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Recruitment tips: The quest for excellence

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17th Apr 2015
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From the regularity with which conversations take place around AccountingWEB, recruitment and talent management are a constant concern as skills shortages take hold of the profession once again. Francois Badenhorst picked up some practical pointers on how accountants go about it.

Accountants can no longer rely on a ready supply of trainees rolling off the Big Four production line - there are just too many employers competing for the available talent.

Attracting the best talent is no longer just about numbers and figures. Success in this environment will require a much more sophisticated and varied approach than just taking out a job ad or approaching a recruitment agent. 

AccountingWEB knows it’s tough, so we’ve done some of the legwork and asked a selection of practice managers for their thoughts.

Build your recruitment effort around your core values

Recruiting is a two-way street, so employers should strive to understand the wants and needs of the modern job seeker. In a recent AccountingWEB blog  Jayne Florence explained the concept of employer brand positioning (EBP): “Employer branding is the process of promoting a company or an organisation, as the employer of choice to a desired target group, one which a company needs and wants to recruit and retain.”

Jessica Pillow, founding partner of Pillow May, put this idea into practice by using flexible working as a lure for accountants with kids in her area. She has no problem finding people: they tend to come to her after hearing of her firm's ethos. Pillow’s forward thinking has also had the knock on effect of diversifying her potential talent pool.

“[Ask yourself] does this role need to be 100% of the time in the office?” comments Florence. “Now is the time to re-assess the total package on offer. The virtual workforce is becoming more and more acceptable and certainly with the cloud ensuring accessibility it may be time to reconsider options.

Where to find and attract talent?

The traditional recruitment channels remain valid – especially for qualified accountants. “Nurture recruitment agency contacts. Meet with them so they can see your firm and know your business,” advises Finola McManus

But social media also provides an incredible opportunity to recruit employees in the spaces they inhabit.

“With Gen Xers/Yers, the best thing you can do is highlight the personal (read: non-accounting) side of your firm and do it where they ‘live’,”  writes Alexandra DeFelicia. “While actually leaving the office to meet candidates face-to-face is still important, the place to reach them around the clock is social media - especially in the evenings.”

Use your existing employees as a resource, ask them to ‘like’ and populate your social media with posts. Create a LinkedIn page. “Perhaps even ask a younger staff person to "manage" those pages,” writes DeFelicia. Your employees become brand ambassadors.

And take it seriously: It’s very easy for social media to become an empty buzzword. DeFelicia suggests posting “job listings on your LinkedIn/Facebook sites and tweet job openings linking back to your website. Actively recruit on LinkedIn”.

“Firms have noticed that the Big Four are using LinkedIn to poach their people, so why not poach back?”

There’s always the DIY approach, too. Sharon Pocock, managing partner of Kinder Pocock, is a firm believer of creating and shaping her own talent through apprenticeships.

“While apprentices take a lot of time and work, they also are brilliant to mould talent around what you do rather than have to train someone already trained up with perhaps older fashioned habits of other firms how to do things your way,” she says.

On the look-out

“Have an ‘ongoing' recruitment policy and see good quality candidates as they become available. Don't just look to recruit when you have a gap to fill,” writes McManus. “The most successful firms I know recruit good quality people and make a role for them.”

Paula Tallon, managing partner of Gabelle, agrees. She told delegates at last year's Practice Excellence Conference that Gabelle always has an eye out for talented tax professionals. “One of the great things about being a small organisation is that we can respond quickly if an opportunity arises,” she says.

McManus notes that this approach usually pays dividends in the longer term: “And practitioners find they have no problem in finding work to keep them busy.”

Employees who fit

David McClelland, a Harvard psychologist who researches motivation theory, said that you might be able to train a rabbit to climb a tree and get a nut, but it’s much easier to hire a squirrel.

If you recruit someone with the right strengths into the role that plays to those strengths, then they will feel able to give their best.

“In a small team personality fit is very important,” says Simon Brown. As the founder of specialist R&D tax credits start-up Forrest-Brown, he looks to recruit employees with an entrepreneurial zest. 

In a small practice, there is nowhere for employees to hide.  

“If you are not pulling your weight it will have a knock-on effect on others in the team,” says Brown. “It can become very disruptive.”

The hiring process

Providing a consistent and friendly candidate experience is critically important. People talk, especially in the social media age, and a poor candidate experience damages your brand, inhibiting your ability to attract top talent.

“It is important to provide candidates with a positive recruitment experience, regardless of whether or not you offer them a job,” writes James Beevers of Talent Q. “Your applicants could be current or potential customers - and you’ll reject many more of them than you’ll recruit - so it’s important to be sympathetic and tactful, as you don’t want to lose their future custom.”

Retaining talent

Right, now that you've got the right employees in position, how do you hang on to them?

“Do you share your business plan with your team so they know where they fit in and what the future holds for them?” writes McManus. “Do you regularly survey your team, get feedback and report back to them on how you have taken their issues on board and what you have done about it?”

Hiring someone is just the beginning. According to Andrew Brookes, good management cultivates an eager, committed workforce. “Most people go to work wanting to learn and to do more.

“It’s about having interesting and varied work, having a good quality working environment, staying at the forefront of IT and having the staff and social budget.”

“Talented individuals who are in demand will have plenty of career options open to them, and will make a carefully considered decision,” writes Andrew Leech on HR Zone.  “They will not only want a scenario which benefits them at this stage in their life; they will think about their long-term needs too.”

That means avoiding thinking about remuneration, benefits and development in one-size-fits-all packages. “Customisation is key – especially when attracting and retaining the best,” says Leech.  

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By Scriptic
19th Apr 2015 09:49

The Missing Link

Make sure that the money and benefits that are on offer are competitive.

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