Carolyn B: Welcome to the GPSS podcast. I'm Carolyn Baker, the Director of People and Culture at GP Fund Solutions.

Chris C: And I'm Chris Calogero, Senior Director of Client Operations.

Carolyn B: On today's episode, we're diving into the critical topics of hiring and onboarding in the accounting and finance industry.

Specifically, we'll explore how hiring strategies are evolving within the niche sector where GPFS operates, which is private equity fund administration.

Chris, you joined GP Fund Solutions, like, 12 years ago as a nontraditional accountant. I'd love for you to share and tell us about your journey.

Chris C: By all means. Yeah. I'd be happy to. So I do have a business background. I got a degree in management, went on and got my MBA, and then I worked in both financial counseling and corporate finance for a few years.

And one of the folks I worked with at a previous job had worked in this space before. And when GPFS was small, only six people, he was making the jump to come back here and said, I think you might be right for this opportunity. Why don't you go and at least interview with the CEO?

So I did. I met with Glen, our CEO, and we had a terrific interview, spoke for about an hour, hour and a half. And I remember telling him, I said, "Hey, I have a business background, but I'm not a traditional accountant. How does that affect your thoughts on what I can do for you?" And he said something which has resonated with me, which is a huge reason why I think our company has been so successful is he said, "I'm just not looking for like, I have a square hole. I need a square peg to fill it."

I don't just want to pigeonhole for these specific criteria.

I'm looking for people who share my vision, understand the culture I'm trying to build here, and if you're smart enough, you'll figure it out. And I love that because then I felt empowered to come on. Ultimately, of course, I did. And then I was able to kind of, once I got in here, chart a path.

We had some kind of broad strokes, things that we needed to get done, but I really had the freedom to explore opportunities that I thought could really help differentiate us. And with that, I was then off and running. I was the eighth person that we hired, and now, of course, we have over 130. And the whole team has been built out just from those humble beginnings.

So I feel like my story is really powerful and really can kind of resonate with a lot of other people looking to work here because we still look for that today. Sure. There's certain things we do require, but it's not steadfast. Like, oh, you must have this and this and that. And if you don't, too bad.

We kind of like to look and evaluate, Carolyn, you'll obviously speak to this, based on certain qualities that will then ultimately help someone be successful here. So I think if someone with my background here can do this type of work, it speaks to that anyone else really with a desire to focus on this industry and get into this type of work can in fact succeed here.

Carolyn B: Yeah. And you probably found that what you thought you were getting into wasn't exactly, you know, what happened. Right? It's been a fun journey.

Carolyn B: What have you enjoyed most about the work that you're doing?

Chris C: Yeah. There's a bunch of things, really. So I hate to just kind of narrow it down to one specific thing. But if I had to, the thing I like the most is really just the flexibility and the freedom that comes with this.

Yes. We have certain deliverables we need to deliver for our clients, but the way in which we go about doing them, I'm empowered to come up with solutions. I'm empowered to work with my team to say, here's what we need to get done. What's the best way to do it?

And we don't just necessarily have to have a specific form and fill out step a, then move to step b and c, so forth.

If we really understand what we're doing and we're passionate about it, we're going to come up with the best way to do it. And then hopefully that can become a process we can use going forward until maybe someone else comes along with a fresh set of eyes and finds an even better way to do it. So I love that we are always trying to solve problems.

And, yes, we have processes in place, but we're also empowered to push beyond those boundaries and see if there's a better way to do something. And that challenge keeps me sharp. It's why I've seen a lot for 12 years here, but I'm still learning every single day and I feel like I'm always trying to prove myself to not only the clients but also my team and to myself that yes, I can still do this. Yes, I'm still sharp. Yes, there's still ways to get this done and get it done both efficiently and effectively.

Chris C: When you and your team are looking at applicants, what specific characteristics are you most targeting?

Carolyn B: Yeah. So I'm going to step back just a minute before I answer that question and just talk about recruiting in general right now. Right? So recruiting in our industry has become much more challenging, over the last four or five, maybe even six years.

