What Alternate Benefits Can Employers Offer to Combat the Year-End Bonus Request

Many candidates look for employers who provide bonuses at the end of the year. Receiving additional income during the holiday season can be a great reward for employee contributions and results during the year. However, your company may not have the budget right now to provide an end-of-year bonus. As a result, you should add other enticements to encourage candidates to accept your job offers.

Choose among these benefits and perks to increase the acceptance rates of your job offers.

Paid Sick Days

Almost all candidates want paid time off to rest and recuperate when they are ill. The ability to maintain their income encourages them to stay home and avoid spreading germs in the office. This shows you care about the health of your employees. You want them to come to work rested and ready to produce. It also reduces the number of absences due to contamination among sick coworkers.

Flexible Spending Account

Many candidates appreciate the ability to put aside pre-tax money to pay for the year’s out-of-pocket healthcare costs. These may include over-the-counter medications, co-pays for doctor visits, medical devices such as crutches or blood sugar tests, or vision needs like glasses or contacts. Consider contributing $500 to each employee’s flexible spending account (FSA) to make it even more attractive.

Tuition Reimbursement

Recent college graduates are among the candidates looking for help to pay off their student loans. Many candidates finish school in debt and want to begin making loan payments. This can help them put away money to purchase a home, save for retirement, or reach other financial goals.

Employee Development Plans

A significant number of candidates want to work for employers who provide customized education and training opportunities. This offers employees additional ways to more effectively perform their work. The skills and experience gained through employee development plans promote professional growth. This helps the employee achieve their career goals and advance both inside and outside the organization.

Performance Bonuses

The majority of candidates appreciate bonuses based on their performance. This provides motivation to stay engaged and productive. Tying the reward to employee results provides a sense of ownership and control. It also helps reach individual and business goals.

Need Accounting & Finance Employees?

If your budget does not allow for year-end bonuses, consider including other benefits and perks with your job offers. Paid sick days, an FSA, and tuition reimbursement are in high demand. Employee development plans and performance bonuses can entice candidates to accept your job offers as well.

Casey Accounting & Finance Resources can provide you with qualified professionals when you need them. Find out more today.

How to Build Better Relationships Among Your Staff

Encouraging positive relationships among your staff is important. The more comfortable they feel working together, the more confidently they will brainstorm, develop new ideas, and voice their opinions. Open communication develops trust, respect, self-awareness, and inclusion. Developing this foundation helps your staff members more effectively create, innovate, and embrace change. It also promotes employee engagement, productivity, and retention.

Implement these tips to encourage connectivity among your team.

Train on Emotional Intelligence

Talk with your staff about the ability to recognize their own emotions to better understand what they are communicating. The development of this skill helps your staff members become more adept at identifying the emotions of their coworkers. This lets your staff more effectively fill their own needs and the needs of others.

Encourage Mindful Listening

Teach your staff to listen more than they talk. This helps them focus on what is being said and how they can effectively contribute to the conversation. Also, encourage your staff to ask follow-up questions about an issue. They can uncover more information and be better prepared to overcome an obstacle. Plus, remind your staff to show empathy when helping others. Working in a supportive environment helps with problem-solving.

Promote Boundaries

Remind your staff not to let relationship-building interfere with productivity. Although they need to provide enough time to talk with coworkers, they also need to finish their work on time. This means that social interactions should take place during break times.

Ask Questions

Ask your staff members questions about their personal life. Show that you want to learn more about who they are. Share information about your own life as well. Also, find common ground that you can build on. These topics may become the subjects of future conversations. Set an example for your staff members to follow with each other.

Express Appreciation

Let your staff know how much you appreciate their efforts and results. For instance, point out one specific action each staff member took each day to contribute to the organization. Mention what the results were and how the action benefitted the company. This encourages your staff to interact in the same manner with their teammates. Such actions promote a supportive team culture.

Looking for Accounting & Finance Staff?

The stronger the relationships among your staff members, the more collaborative your team is. This increases engagement, productivity, and retention. It also improves job satisfaction, employee morale, and your bottom line.

