Behind the numbers: follow the Dutch lead

It’s been a little quiet on the war for talent battle front of late, which surprises me

It’s not like there is suddenly a surfeit of accountants or that work is drying up in the profession. Indeed there’s plenty of anecdotal evidence to suggest that the gap between supply and demand in recruitment is heading in one direction.

But while it may be quiet in the UK, as recruiters scratch their heads and plot how best to deal with their problem, don’t assume that’s the case elsewhere. In Holland especially there are some tactics that UK firms may wish to deploy here.

For some time now mid-tier firms there have sought to attract staff by arguing that, unlike the Big Four, they can offer a decent work-life balance.

One mid-tier firm recently went further, taking a truck with a video wall on the back around various Big Four offices. They urged employees to text or email comments, which they then displayed on the big screen. It’s a tactic borrowed from the States where the IT giants have loitered at each other’s user conferences for years.

More interesting is a tactic employed recently by Grant Thornton. The firm has launched a ‘new firm’, Beep Accountants complete with a website (beepaccountants.nl) and videos viewed by almost 300 people on YouTube in the last couple of months.

Beep, which describes itself as the ‘Big One’, has an inhouse divorce service, free employee meals, provided they are taken at your desk. And it boasts of the nine day working week it can offer those who join the firm.

It’s not until you get fairly deep into the site that the joke is revealed and Grant Thornton’s name crops up. It’s an innovative and entertaining way of attracting interest in the firm and of getting it talked about. UK firms and business will have to think equally radically unless they want to start turning work away or, worse, delivering it poorly.

Back in the spring, one recruiter warned that the number of available accountants in London had fallen by over 5% in the first quarter of 2007, while job numbers had actually risen by 13%. I’ve seen nothing to suggest that the tide has turned.

Now recruiters will have to go back to the drawing board. What once seemed cutting-edge – anyone buying a sandwich in London last summer would have torn open a paper bag with a PwC logo on the side – now seems quaint. Full marks to GT’s Dutch practice.

Damian Wild is editor-in-chief of Accountancy Age