Recruiting and retaining corporate tax professionals: hiring specialists discuss changes in how the business works-and in the candidates themselves.

• Author: Levin-Epstein, Michael
• Position: RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION

In some ways, the recruitment and retention of corporate tax professionals is the same as it has always been: finding the best candidates for the job and devising ways to keep them at the company. But things have also changed fairly dramatically in recent years. Applicants' expectations are evolving, job responsibilities are changing, and the competition for top candidates is even stiffen

No one is more aware of what's changing and what isn't in the corporate tax area than the recruiters and recruiting companies themselves. Not surprisingly, they agree on some points and disagree on others.

Tony Santiago is president of the Family of Tax Brands, a privately held group of companies dedicated to recruiting, retaining, and developing the talent of corporate tax professionals for over three decades. "I believe the biggest change in the last ten years is that now tax has a more prominent place at the corporate table," Santiago says. "Tax is valued much more now by the executive leadership of most companies, and that is a catch-22. Not long ago, tax professionals were hidden underneath the accounting, finance, and treasury functions. Now, there is high demand for tax executives who can effectively communicate on the issues that represent the broader business scale. Also in high demand are tax professionals that can align with the strategic initiatives of the organization."

Today, top tax professionals need to be able to partner with the cross-functional groups of the organization like treasury, corporate development, and accounting, Santiago notes. "So, the primary skill set demand by our clients are more well-rounded individuals who are not just experts from a technical perspective but are also capable of operating at the C-level at the time of placement or within a future timeframe," he points out. "The aftermath of Sarbanes-Oxley created significant changes and got everybody's attention. The pendulum swung aggressively towards risk mitigation staffing and departmental initiatives that were focused on protecting shareholder value. We are now seeing a shift back to a focus on creating shareholder value. This has become evident by the tax positions that we are being asked to fill."

"Obviously," he explains, "some of the issues from the NGOs and OECD, BEPS, and international tax reform are also impacting the shift in tax strategy focus. Tax professionals are going to have to be developed in a more holistic way much earlier in their careers and with a more balanced approach to the tax technical side. We are making significant strides to facilitate this process in our career development offerings within our TaxTalent community, for example. We are helping tax professionals at all phases of their careers develop the important soft skills that will allow them to interact with other C-level decision-makers."

John Jung, vice president of tax search at the tax division of Govig & Associates, heads a team of recruiters who specialize in building in-house tax teams from the ground up. He disagrees with Santiago on one point: "Tax professionals want to have a seat at the table, but if I put all of my companies in one of two buckets, the bigger bucket is where tax is not valued. It is a cost center still. It is not looked at as a profit center. That's why a lot of tax people are looking to go to companies where tax does have a seat at the table. It has risen in its importance, the visibility is much better, but I...