‘You want to make sure everybody fits in, there for the right reasons’

Rachel Kroeger

Staff

November 4, 2024

GREEN BAY – Gregg Mleziva, CEO of Bauman Associates Ltd., said, “there’s a whole story behind” the public accounting firm’s decision to open an office in Green Bay.

“I just loved the community, loved the area,” he said – and it wasn’t unfamiliar territory to the Northeast Wisconsin native.

Mleziva said he grew up in Denmark before moving west to attend college at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.

“(I) was the first one in our family to go off and go to college, so I was kind of the black sheep out of six kids,” he said.

Throughout college, Mleziva said he worked for larger corporations to put himself through school, however, he “didn’t like the feel of it really – nobody knew you.”

After graduating and beginning to interview for jobs, he said he accepted a job at Bauman – “for no other reason other than a gut feeling.”

At that time, Mleziva said he planned to “work out of Eau Claire for a couple of years and then move back closer to Green Bay,” but those plans were quickly derailed.

Mleziva said his love for the work and the company’s environment kept him in West Central Wisconsin for the next 18 years before becoming a firm partner and subsequently moving back to Green Bay where he remains today, working remotely.

Now, 35 years later, Mleziva said there’s no better time to be at the helm of the operation.

“It’s crazy, right?” he said. “One job all my career. So many places talk about the culture, (but) it’s one thing to talk about (it) and (another) to practice it – it just came so naturally to them.”

Mleziva said he tells new hires that working for Bauman was the best decision he ever made.

“Why?” he said. “It was that gut feeling – it just felt right.”

When he was hired – and even more so now – Mleziva said Bauman was “ahead of the game” in promoting a healthy work-life balance for its employees – before the practice “became a popular thing.”

“I so love everybody that works for us,” he said. “There is not a person that I don’t look forward to seeing all the time… and that’s pretty rewarding.”

Mleziva said Bauman’s healthy, welcoming and rewarding culture is maintained because it’s always top of mind as the company recruits new employees.

“You want to make sure everybody fits in and is there for the right reasons – and it allows you to retain staff,” he said. “Our (retention) numbers are just amazing, I think, because we put such a focus on that early on.”

Green Bay ‘sells itself’

Mleziva said before they considered expanding into a different part of the state, the firm identified different places where it potentially wanted to open an office.

“We just hired out of Eau Claire, and as we were growing, that couldn’t fill all our needs,” he said.

Over time, Mleziva said a blend of both personal and professional reasons pointed to Green Bay as the perfect city for the company’s next office.

“We were looking at expanding our offices to different locations for the primary reason… (of) manpower,” he said. 

Finding good employees, Mleziva said, is something every industry in the state – and across the country – is struggling with right now, but the move to Green Bay is expected to make that search easier for Bauman.

“There’s a lot of good universities very nearby that we’ve been recruiting (from) for the last three, four years,” he said. “And (we’ve) had some really good success in hiring some great candidates.”

Mleziva said this new office will provide those prospective employees – who were maybe a bit unsure about relocating to the western side of the state – with an office location closer to home.

“We have mentioned (in) this last year of recruiting that we’re opening an office in Green Bay,” he said. “By far, the majority of the interest was in coming into the Green Bay office.”

But interest isn’t enough to fill a Bauman office, Mleziva said – “finding the right people to fit your culture” is another contributing factor.

“We didn’t acquire an office and suddenly have two different cultures,” he said. “We’re opening a building, staffing (it) with our folks (and) we’re going to continue growing it like we did in Eau Claire.”

With college students, Mleziva said recruiting starts much earlier than it used to.

“(During) your last year of school, (you) used to go off and do 10-15 interviews and try to land a job,” he said. “(Now) people are hired by the time they’re sophomores (or) juniors, a lot of times. So you have to get in there early on the internship process, which we’ve done a lot of.”

Mleziva said when talking to prospective employees at colleges the company recruits at, “99% of the time the kids are really smart and have good grades, so that’s not an issue,” – but it’s not just grades that matter to Bauman.

After that initial grade check, Mleziva said the recruiting process is purely about communication and a candidate’s ability to interact – “that skill set is what we focus on.”

“We get them in (and) we give them a summer or a busy season to work with us,” he said. “We can see how they fit in, they can see how they fit into our culture… and if it looks like it could work, generally, (job) offers get made.”

Because of the increased recruitment opportunities and personal ties he has to the region, Mleziva said opening an office in Green Bay became so obvious that Bauman’s marketing director began nudging him in that direction.

“She’s like, ‘You keep talking about it. Tell me why we’re not making the move,’” he said.

Furthermore, Mleziva said Bauman’s expansion into Green Bay presented almost zero risk to an established firm with 77 years of experience, and most of the company’s top executives were already working in Green Bay because they have clients in the area.

“It sells itself,” he said.

Growth on the horizon

Currently, Bauman has roughly 50 employees across all its branches, and Mleziva said further growth is expected.

Mleziva said the plan is to transplant some of Bauman’s current employees to the Green Bay office before opening positions to new recruits because controlling growth is also an important part of maintaining such a positive culture.

“We could double our size every year if we wanted to, (but) we consciously do not do that,” he said. “We could take on folks the day we open. We’re just trying to figure out how best to do that.”

Because of how much interest there is in the Green Bay office – both from new recruits and current employees – Mleziva said Bauman is already thinking about renting more space in its new building (480 Pilgrim Way, Suite 1200).

“We already talked to the landlord about the other half of (the) floor, because we anticipate, in the very near future, we might have to expand,” he said.

As the grand opening for the new office – expected sometime this month – inches closer, Mleziva said “it’s a good time to be in this chair.”

“Thirty-five years goes by fast,” he said. “Every time I say it, I’m in shock that it’s been that long, but I enjoy what I’m doing. Time goes by when you love what you’re doing.”

Mleziva said the biggest piece of advice he could give to anyone, having had such a great experience at Bauman, is to do what you love.

“(If) you’re not happy where you’re at, find somewhere that’ll make you happy,” he said. “You spend too much of your life at work, and I truly can say that I just so love working with the folks we’re with, and (I) can’t wait to see what Green Bay brings.”

For more on Bauman’s culture, employees and services, visit baumancpa.org.