No. 5, 301+ employees: BKD LLP

BKD ranked especially high in the people development category, and for good reason.

The company has an employee-mentoring program and spends more than $3,000 per employee on annual training, according to its survey responses. BKD employees receive between 40 and 60 hours of training each year.

The investment has paid off for the company, which has promoted more than 90 percent of its managers from within.

“Our model is intended for them to be there for a long time and to grow with the firm,” said Darryl Bueker, a partner with BKD.

Fierce competition among the nation’s leading accounting firms has prompted BKD and its counterparts to step up recruitment efforts in the past decade.

Each fall, the company makes contact with promising college sophomores and juniors to discuss job prospects, said John Wanamaker, partner in charge of BKD’s home office in Springfield.

“We have actually made offers … to people who aren’t going to start with us until 2008,” he said.

BKD offers a tuition reimbursement program for up to eight college job candidates each year. The program provides $2,000 a year for up to three years and is treated as a loan that’s forgiven after two years of employment, Wanamaker said.

New BKD employees also accrue four weeks of paid time off after the first year of employment, and they are allowed to use the time whenever and however they like, Wanamaker said.

The firm also offers a life insurance policy that is two times an employee’s annual salary and pays the premiums after six months of employment. A 401(k) program is available after three months, and a pension plan after two years.

Missouri State University graduate Gary Schafer has been with BKD for 10 years and is now a senior manager in the company’s audit and assurance area.

When he was a junior, Schafer spoke with representatives from several CPA firms but took a job with BKD. He said the “intangible benefits” have kept him with the company.

“It comes down to the kind of environment you want to work in and what kind of work you want to do,” Schafer said. “Here, there’s just lots of opportunities to advance.”

Wanamaker said BKD strives to reward its employees for their hard work – a philosophy reflected in the fact that full-time employees receive an average annual salary increase of 7 percent to 9 percent, though Wanamaker said he’s given annual raises as high as 20 percent.