The price of the wildly popular Squishmallow plush toys might fluctuate, but for Kansas-based Mize CPAs, they are worth at least a large stack of highly valuable resumes.
The Regional Leader firm was offering the toys at a recent college career fair and though Martie Rison, the firm's creative marketing and communications manager, was aware enough of their appeal to include them as a giveaway to students visiting the Mize booth, the enthusiasm surpassed even her expectations.
"To drive excitement and engagement, we gave away Squishmallows," she explained. "What matters to young folks is trendy items; to get on social media, to post on Instagram or Twitter or Facebook that they visited our booth and to take a picture with one — that caught on like wildfire. Kids [were asking], 'Where's the Mize booth? I want to get a Squishmallow.'"
The toys were just part of Mize's "calculated risk" to get back to both general and accounting-specific job fairs on college campuses last year following the burnout of the last few years of COVID-mandated virtual events, according to Jan Marrs, shareholder and head of human resources. And it clearly paid off.
Mize's Squishmallow-boosted presence "scored us close to 50 to 70 resumes, and we brought 40 of those in," Rison reported. "The recruiting team went in with those resumes, and out of that campaign, we brought on over 20 interns, and nine months later, we still have all but two."
The firm also offered LinkedIn headshots at the booth, which was not only a popular service but one that enabled Mize to get the students' emails to send the photo and thus keep in contact with potential prospects.
These are just a few of many new recruitment ideas they have employed in recent months in a variety of venues, and that have helped the roughly 300-person firm grow its ranks by a third over the last year.
'Will Zoom for treats'
A "Paws in the Park" pet adoption event organized by a local humane society, for example, also generated some interest.
"We definitely have supported that in the past by donating money to the event," Rison explained. "This time we took advantage of using the booth, and set it up with a cutest pet contest for 2022."
The firm also handed out branded schwag with slogans like "Certified Pet Accountants" and "Will Zoom for Treats" that were a hit.
"We get our brand out there, and that we're a pet-friendly company, to give folks insight into what our culture is like," Rison continued. "We got one hire out of that; she just started [in June]. When people came by, we gave them our pitch. So many people [would say], 'I know someone looking for a job, what kind of experience? It sounds like a good place to be.' We had brochures with QR codes and job listings. We had Joe, our HR generalist, who was there giving out his business card to send resumes directly."
Mize's creativity also extends to their retention efforts — as does the firm's animal-friendly approach.
It hosted a 2022 Bring Your Dog to Work Day that included a dog parade for the entire office building of adjacent businesses, and also welcomed baby goats into the office to coincide with its Bring Your Child to Work Day. An employee on the payroll team brought in the baby goats so the firm could "surprise the kids with kids," Rison chuckled.
Besides the fun factor, the activity helped cement the firm's family-first culture, and what exactly that means today, Marrs explained.
"We have an expanded definition of family, of what's most important or of benefit to you," she said, explaining that this is why the firm started providing pet insurance. "For some of us that don't have kids, those are our kids."
And the presents don't begin and end at recruitment fairs, according to Rison.
"Each month, give or take, we give out a 'surprise and delight' piece. We send something out to remote people or put it on the desks of people in the office. A small token, of about $5 to $10 to say, 'We appreciate you, we value you, we're thinking of you.' It's really great. It plugs into social media, where it's portrayed [by the recipients] externally. And people that are remote are thrilled; they say, 'I feel so part of the team, you didn't forget about me.'"
Flexing on the competition
On a larger scale, benefits that have been crucial to the firm's retention include better-defined career paths for each member. And a new resource Mize rolled out last summer is helping with that.
"It's an internal career path guidance tool," Marrs explained. "Structured by role and department, it breaks down the skills needed, the experience you need to have, and what your background needs to be, and explains what you do in the day-to-day job. It's a manager toolkit so they can learn how to have those conversations and turn into mini-HR professionals."
The toolkit, and the resulting conversations, have led four people to shift departments and take completely different jobs over the last couple months, Marrs shared, a valuable option for younger generations of accounting professionals that want flexibility.
"Folks come in through the payroll or AP departments that didn't start with a degree in accounting, but are very interested," Marrs explained. "Several have moved from AP to payroll, from payroll to accounting services. Someone started in payroll for 10 years, led part of the team, and interestingly enough, got really interested in tax and moved in with the state and local tax team."
The flexibility in work environment is just as crucial, the firm has found.
After going fully remote during the pandemic, Rison was surprised by how many staff members wanted to come back to the office. Still, 40% of the firm's people are fully remote across the 20 or so states where they live and, unlike many of Mize's fellow accounting firms that have begun requiring at least a hybrid office presence, there is no planned mandate to return to the office.
"It's critical for keeping talent, to remain flexible," Rison said. "It's an interesting recruiting strategy, with the peer companies and accounting firms — their mandates to be in the office have helped us quite a bit."
Also aiding Mize is a requirement of its own — one that's aimed at preventing burnout.
"We've had a shift in our tax department — this industry has a bad history, particularly in tax, of long hours, seven days a week, of drudge work in the office," Marrs said. "Rather than lose people, we want to shift the image. There's a 2,300-hour cap a year set at our firm. Peaks should be offset by other parts of the year so we can balance the lifestyle for them. That has allowed us to recruit more people in the firm and keep the ones we have."
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