'Mix it Up'

The “doing it like they always do it” way of recruiting employees just wasn't working at CS&L CPAs.

Partners at the Bradenton-based accounting firm, with $7.4 million in annual revenues, had several vacant positions about a year ago, from entry level to senior management. “It wasn't good for morale or community perception,” says Aubrey Lynch, a CPA and principal at the firm, which has clients in health care, retail and real estate, among other industries.

The firm's solution: Get creative — a counterintuitive approach for an established accounting firm. CS&L has offices in downtown Sarasota and downtown Bradenton and a name that dates back 60 years.
“We tend to be a conservative industry, so we wanted to mix it up,” says Lynch. “We had always used recruiting services or waited for people to drop in our lap. But for us to grow we had to get some candidates who could accelerate quickly.”