July 2005
As you are looking for some tricks and tools to identify the perfect candidate to hire in your firm? Many of your peer firms have begun using a technique called “Behavior Based Interviewing.” Behavior Based Interviewing is a technique to evaluate a candidate’s experiences and behaviors in order to determine their potential for success. The interviewer identifies desired skills and behaviors, then structure’s open-ended questions and statements to elicit detailed responses.
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Introduction to the Balanced Scorecard
July 2005
You wouldn’t consider flying on an airplane where the pilot only monitors airspeed. Skilled pilots must monitor information from a large number of indicators in order to fly their aircraft. The same holds true for the management of an accounting firm.
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Embracing a Healthy Workplace
June 2005
I watched an interesting documentary recently about a company where the owner implemented a company wide program to improve the health of the employees and paid bonuses for changes in lifestyle such as weight loss, smoking cessation and increased exercise. Many of the employees found the owners commitment to good health the "push" they needed to get them started on a new path. So … why would an owner of a business care so much about employee health?
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Join Forces With New Staff
May 2005
Is your company growing and adding staff? Maybe you're in the process of hiring summer help. Now is the time to update, or create your process and procedure manual for the position. And who better to do that for your position than You!
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The Evolution of Partner Value
April 2005
Partner value and compensation continues to be a management topic that attracts considerable attention at firm summits and MAP Conferences. The balanced scorecard approach, connecting compensation to firm objectives, has made progress over the past few years. However, for the most part individual firms are reluctant to change compensation formulas just for the sake of change. There must be a compelling reason to change and typically when it comes to changing compensation there are winners and losers when the rules change.
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Time to Clean House
April 2005
It’s spring. Time to clean your closets. That could mean your closet, back room, drawers and files at work also. You could apply this to not only the physical drawers of your office but also to your policies & procedures. For me, spring time is a great time to evaluate and make changes. That also applies to my work habits.
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The Evolution of Firm-Wide Learning
March 2005
Education and training has always been an important part of the accounting profession. Today, more and more firms are recognizing that ongoing education is not just an individual responsibility, but a strategic improvement plan within the firm. And, there is so much more than CPE to a firm-wide learning program!
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Performance Appraisals - Taking It To the Next Level
February 2005
As the supervisor of staff in your firm, you have a tremendous responsibility to motivate your team to produce positive results. One of the tools you are, or at least you should be using, is a Performance Appraisal System.
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Soft Skills - Hard Dollars
February 2005
When you mention “soft skills” training, many accountants roll their eyes and discount the importance. This may appear to be a reasonable reaction, but is it good business?
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Human Capital Advice from WIE Experts
February 2005
In February, I attended the Winning is Everything Conference 2005 in Las Vegas and was pleasantly surprised to hear “Human Capital” at the forefront of many presentations.
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The Economics of a Training-Learning Culture
February 2005
Perceptions and old habits are hard to break. In the CPA profession, training is associated with continuing professional education (CPE); however, in today’s environment training and learning are broader in scope for several reasons. Training reaches well beyond just the accountants and their CPE requirements. Yet firms still devote limited resources to training and learning while expecting employees to “get it on their own”. There are several reasons why the requirements for training and learning have grown over the past 20 years and are imperative today in firms of all sizes.
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Highlights from the Human Capital Symposium
January 2005
Boomer Consulting had the great pleasure of hosting 21 motivated professionals for a day and ½ in December of 2004 for our first ever “Human Capital Symposium” in Kansas City. While it would be impossible to give you a play by play look at our time together, I can give you a few “snippets” we learned while hosting this extraordinary group of individuals.
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Innovative Peers Spark Innovation
October 2004
Innovation by definition is "the introduction of something new or a new idea, method, or device". That is what happens at every meeting of The Boomer Technology Circles™, and here is the documented proof!
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Partner Compensation
August 2004
Compensation of owners in a professional services firm has always been contentious. Over the years several trends have developed based upon the size of the firm. A new trend is developing that is an attempt to take the best from previous systems and blend it with new developments in firm management. This method is generally referred to as the balanced scorecard approach.
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Building a Training and Learning Culture
June 2004
Training is one of the most crucial aspects of your firm’s strategy. It is an excellent tool to recruit the best and brightest employees and to retain them. Furthermore, it ties directly into your firm’s strategy by helping employees increase productivity and develop personally and professionally into future leaders of the firm.
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Leadership and Creativity
June 2004
Leadership isn’t developed in a day. It takes a lifetime. In today’s accounting firms more focus needs to be put on leadership than simply on charge hours. With the current shortage of accountants (experienced and inexperienced), firms must be creative in how they solve their staffing requirements.
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Executive or Caretaker
April 2004
Is your firm managing technology with a caretaker or a true executive? The answer says a lot about your firm and whether technology is a strategic asset or simply overhead. Now is the time for firms to take notice and elevate their technology leaders to a place at the decision making table.
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Unique Staffing Strategies
March 2004
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Baby Boomers comprise 60% of the prime-workforce today. A year ago it appeared accounting might follow a shortage in IT talent around the year 2005 or 2006. Today it looks like the shortage will occur in the accounting industry first and has already started in selective parts of the country. This is particularly true with auditing and accounting skills.
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Managing Your Human Capital
March 2004
Human Capital is not just a “buzz word” flying around our industry today. It is a genuine shift in the mind set of Management toward how they are viewing the most precious asset they have in their firm – their people.
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What Motivates Your People?
March 2003
In case you haven’t noticed, today’s workforce is different than when most CPA firm partners started in the accounting profession. In the 70s, 80s and even into the 90s, the workforce was more based around service. Today, the economy has changed as has the workforce.
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Progress in the Learning Firm
March 2003
Boomer Consulting, Inc has been providing technology management assistance to the accounting profession for many years. One of the things we have always been proud of is our involvement in the training or learning process within firms. For the past five years Boomer Consulting, Inc has sponsored a gathering of training and learning professionals for a conference dedicated to their unique needs and concerns. The name of this group has evolved over time, but is now called the Boomer Learning Circle™.
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Is Your Firm Dysfunctional?
January 2003
Teamwork is a necessity today in providing clients diversified services. Clients expect star accountants to play team ball and have a winning team. Yet many firms are dysfunctional when it comes to teamwork.
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Compensation - Making it work for your firm!
December 2002
When you looked at the title to this article, did you cringe and say to yourself – “I don’t want to think about compensation again!” I can’t blame you; it is a very daunting subject when you are talking about partner and staff compensation. We have to look at compensation strategies that make sense to our firm and continue to motivate staff at the same time.
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The Balanced Scorecard - Linking it to Compensation
October 2002
Compensation, and particularly partner compensation, are topics that will create considerable debate in most firms. Everyone has an opinion and generally those with the strongest opinions are those with the least amount of knowledge. While there is no one way to determine partner compensation, most firms use a variety of formulas and methods of participation in the process. The Balanced Scorecard, as introduced in an earlier article, is a valuable tool if properly applied in rewarding excellence and achievement of goals.
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Happy Hiring
April 2002
Hiring a new employee must be one of the most stressful duties that we encounter in our professional lives. We are selecting a person to not only fill a need we have within the firm, but also find someone who will fit with our culture and interact well with other team members. This is never an easy task, and quite often we make a bad decision and then have to start the entire process over again. I am of the belief that if you follow a well thought out process, your success rate will increase exponentially.
Champion Skill Sets
May 2001
As firms search for new service offerings, capital and leadership are the most important issues. Clients are demanding new services in strategic areas such as financial services and technology. Technology is one of the primary tools clients are using in order to be more competitive. Finding the champion to lead these new technology related services is often difficult.