You know, accounting enrollment, in the colleges, the accounting program enrollment is down 40%, over the, you know, over the last four to five years. So we've had to really kind of rethink what our ideal candidate looks like. You know, traditionally, we'd be looking for accounting students. Right?

And so we've had to kind of rethink that a little bit.

We've grown our internship program to kind of build that pipeline that maybe was missing in the past. And so the person that we're looking for, as you talked about, candidates that share our core values, right, of teamwork, collaboration, all of those things. And then candidates that really truly want a career, not just a job.

So, you know, anybody can come into this organization at an entry level and work their way up as far as they want to go.

The limits are created by them, not by us. And also, you know, it's that connection to the work and to the team that makes people successful. And so when we're interviewing people, we are looking for people that want to be, working as part of a team, like that collaboration, enjoy that type of environment, and kind of that owner versus renter mentality.

You know, it's an old term, but somebody that comes in with that entrepreneurial spirit who wants to see not only themselves succeed, but the company succeed, and we're all kind of rowing in the same direction.

That's the candidate that we're looking for. So our approach really with making sure that we're bringing people in that are aligned with our philosophies, is what's helped us keep our turnover very low. So, you know, our industry, typically sits between 25% and 40% turnover. GPFS, has been under 10% since inception. And over the last couple of years, we've sat between 3-7%. So our turnover rate is low. A big part of that is our recruiting process.

I could go on and on. I'll stop there because, you know, we have limited time, but, I think our recruiting process has evolved over time and it's really, you know, helped us be successful.

Chris C: Yeah. That was really insightful, Carolyn. Really well said. Thank you. On that front, I think you hit the most important thing. You said it a few different ways - career, not a job; connection to a team; investment; owner versus renter mentality.

Those are certainly things that we're looking for. Everyone here that's been successful has had that. It's come through the ranks. Are there any, like, particular ways you can try to zero in on who those folks might be, whether it's a question you're asking or something in a on a resume that kind of tips you off that, hey, this is someone that might have those traits?

Carolyn B: Yeah. So, you know, people that, kind of talk about extracurricular activities on their resume. That's something that we like to see. It's not a deal breaker if they don't have it, but definitely, you know, someone who's participated in teams.

On an interview, I'm asking them about, tell me about a project that you've worked on where you had to collaborate with another person. Right? Like, that's important.

Talk to me about a time you had to work with a difficult or challenging person that maybe you didn't see eye to eye with. How do you manage those work relationships?

Our interview is very much more culture based than it is skill based.

Skills can be taught, but you can't teach, in most cases, that mentality of wanting to work as part of a team, being collaborative.

Those are things that, people come and bring to the table.

Chris C: Oh, that that's terrific. Thank you. Because I know that's even now, you certainly do a heck of a lot more interviews than I do, but in the ones I have, I'm always trying to zero in on that myself. So I think some of those questions are going to be really helpful. Because you're right. We can teach people skills here in how to do the technical work, but you can't necessarily teach someone how to be fully invested and how to be fully owning things.

Carolyn B: And how to be a good teammate.

Right? Like, you know, it's give and take. And you're going to help me out today, and I'm going to help you out tomorrow, and we have to be okay with that. Right? Like, it's it's that's how a team works.

Chris C: Yeah. And it's funny, like, even in a job like this where you think, oh, accounting, I'm just going to be doing math, debits, credits, things of that nature.

Comes down to really everything, but communication. You have to be able to communicate with people, whether it's your clients, your coworkers, your subordinates, your bosses, whoever the stakeholder might be. Because like you just said, that's what fosters the environment of collaboration and empowerment and keep people coming back and why our turnover is so low. So even in a job that might be very heavily math dependent from a technical side, you do need the interpersonal skills as well in order to thrive.

