I just got back from the AICPA’s On-Site Training Conference in Charleston, S.C. The picture at right features MACPA / BLI team members Pam Devine and Amy Puente talking with Mark Koziel, senior manager of the AICPA’s PCPS (division of small firms). Mark had just finished covering the PCPS’s latest additions to its human capital center.
Mark presented the PCPS’s work on competencies and learning ladders to help CPA firms manage their training in a more systematic way. Pam and our CPA firm relationship team (Terri Smith and Brent Johnson) had spent several days with Mark and AICPA Learning Team members Dennis Parrish and Marybeth Maher working on this process. Using their combined experience with CPA firms from all around the country and the AICPA’s research, they came up with a model that should prove invaluable to firms of any size.
Competencies and leadership development are the top two ways to have a business impact with training. (See my post about the top 5 ways to impact your business). This is also consistent with our research on high-performing organizations. Check out our graphic overview at right of the CPA Firm Competency Model.
The model uses the metaphor of a bouncing ball to depict the momentum and performance “bounce” you get from implementing a systematic way of training and developing your people. The change in direction after the bounce signifies the need to change the mix to more leadership and performance skills from the more technical skills necessary early on in a CPA career. This is a major area of opportunity for many CPA firms to really boost performance, morale, recruitment and retention — yet we still see this as a difficult sell for many partner groups.
Two more things: Membership in AICPA/PCPS may be the best deal of the year ($35 / CPA; maximum $700), and Mark Koziel and Jim Metzler of the AICPA will be featured at our upcoming Maryland Business and Accounting Expo on June 17-18. They will be talking about talent management, competencies and their exciting emerging partner program. Click here to reserve your spot!
What are you doing in this area — easy or hard sell?
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