Bean Counters Come Northwest Arkansas to Stay

Supha Vandiver, division director of Accountemps Inc.’s branch office in Fayetteville, said accountants moving to Northwest Arkansas generally have something in common. Most of the newcomers are here because their spouse landed a job with retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc., food processor Tyson Foods Inc. or freight shipper J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc.

“We’ve had a lot of people coming into the area in the last month from California, Chicago, Dallas and Ohio,” Vandiver said. “Nearly all of them were spouses of someone transferred in by one of those three companies or by one of the vendors that calls on them.

“Another common thing we see are people who have moved to Bella Vista to retire but may be interested in doing a little accounting on the side, and so they call us.”

Vandiver said her firm has been able to place almost all of the area’s accounting immigrants. Accountemps, focused on the temporary or permanent placement of accounting industry professionals, is one of seven subsidiaries held by staffing firm Robert Half International Inc. of Menlo, Calif. The company has more than 300 offices worldwide.

RHI recently conducted a survey of 1,400 chief financial officers at firms with at least 20 employees. It found that 68 percent of the CFOs said they would be unwilling to relocate to a different city even to accept a better job.

“This area’s quality of living, the wholesome environment here and the fact the cost of living is so low are another big attraction we see,” Vandiver said.

Vandiver said her firm is expecting another influx of spousal “blue chippers” following Tyson Foods’ recent buyout of beef king IBP Inc.