Carolyn B: And that's another piece that we haven't touched on yet is that, you know, in our roles, more in your role, you're client facing, right? So, somebody has to be able to have those conversations and feel comfortable in that type of a role. You know, it's not just sitting behind the desk doing accounting, it's also building relationships outside of the organization, that's important. So it's not something that you're doing as an entry level accountant, obviously, but as you're progressing through your career, those are the things that people are going to be doing and, you know, that's another reason why we're looking for a particular personality that definitely is kind of more on the relational side than more of the task side.

Chris C: Yeah. And you never know where those might form too, what you might bond over. It might be sports, music, pop culture, art, whatever the case. But if you can find that shared connection point, it's just a great way to build a foundation and go from there.

Carolyn B: Or trivia. Right, Chris? You like trivia.

Chris C: I can neither confirm nor deny.

Carolyn B: Absolutely.

Carolyn B: So, Chris, you know, you manage, your department as a business. I'm going to kind of change the topic for a minute. How is your approach to decision making kind of changed over the last couple of years? You know, when you're making decisions that are going to impact your team or your department, how is that process of making those decisions evolved?

Chris C: Yeah. It's a great question. And in the earlier years when we were much smaller, it was easy, maybe not easy, but easier at least to know each client what they needed.

And you just kind of did it off gut or feel. Like, hey. I feel this big client needs more of my time than this other big client because they're a little more complex. But as we've gotten bigger, you can't do that anymore. It's just not possible. If you can't measure it, you can't manage it. So we're trying to use data.

That's kind of high level, though. Let's drill down. What exactly in data are we looking at? So we're looking at how much time are we spending on an engagement.

We've been doing this long enough now. We have a good idea about what it takes to service a certain type of client, fund, SPV, whatever the vehicle may be based on complexity, size, number of investors, etc. So we're then looking at how much time our employees are spending on each individual engagement. And ideally, it's in line with what our budget is.

If it's going above that, do we need to reevaluate?

If we're not spending enough time there, again, do we need to reevaluate in the other direction? So we're always trying to use that at least as a benchmark to get an idea about how much time we should be spending on both current clients, and then also it's helping plan our resources for future ones. So when we know the next fund is coming on, if we're fortunate enough to win the business, we can be prepared for it and staff up accordingly so that we're not playing catch up. So we're always evaluating it's very symbiotic both our needs as an organization internally with our clients' needs. How are we doing in the present? What's coming in the future?

And that just gets to, I think, the whole ethos here with our clients. We're not just their administrator. We're their partner.

And we have to be able to communicate that effectively to them. So just using basic data things like hours spent, how much time on tasks, etc., it gives us a great foundation to build upon and to measure against. So we have budget then, we can compare it against actual, and it'll give both ourselves internally as well as our clients comfort that they're being fully supported.

Carolyn B: Yeah. And, you know, you touched on it, but I'd like to elaborate on it a little bit. You talked about resource planning, but that means potentially adding staff. Right? So we also want to make sure that our employees are not, you know, overburdened with work. Obviously, we want to make sure that we're resourced appropriately. But if you see that you're going to have a bunch of new clients coming on and I don't think my staff is going to be able to do this in a reasonable amount of time, we need to add resources.

The data that you're collecting helps you to determine that. Right?

Chris C: Absolutely. Yes. When I'm saying like future planning, that's always in the back of our minds. What's coming?

And we try to get ahead of that too. So again, we're not just, hey, we got a new client or a new fund that started. Now let's go hire for it.

No. We want to be proactive. Know what's coming so that we have the right level of service in place so that when these new engagements begin, we're ready to hit the ground running. And there's going to be economies of scale, of course, but we're always mindful of that.

And, again, keeping to what our expectations are for how long things should take, how much time should be spent, etc.

We can ensure, again, both current and future state, we're always well prepared and we're going to be in a position to succeed so that we're not setting ourselves up for failure.

Carolyn B: Yeah. And I think that leads into my next question as you're talking, you know, I'd love to kind of talk a little bit more about onboarding of our new employees. Right? And how we and how we develop them over time. So we currently have a very structured approach to onboarding our new employees.

