What it does: Business advice and accountancy
Staff stats: Around 35,000 globally, over 450 in New Zealand
The good bits: Good work-life balance
The not so good bits: Dealing with demanding workloads
Baker Tilly Staples Rodway, while a separate and independent national network, is part of Baker Tilly International. Baker Tilly International is an accountancy and business advisory network comprising nearly 800 offices in 145 territories that was founded in 1988. In 2018, the global network had a total combined fee income of US$3.5 billion (NZ$5.5 billion).
In 1945 Frank Rodway teamed up with Charles Staples, rented a small office on Queen Street, Auckland, and launched the accounting firm Staples and Rodway (later shortened to Staples Rodway). Over the subsequent decades, the firm grew steadily and formed a national network with firms in Christchurch, Hamilton, Hawkes Bay, Taranaki, Tauranga and Wellington. The firm is best known to the general public for the Staples Tax Guide, which has proved an invaluable resource for many Kiwi business owners.
Staples Rodway has been part of the Baker Tilly International network since 1989 and rebranded as Baker Tilly Staples Rodway in 2019. It offers the following services:
The firm seeks to provide “practical, responsive and business-focused services to a broad range of clients from start-ups to significant businesses across all industry types” and “operate in a lean and efficient manner to provide excellent value”.
Baker Tilly Staples Rodway employees are expected to leverage their “in-depth knowledge and connections across local, national and international markets” to help the firm’s clients get the most out of their businesses.
Baker Tilly Staples Rodway doesn’t have a local diversity and inclusion policy but adheres to Baker Tilly International’s one. Baker Tilly International recently joined ‘CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion’. This a “collection of business leaders committed to sharing successful diversity and inclusion initiatives”. After joining, Baker Tilly International decided it would focus on gender, ethnicity and age and pledged to do the following:
The Baker Tilly Staples Rodway’s community motto is “people pursuing passions” and the firm’s directors and staff are encouraged to pursue any passions they have for philanthropy. Many of the firm’s more senior staff sit on the boards of charities and community organisations and provide access to free or low-cost accounting services to these organisations.
Staff at the firm’s offices take part in fundraising initiatives such as Pink Ribbon Day, Steptember and Movember. The firm also provides extensive financial support to a wide range of organisations including CanTeen, Life Education Trust, Nurse Maude, Police Managers’ Guild Trust and is the official accounting partner of Tri NZ, which encourages New Zealanders to take part in triathlons.
Baker Tilly Staples Rodway offers a three-year grad program. This is designed for those with an accountancy degree (grads are supported to attain CA ANZ or CPA qualifications). Those with business and law qualifications can also apply.
Whatever role they are applying for, the firm aspires to hire individuals who “ love what they do and who have a strong desire to succeed, but who also have some perspective on the bigger picture and leave room in their lives for the other things that matter to them”.
The firm promises grad employees the following:
The firm also assures grads they will be treated as “a valued member of a close-knit team” and get to work directly with big-name clients such as Burger Fuel, Turners Automotive, Beca and Southern Pastures.
Graduates move quickly through salary ranges in their first three years, while completing their professional qualifications.
Baker Tilly International champions a “culture of growth”. Among other things, this means providing challenging and rewarding career centred on life-long learning to staff. Baker Tilly Staples Rodway promises grads “great relationships, great conversations and great futures, setting you up for now, for tomorrow”.
Grads receive networking, team building and national training opportunities as well as ready access to partners and directors. The firm states, “The support our graduates receive really helps kick-starts their career – with the opportunity to move up through the ranks fast.”
Despite being the sixth largest firm in New Zealand, Baker Tilly Staples Rodway still has something of a family business feel. Its corporate culture is friendly and relatively egalitarian with staff at all levels regularly interacting during social events, sporting activities and fundraising drives. While staff are expected to work hard when required, there isn’t the hard-driving, long-hours culture that some professional services firms encourage. If all that sounds attractive to you, you’ll probably be a good fit at Baker Tilly Staples Rodway.
Star Rating: Not available
We are one of the leading accounting networks in New Zealand, with Member Firms in Auckland, Waikato, Tauranga, Taranaki, Hawkes Bay, Wellington and Christchurch. Having people and contacts across Aotearoa is important to us, because it's important to our clients.
Not only are we New Zealand owned and operated, we are also an independent member of Baker Tilly International. Our international network has firms in 145 territories, so when travel is an option again, we can offer potential opportunities for secondments, as well as relationships which help open doors around the world.
We can't wait to talk to you about starting your story with Baker Tilly Staples Rodway. Our Member Firms offer so many opportunities for you to build a career pathway that suits you, whether you're looking for a role in Business Advisory, Audit or Tax, or simply to discover what it's like to work for an accounting and advisory firm.
The best place to follow us is on the socials: Facebook, LinkedIn or Instagram or check out our website.
* To apply for a role in our Auckland Firm, you will need to undertake some additional testing. Some firms call this psychometric testing. It's an online assessment which will take approximately an hour and helps us understand more about you.
Year 1
Years 2-3
Years 3+
Audit & Assurance
To be effective, assurance work demands a deep understanding of a client’s business, its goals and the market in which it operates. Our client base is very diverse and we use technology to enable a “paperless” audit approach. Our sophisticated evaluation and analytical tools help us to identify the risks and opportunities that our clients face.
As an Audit & Assurance Graduate you will learn to:
Business Advisory
Business Advisory Services works with a broad range of New Zealand and overseas businesses including some of this country’s most successful companies. As a graduate, you will have the ability to work closely with, and be mentored by, team members who have achieved some outstanding accomplishments throughout their own careers.
As a Business Advisory Graduate you will learn to:
Tax
If you enjoy keeping up with the play and thinking creatively, the constantly changing world of tax may appeal to you. Most business owners appreciate the importance of controlling costs and welcome advice on ways to legitimately minimise their tax. Baker Tilly Staples Rodway are well known as tax specialists with an experienced team who are happy to assist new tax team members to develop their tax skills. Our reputation in tax can be traced back to the publication of the Staples Tax Guide, regarded as the ‘tax bible’, which was originally written by founder Charlie Staples and is now in its 80th edition.
As a Tax Graduate you will learn to:
Internship
Graduate Job