The second portion of our mission statement focuses on employee career development. It reads:

"to provide fulfilling careers and professional growth opportunities to our team."

Because we take learning and career progression seriously, Keiter Stephens is the kind of place where hard work, initiative, and creativity are rewarded.

Our accounting and finance employees can experience the following career progression:

Careers Outside of Finance & Accounting?

Keiter Stephens offers a variety of career choices in fields outside of accounting. Our Financial Services, Consulting, and Business Valuation and Litigation groups seek qualified applicants with degrees outside the field of accounting for full-time and internship positions.

We have several support departments staffed by well-trained experts: Information Technology, Learning and Development, Marketing, Recruiting, and Firm Administration. At various times, depending on our needs and growth, these departments seek highly motivated, client-focused individuals to build a career at Keiter Stephens.

Formal Feedback Process

We have expanded our formal feedback process from an annual review to quarterly meetings with principals and managers. Our goal is to keep an open dialogue with employees as they work to deepen their knowledge of accounting or taxation, choose an area of specialization, and learn to demonstrate the skills required for advancement.

The firm provides several tools to help staff evaluate their career goals and position themselves to tackle the challenges of the next step through plans like these:

Personal Development Plan (PDP)

The Personal Development Plans are the cornerstone of career planning at Keiter Stephens. Each employee is asked to complete a plan by assessing individual strengths and opportunities for improvement.

Each staff member identifies goals for the coming year. The PDP is the foundation for drafting Individual Education Plans and for customizing Personal Marketing Plans.

Individual Education Plan (IEP)

The Individual Education Plan guides staff through courses and seminars that are offered to help them learn the ropes of public accounting. The first couple of years, similar to the first two years of university study, are composed of core courses that prepare staff for their particular field of interest. After the third year, staff are asked to focus on an industry specialty or technical component.

IEPs are divided into three sections: technical, technology, and career skills. The technical skills are accounting-related topics. The technology skills include our accounting software as well as other software applications. Finally, the career skills focus on the “softer” side of development, uniting leadership and mentoring. These three components outline the courses, budgets, and hours related to learning that each employee is scheduled to attend for one year.

Personal Marketing Plan (PMP)

The Personal Marketing Plan is a simple checklist that serves as a plan for professional growth and departmental succession planning. The three main components of the PMP are community involvement, client service, and professional development.

As staff advance through their careers at KS, they are given more opportunities for direct client interaction and for business networking. Internal networking training is also provided and the PMPs are designed specifically for the unique skill set of each staff level. By the time our staff become managers, they will not only have the technical skills necessary to serve our clients, but also the referral contacts and networking skills to grow their own client base.