When Gretchen Conley joined Specialized Accounting Services three years ago, she was one of 65 employees at the growing financial services firm.
As the Pleasant Prairie-based certified public accounting firm has continued to grow, it now has 90 employees and still needs more as it’s about to celebrate it’s 1,500th client next month.
“We’ve grown by 20 percent every year,” she said. “We’re constantly recruiting accountants.”
The need for more accountants has Conley, the company’s human resource manager, attending job fairs and college campuses throughout southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois.
“The biggest challenge we faced was when we went outside the area to recruit,” she explained. “If we were in Chicago, Waukegan or in Whitewater, we’d have to explained where we were located. At recruitment events, we could only explain where Kenosha was by using landmarks. We said a lot of, ‘Do you know where Six Flags Great America is? We are 20 minutes north of there.’”