Can you tell us a little bit about what it's like for your team when you're onboarding, a new person?

Chris C: I'd be happy to. So the first couple of weeks, we have a very detailed plan. Goes hour by hour for the most part over what you're going to be doing. So we like to have a lot of one on one overviews with other department heads too. So, yes, you'll get a feel for what your job's going to be, but we also want you to understand how the rest of your organization operates. So you're going to meet with other teams, and you'll get a chance to meet with the director of that team as well. The person in charge of it will be giving you a one on one overview of what they do and how the work that you're ultimately going to be doing fits in with their specific function.

So you're seeing everybody. We have talked about it a bunch already. We're very collaborative. We want to foster that from day one by having you go around and meet individuals.

You're going to have a supervisor, of course. Probably, you'll have a mentor as well. You'll have a boss on top of the supervisor, and those folks are all going to be there. You're also going to have other team members on your team.

We want you interacting with them daily and also being aware of the other departments too because you're going to have to interact with them. Some maybe on a daily basis, sometimes it may be a little less frequently, but nonetheless we want you to know they're there, what they do, and how you're going to interact with them.

And we're bringing someone on because we have a need. We have growth. We have work that needs to be done, and we really are invested in that person's success.

To use another phrase, rising tide lifts all boats. It's true.

It's not just we think of the work that you have a task to do and that's it. It's all part of a greater process in what we ultimately send out to our clients, those deliverables, they come from GPFS. They don't come from me, they don't come from my staff, they come from us. So our name is on it. It all goes into it. And yes, we'll delineate certain tasks, but the ultimate responsibility is on the entire team. So again, we're fostering that environment of you're in this together.

And you mentioned the open door policy too, which is here. We also encourage just questions.

Curiosity. It's one of the big things we're looking for. Are you interested in having a career or interested in just doing your job? If you're in the latter, probably not going to be long.

But we really want those folks who are just naturally curious, who want to know not just what they're doing, but why. Not just how they're doing it, but how does this fit into the greater landscape of what we're doing here. So the first couple of weeks might be a little more structured. Then after that, you're working with the team to get stuff done and figuring out what the best approach is to do that.

You're going to be shown a lot of things. The learning curve will be kind of steep, might take a bit, but everyone's going to be there to support you because ultimately, we do want you to succeed.

If you succeed, it can make our life easier, just selfishly, that would be great. But also then for everybody else, you have confidence that what we're sending off to the clients is of our high quality standard and expectations.

Carolyn B: Absolutely. Great.

Chris C: Well, you've been asking me questions, so let me throw one back at you.

Carolyn B: Sure.

Chris C: Kind of on the same front of onboarding, how do we approach learning and career growth here at GPFS?

Carolyn B: Yeah. So that's a great question.

You know, and it comes from the top down, which is, I love. Right? Like, how many organizations have we all worked at where, you know, the CEO does not, support all the initiatives. And we're very fortunate in that at GP Fund Solutions.

You know, our CEO is very supportive of all of these initiatives and he feels very strongly about, you know, fostering people's careers.

Not just come in and do a job, but we want to help you to grow in your career. And so, you know, beyond the initial onboarding, you know, we have created our own LMS system, which is a learning management system. We call it GP Academy, and it's all GPFS curated content. And, what's the benefit of that is that, it's reference material. It's more, you know, avenues for people to learn.

And, you know, there's not a lot of materials out there for private equity fund administration. So, you know, rather than just having somebody sit with you and explain something to you and you're taking a bunch of notes, you have all this wealth of information that sits within that LMS. And so we've grown it from 10 articles to 125, learning modules, and, you know, continue to grow that. We also offer LinkedIn Learning, to all of our employees.

So they have a learning path, within LinkedIn Learning of different things that we want them to learn as they continue to grow in their career, but they also have access to all different kinds of training, that, you know, if you're curious, and you want to advance your Excel skills, for example, you know, there's a bunch of things, on LinkedIn Learning that can help you with that. So we encourage people, and empower people. Their career is their responsibility. We're here to help and support them, but, you know, that's part of that whole owner versus renter, right?

