Finders keepers: it's the little, and less expensive, things your firm can offer that attract (and keep) good people.

• Author: Ascierto, Jerry

Your firm has an opening, so you advertise on an employment website or run an ad in a local newspaper. Within days, you're inundated with resumes. You spend weeks wading through the talent pool, but your firm is in a high-cost area of California. And after several rounds of interviews and reference checks, you are no closer to filling the position.

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Welcome to a California CPA firm's human resources department. While the talent pool has improved over the past few years, recruiting those people to your firm--and retaining current employees--hasn't gotten easier.

The high cost of living in certain metropolitan areas of California--think San Francisco Bay Area and portions of Southern California--has made recruitment and retention difficult for many companies, including CPA firms. In a recent survey conducted by Forbes magazine, dubbed "Most Overpriced Places," San Jose was the nation's least affordable city, with San Francisco in second and Los Angeles ninth out of a sample of 150 cities.

But California CPA firms are not alone in their recruitment and retention challenges. In the national 2003 Management of an Accounting Practice "Top Five Issues" survey, "finding and retaining qualified staff" was identified as the most pressing issue facing CPA firms, followed by a similar topic, succession planning.

So, how can California CPA firms attract and retain the best and brightest? The answers range from the extreme--helping an employee with a down payment for a house--to the intangible, such as a focus on work/life balance.

HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS

When recruiting potential employees from out of state, the No. 1 deal killer is often California's housing market, which ranks among the nation's most costly.

"Housing is really a heart-stopper," says Mary Richardson, a senior consultant at San Anselmo-based Herrerias & Associates, specializing in human resources. "The rest of the cost of living is not significantly different [than in other parts of the nation]. When it comes to persuading people to come to California, you're going to have to do a whole lot more in terms of housing."

Three years ago, San Ramon-based Armanino McKenna LLP decided to take that extra step.

It was during the Internet craze when accountants were being wooed by the promise of instant dot-com riches and stayed away from traditional firms. With the local talent pool shrinking, Armanino McKenna had a difficult time attracting potential employees to the expensive San Francisco Bay Area.

"When we instituted the...