Casey Accounting & Finance Resources can provide the collaborative professionals you need to fill your team’s needs. Learn more today.

Talent Acquisition Trends for 2022

It’s the most unusual talent acquisition time in many years. Let’s all face the reality – recruiting has gotten weird. Hiring surges. Reductions in force. Salary Increases. Ghosting. Candidate expectations. You name it; it’s happening.

Jobvite’s survey of over 800 recruiters illustrates the challenges recruiters are attempting to overcome:

  • 59% of recruiters said their organizations have experienced increased turnover since the onset of the pandemic in 2020
  • 49% of workers reported that job seekers are inquiring about the company’s DE&I initiatives, an increase in 16 percentage points from 2020
  • Recruiters shared that medical/dental coverage (51%), 401(k) (49%), and work from home flexibility (44%) have all been effective benefits in attracting new candidates
  • 73% of recruiters are seeing candidates ask about negotiating higher salaries. This is up 20% from 2020.

Last month we released our semi-annual salary survey. If you haven’t requested it yet, here is how you can receive a copy of the report.


Email us today at FinancialSalarySurvey@caseyresources.com, and we will be happy to share this with you. In the “YOUR MESSAGE” section, please enter “2022 Accounting & Finance Salary Survey”.

 

Jobvite also took a pulse on the toll this strange talent acquisition landscape has taken on recruiters:

  • 65% of recruiters reported that their stress levels have increased since the onset of the pandemic, pressured to fill roles quickly with qualified talent that is in short supply and being wooed by many other companies.
  • Current hurdles in recruiting include a lack of qualified candidates (47%), employer competition (40%), and requirements for in-office work (33%).

“Things have been changing so quickly, and we’re finding that recruiters are becoming more adaptable to labor market trends,” said Kerry Gilliam, vice president of marketing at Jobvite.

“Recruiters are short-staffed themselves, and yet they are having to hire more than before amid a shortage of talent.”

But where there’s great challenge, she said, there’s also great opportunity: “Hiring teams are using more external workers, looking at different sourcing channels and rethinking requirements for roles. If companies can invest in their hiring teams and rethink their employee value proposition, it is a great opportunity.”

Recruiter Mantra for 2022? Continuing to Adapt.

Roy Maurer, SHRM Online Manager/Editor, Talent Acquisition, shared his thoughts “Talent acquisition professionals continue to face recruiting and hiring challenges in the second year of an unprecedented labor market characterized by record-level turnover and job openings, increased stress, and significantly changed candidate expectations.” Maurer concurs with Jobvite’s survey conclusion: agility will be key to being successful. In his article, Maurer offers additional information from Jobvite’s report.

Jobvite states that around 78% of recruiters reported that their priorities have shifted over the past year to:

  • Improving quality of hire (48%)
  • Improving time-to-hire (28%)
  • Increasing retention rate (26%)
  • Growing talent pipeline (25%)
  • Updating recruiting technology (21%)
  • Improving diversity (18%)

What’s a Recruiter to Do? What are the trends in talent acquisition besides more money and more meaningful perks?

At Casey Accounting & Finance Resources, we scoured numerous articles on recruiting and found these five trends mentioned repeatedly:

  • Proactive recruiting: rather than wait for job openings, continually look for active and passive candidates who meet job requirements.
  • Upskilling and reskilling: invest more time on giving employees professional development opportunities for continued learning.
  • Candidate Experience: first impressions are key to keeping candidates engaged. Followed by…
  • Employer Branding and Employee Experience: The experiences don’t end once you’ve hired a candidate. Employees want to know that they are working for a great company and feel valued for their contributions. Increase your focus on DE&I.
  • Recruiting analytics and AI/Recruiting Automation

Final Thoughts

Everyone is fishing from the same pond. Your improved recruiting strategies can make all the difference in hiring someone or getting ghosted by them. We have experienced staffing experts, many with decades of experience, at the ready to assist you with your recruiting needs. We’re passionate about finding talent. We’re here to help you make the most of this disruption with the best suite of recruiting strategies for your company. Contact us today.