A Conversation With ... John Wanamaker

How does BKD recruit new CPAs?
Within BKD we have auditors and tax professionals, then we have others who are consultants and accounting outsourcing professionals. The traditional recruiting that’s done on campus is for tax and audit. Molly (Davis) is our regional recruiter who handles all of our regional campuses, from Springfield to Joplin and the Wichita office. That’s Missouri State, Evangel, Drury, Southwest Baptist University, Pittsburg State, Missouri Southern and then Wichita State. She’s responsible for arranging events on campus for us to really get to know students and understand them.

Right now, it’s a very competitive environment out there. We are competing with the big four accounting firms, other national firms, as well as the locals. We want the best of the best students and in a hard market you have to identify those students and make offers, sometimes two years out. We recruit right on campus for entry level.

Make no mistake, at the two- to four-year level, clients will know you and make job offers. Those job offers are going to be for controllership or (chief financial officer) positions, not for entry level.

Is turnover in the public sector a growing trend as more employees take private in-house jobs?
It’s always been that way. We are a training ground for the private sector. When our clients need a new chief accountant or CFO, they are making offers to our people. We have a good reputation of training people very well. They have interacted with that person already. It just happens, we are always going to have turnover. That’s the nature of the beast. But it’s not all bad. If you have somebody who doesn’t want to be in public accounting, we don’t want to make them be here. We would much rather them have a good experience with BKD, then go to work for one of our clients or even a prospect of ours. They will have a strong affinity to BKD.

What’s the annual turnover rate at BKD?
The industry average is around 20 percent. We were at 21 percent this past year. That’s excluding partners, interns, seasonal people and administrative staff. Thats takes into account full-time professional staff. I’m very proud because Springfield’s turnover was only 11 percent this last year. I oversee three offices in southwest Missouri. Branson is a small office with nine people and has had zero turnover. Joplin is at 6 percent this year, 7 percent last year. They have about 28 people, but still to only loose a couple is good.

Next week, we have 11 students starting, all of whom we recruited. We have four on the tax side and seven audit. That’s the typical. We usually have more in January.

Given the high turnover rate, how many people are you looking to hire annually?
That’s where the crystal ball stuff comes in. I do, very much, pay attention to what Springfield, Branson and Joplin’s turnover rate has been. I have to anticipate. I track it even further, breaking down tax and audit from consulting, so I know the trends. I also have to be aware that trend could be moving up, because the economy is percolating. In recessionary times, our clients aren’t expanding and that means they aren’t hiring accounting staff. During that period, all of the sudden, our turnover went really low. Right now, I believe we have a good economy and that turnover rate will go up. I have to project out for the next couple of years what I think turnover is going to be. We are going all the way out to January of 2017, nothing is in stone, but we are already making offers and getting acceptances.

Why is the market so competitive right now?
It’s all the economy. The big four firms are posting close to double-digit growth this year. There are a lot of mergers and acquisitions in our client base. You have a bubbling economy and there is a lot of stuff going on out there in our client base and that means more work for us as well. All that goes away during recessionary times.

The biggest challenge facing colleges is many professors are on their way to retirement. Finding good, qualified, young professors to come in is hard. You don’t have many kiddos going through to get their Ph.D. in accounting to teach. As a firm, we have contributed funding to help provide scholarships.