Attracting and hiring the top candidates for your accounting team is becoming an increasingly complex process. In our post COVID world, professionals have grown more discerning about where they want to work.
Today’s top talent has endless opportunities for employment, not just from local businesses, but global teams hiring remote employees.
To thrive in this landscape, business leaders need to know how to create the most compelling job offers, to stand out to the most qualified candidates.
The question is, as accounting employee preferences and priorities continue to evolve, how do you ensure your job offer makes the right impact? Here are some of the top strategies you can use to improve your chances of your candidates saying “yes”.
Assess Your Company Culture
Culture is growing increasingly important to today’s accounting candidates. 46% of employees say company culture is vital to their decision of which business to work for. Top performers are consistently attracted to organisations that share their personal values, ethics, and priorities.
What’s more, many of the best candidates in the market today want to see evidence they’re going to be employed in a purpose-led job with genuine meaning. Assessing your company culture and how you highlight your values to your candidates is an important step in making your offer more compelling. Ask yourself what kind of values you highlight in your job descriptions, your business website, and even the reviews and testimonials shared by existing employees.
Does your business reward teamwork and innovation? Do you have a strong focus on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, to ensure everyone feels aligned in your workforce?
Refine Your EVP
After you’ve ensured you’re sending the right message with your company culture, it’s time to start looking at your Employee Value Proposition (EVP). Your EVP is essentially everything you offer your candidates to set yourself apart from other employers in the accounting space.
While there’s more to a good EVP than salary, it’s worth making sure you’re paying your employees what they deserve. Research the typical pay rates for the kind of jobs you’re trying to fill, and make sure you take the value of your candidate’s knowledge, skills, and experience into account.
Beyond a competitive pay package, you can also improve your EVP by looking at benefits, flexible working styles, and more.
Once you’ve defined your EVP, make sure it stands out wherever you’re going to be interacting with candidates. Share information about your benefits and opportunities on your website and discuss options with potential talent during the interview process.
Focus on Empathy and Flexibility
In the last couple of years, the priorities of many accounting candidates have evolved in a few key areas. Perhaps the most important factors most leaders are looking for today, are empathy, and flexibility. Demonstrating empathy as an employer shows your talent you respect their needs and want to contribute to their wellbeing.
Creating wellness initiatives designed to keep employee healthy and happy is a great way to make your job offer more appealing to all kinds of candidates. Share information on your site about mental health days you’ve offered for your staff, or the on-site support you offer for the personal needs of your employees.
From a flexibility perspective, think about how you can adapt to the new working styles of top accounting candidates. Many of today’s professionals are looking for opportunities to work from home, even part-time, to give them a better sense of work/life balance.
You could even go a step further and experiment with concepts like the four-day work week, to give your employees the potential of longer, more rejuvenating weekends. One great way to show empathy and flexibility at the same time is to ask your candidates about their specific needs during the interview process.
Demonstrate Opportunities for Growth
Today’s accounting professionals want to know there’s a future in any company they’re going to be working for. According to Gallup, 59% of millennials prioritise opportunities to learn and grow when deciding which jobs to apply for.
Making sure your candidates are aware of the opportunities they’ll have to grow in your business will make your job offer more compelling. You can discuss the promotion paths you’ve offered in the past with your candidates during the interview and outline the training and educational opportunities offered within your job description.
You might even let your possible hires know about the onboarding process you’ll use to welcome them into your organisation, during which you can both work together to outline a path for progression through the company.
It’s also helpful to share information about the development opportunities you offer online. Videos and written testimonials from employees who have achieved their personal and professional goals with your business can make a huge impact.
Work with a Specialist Recruiter
Finally, if you really want to ensure your job offers make the right impact, it’s worth investing in some specialist support. An accounting recruitment agency knows exactly what it takes to align the right candidates with the correct employers from day one. They can help you to seek out people who are actively looking for the benefits, and culture you offer.
Recruiters can save you time by sorting through your job applications and eliminating anyone who might not fit well with your company. They can also provide advice on how you can position yourself to your candidates when you’re writing job descriptions and conducting interviews.
With a specialist recruiter, you can boost your chances of a “yes” when you need it most by building a pipeline of accounting candidates, all carefully chosen to match your business needs. Working with the right team will reduce the stress associated with building the ideal team.
At Hedley Scott Recruitment we have been helping firms with their talent acquisition and assisting job seekers to find their ideal roles for over 20 years. If you want to find out how we can help you, call us on 02 8877 8700 or contact us here.