We all know crucial first impressions are formed quickly, but researchers say people tend to judge a Web page in just one-twentieth of a second. Thus, potential recruits may be sizing up your Web site — and your firm — in less than the blink of an eye. Do they like what they see? And will young job seekers who linger there be rewarded with insights about prospective employment at your firm? The question isn’t just academic, given the well-known talent shortage accounting firms have been grappling with for years.

We surveyed 10 CPA firms in the northwestern United States about the state of the recruiting marketplace. They all said the market is very challenging. One respondent said conditions were “as tough as I have seen in my 20-plus years involved in trying to hire people in this region.” And the demographic reality of retiring baby boomers will only compound the need for new talent. Yet despite all the soul-searching within the profession, most accounting firms overlook how the Internet can host friendly introductions and convey favorable impressions.

Muzeview, a professional-services research firm headed by one of this article’s authors, evaluated online approaches to branding and recruitment by the top 50 firms in the 2006 Public Accounting Report. Most sites fell short both in providing essential information and in offering it up appealingly to Net-savvy recruits. We identified six common weaknesses:

• Sites frequently lack details about key areas of interest to potential recruits, such as job or role descriptions, career development paths, training, or specifics of compensation and benefits. For example, many firms claim they offer a competitive compensation package but provide no specifics. While revealing salary levels may not be appropriate, firms such as Crowe Chizek and Co. LLC and Moss Adams LLP describe components of their benefits packages.
  
  
  
• Careers are often touted with phrases such as “an employer of choice” or “you are more than just a number,” yet many firms fail to back up the claims with facts and examples.
  
  
  
• Many sites look the same. Format, content and language are largely interchangeable.
  
  
  
• Content is static. Few sites update their career information regularly enough to prompt a visitor to return.
  
  
  
• Some firms don’t describe the recruitment process. They can learn from Parente Randolph, which outlines what to expect at each stage.
  
  
  
• Sites don’t make it easy for potential recruits to contact a person at the firm. They use generic e-mail addresses such as careers@xyzcpa.com. RubinBrown LLP takes a different approach. For each college campus from which it recruits, RubinBrown gives an e-mail address for one of its experienced professionals and encourages students to get in touch with that person.

Make the Firm and the Opportunity Real

Perhaps most of all, firms fail to bring the career opportunity to life. They offer little explanation of the job’s day-to-day responsibilities, how practice areas differ or what the firm is like as a place to work. Opportunities for building a career there are hard for a young person to assess.  A few firms, however, use two powerful storytelling tools: profiles and multimedia presentations featuring employees and young recruits. For instance, Cherry, Bekaert & Holland LLP and Eide Bailly provide staff profiles and testimonials that help put a face on the firm. Among the Big Four, Ernst & Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers — the latter with stylish design and Flash animation—offer profiles and interviews with young staffers and interns. Other sites with video and text interviews introducing the firm and employees include Beers & Cutler and Schenck Business Solutions.

Firms also need to understand that recruits will be looking at other areas of their site. Research papers, newsletters, upcoming events and client success stories, while essential to a firm’s client marketing, also help recruits understand client issues and the expertise recruits can develop at the firm. Again, many firms are missing opportunities by not frequently updating general content.

Dead Air on Podcasts

Another missed opportunity, given today’s tech-savvy graduates, is firms’ scarce use of podcasts and RSS (Rich Site Summary, also known as Really Simple Syndication), which can deliver convenient and engaging news and insights. Of the 50 firms reviewed, only three featured RSS feeds for their Web content, and only four produced podcasts. Web logs, or blogs, can add a dimension of personal contact. We found no “in-house” blog among the firms surveyed, although a handful of partners and employees are blogging, such as Michael Rhodes of Citrin Cooperman & Co. LLP.

The New Grapevine

Lacking useful information, prospective recruits will judge firms the old-fashioned way — by hearsay. But scuttlebutt now travels faster and farther, thanks to its online transmission. Students are well-connected to their predecessors already inside accounting firms and are trading notes via e-mail, instant messaging and online communities such as MySpace and Facebook. The latter claims to have around eight million collegiate users of its 13 million total and an 85 percent participation rate in the colleges it serves. So one way or another, a portrait of your firm as a place to work — warts and all — may already be on display in cyberspace.

Of course, credibility is earned by delivering on your firm’s promises to young recruits. But putting some pizzazz into your firm’s online introduction may be one of the most fruitful ways to open your door to the most promising graduates.

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Paul Gladen and Teresa Beed are contributing writers of the Journal of Accountancy. Paul Gladen is CEO of Muzeview, a research and consulting firm in New York City. Teresa Beed, CPA, Ph.D., is a professor of accounting at the University of Montana at Missoula. Their views as expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of the AICPA or the Journal of Accountancy.