Taking the initiative to learn new things.

And then we offer coaching and mentorship. I can't tell you how many times, I've gone by your office, other directors offices, somebody's walked in with a question and you're at the whiteboard wall, drawing out, the process. Right? So it's not just giving somebody the answer, it's helping them to come to the answer themselves.

Right? So talking through it and helping them to develop those problem solving skills. And that's what helps them to develop in their career. So we have that coaching, we have that mentorship, and then, you know, it's, being able to, ask for more, you know.

Chris, you've done that several times in your career. Right? I feel like I'm in a good place. I want to take on more responsibility.

What do you have for me? And what does your boss say? Be careful what you wish for. Right?

Here you go. And you've taken on more and more even since I've been here, and you've flourished. And I think that's one of the great things about GP Fund Solutions as an organization, you can plot your own career.

If you decide that you all of a sudden have an interest in doing something different, we're going to figure out a way so that you can get exposure to that and maybe develop something that we, don't have today that maybe we want to do. Look at the data team, for example.

Right? That was, that was a test pilot, from what I remember from the very beginning and now that team offers such a great service for our clients, that we never even thought about before. Right? So, again, I think that the sky's the limit.

People have the opportunity to learn in different ways, whether it's reading an article, whether it's watching a video, whether it's coming to, someone who's a little bit more senior and asking those great "why" questions, and that's how people develop, within the organization.

So, I hope I answered your question.

Chris C: No. You did. And I'll just add a quick comment then a follow-up question. I love one of the things you said in there, I'll summarize it like this, complacency.

We don't ever want to be complacent. If we're complacent and we're not challenging ourself, we're not going to be better. We're just going to plateau and someone's going to do it better than us. So, again, I always come in.

I know you do too, Carolyn, with the mindset every day. I have to prove myself, prove my worth, and we have to have that. So if we're getting complacent, something's going wrong. We can't have that.

And then my follow-up question is you mentioned coaching and mentoring. Does that primarily just come from your direct supervisor? Can it come from somewhere else? What have you seen from who's doing the coaching and mentoring?

Carolyn B: Yeah. So it it comes in many different forms, and I think it depends on what what you're most comfortable with. So sometimes your supervisor, you build that relationship with them, and they are the primary source of that coaching and mentoring. And we have many great, supervisors and and managers here, who are really great at that. But sometimes you build a relationship with somebody outside of your team.

And maybe you're looking for, mentorship, as far as leadership skills versus technical skills. So I think it can come in a lot of different ways. We've also created a new ERG within GP Fund Solutions. We call it GP Win. It's the Women's Inclusion Network for, women of the organization and those who identify as women to have opportunities to, you know, expand and and, meet with people outside of GP Fund Solutions who've been successful as women and who can offer, you know, support, who can offer suggestions, who can be inspiring.

And it doesn't have to be outside of the organization and you don't have to be a woman to get that experience. We also have a lot of people here at GP Fund Solutions who inspire.

And, you know, I think to answer your question, I think it really depends on what works for you. I've had mentorship at GP Fund Solutions, not only from my manager, but from different leaders in the organization, and it really depends, you know, on what you're looking to get mentorship in. But I think if you come to the table with questions, you're curious, you ask the right questions, and you build that relationship, that's where the best stuff comes from.

Chris C: Terrific. Thank you for that answer.

Carolyn B: Great.

Alright, Chris. I think we're running out of time. As with any organization, our people are easily our most important asset. We're committed to sustaining and building upon the excellence in which GP Fund Solutions is rooted. Scaling as a positive and vibrant culture is challenging, but by adhering to our company values and having long tenured leadership in place to enforce our standards, we are confident that we can continue to grow and thrive in a challenging dynamic environment.

That will do it for today's podcast. Please tune in next time when we'll be exploring new, and pertinent topics. I'm Carolyn Baker.

Chris C: And I'm Chris Calogero. Thanks for listening and have a great day everyone.