Teach them well: mentoring programs go a long way toward staff retention, development.

• Author: Ascierto, Jerry

Any accounting firm wooing young accountants in the past few years knows that competition is fierce.

The profession's growth, coupled with a finite pool of candidates, has accounting firms dangling higher starting salaries, beefed-up benefit packages and other perks to attract employees. But there's another benefit firms can tout to lure job applicants--mentoring programs.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Such programs can hasten the career development of employees by matching them with a senior firm member. These mentors work with the up-and-comers on everything from getting acclimated to the corporate culture to the finer points of their technical acumen. What's more, mentoring programs can help firms shore up their retention rates and groom future firm leaders.

ADVICE FOR FIRMS

For accounting firms looking to start a mentoring program, two keys include not getting bogged down in administrative procedure and establishing the right mentor-protege relationship.

"The focus of any mentoring program needs to be on the success of the protege, not on the paperwork," says Mary Richardson, a Novato-based HR consultant with Herrerias and Associates. "The benefit the protege receives from the relationship is that someone will give them clear, honest feedback in a non-supervisory manner. Proteges need to know that it's important to be open to feedback and how to ask for and receive it."

While the goals of mentoring programs are the same, how those goals are achieved vary from firm to firm.

PWC'S MENTORING PARTNERSHIP PROGRAM

PricewaterhouseCoopers' Partner Connectivity Program is aimed at all staff at all levels. Each partner takes 12-15 staff members under their wing, allowing them to get to know their staff's personal goals, as well as the employees' daily work performance.

"When we get to know the whole person, we find that there's a better connection with the firm," says Moire Rasmussen, PricewaterhouseCoopers' diversity leader, based in San Francisco.

The firm has other mentoring programs, including its Minority Transition Program and Mentoring Partnership Program, that aid staff in forming an individual career experience.

The Minority Transition Program connects new minority hires with a peer mentor, who helps the new hire get acclimated to the firm; a higher-level employee, who helps the new hire with career development; and a firm partner, who assists in the new hire's professional progress and helps to ensure opportunities are available to work on...