Financial Benefits to Virtually Onboarding Employees

During this time of the coronavirus, your employees may still be working remotely. If so, then you most likely have been virtually onboarding new hires. Even if your staff has returned to the office, it may be in your best interest to continue virtual onboarding. New hires can acclimate to the culture, their responsibilities, your expectations, and company goals. They can build rapport with management, coworkers, and the organization. You can accomplish everything in a short amount of time with significant financial savings.

Here are three ways virtual onboarding can save your company money.

Free Up Time

Virtual onboarding reduces the time needed to maintain compliance and personally train new hires. Automating the paperwork eliminates the time and money needed to mail documents that must be read, filled out, signed, and returned. Since the data is efficiently collected, there’s no need to follow up on missing documents. Maintaining the information in an online database that pertinent staff members have access to means little time spent searching for data when needed. Automation allows managers and HR staff additional time to take care of other responsibilities.

Boost Productivity

Virtual onboarding lets new hires begin producing in a short amount of time. Because they learn at their own pace, employees who quickly process, retain, and implement their training are better prepared to be productive immediately. This decreases the amount of time tasks remain unfinished as employees get up to speed on their responsibilities. Because training can be done over a virtual platform such as Zoom, staff can meet with new hires without needing to go anywhere.

Strengthen Employee Retention

Virtual onboarding increases the odds of new hires remaining with your company long-term. Since automated training provides the right information at the right time, employees are able to access modules and other resources first on the schedule, then on-demand. This prevents them from becoming overwhelmed with information. Since HR can track progress and learning milestones, managers can talk with new hires if issues show up. When onboarding is automated, the employee experience is similar for each new hire. They rapidly become familiar with their tasks and company culture, begin working on their first assignment and start contributing to the team. This increases engagement and encourages the employee to continue making a difference within your organization.

Virtually Onboard New Hires

Virtual onboarding can provide your company with significant financial savings. Automation lets managers and HR spend less time personally training employees and helping them acclimate to the culture. A reduced onboarding schedule lets new hires begin producing quickly. Strengthening engagement during onboarding encourages employees to remain with your organization for the long haul.

If you need to add accounting and finance professionals to your team, talk with Casey Accounting & Finance Resources. We have top candidates ready to begin virtual onboarding and to contribute to your team. Find out more today.

5 Ways Video Can Improve Your Recruitment Process

Continuously reviewing your company’s recruitment process is important; including more effective recruiting activities draws top talent to your organization. One way to enhance your recruitment process is by including videos. People are more likely to engage with a website or email if video is involved. Not only does content including video rank higher in search engines, but it also increases a viewer’s attention span. In the case of a job search, video increases the odds of a candidate engaging with your company and wanting to join your recruitment process. You gain greater access to qualified candidates then.

Increase your competitive advantage by incorporating video into your recruitment process in these five ways.

Feature Videos on Your Website

Include videos on your career page to increase candidate engagement. People visit your website to learn more about your brand and what it’s like to work for you. Use video to display company culture and employee testimonials. Give insight into office aesthetics and job responsibilities. Provide a true representation of your organization to connect with qualified candidates more effectively.

Include Videos in Job Postings

Put videos in job ads to demonstrate your expectations. Videos increase your search engine optimization (SEO), increasing the odds that your job postings show up in search results. The video may highlight a day at the office, including the work environment and job responsibilities. Candidates who view the videos can more effectively determine whether they are a good fit for the position and company culture.

Share Videos on Social Media

Create videos for your company’s social media platforms. This expands your recruitment efforts on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and other channels. Your company’s followers can share videos with their networks. This increases your reach and widens candidate pools.

Create Video for Candidate Communication

Include a link to an employment video with your emails to candidates. Whether sending a response or confirmation email, your message will stand out. Your video might include a message from the CEO, instruction on next steps of the hiring process, or something else that improves communication with candidates and better clarifies your expectations. This enhances your pitch, further encouraging candidates to move forward with your recruitment process.

Include Videos for Onboarding

Use videos in your onboarding process. Customize training videos to help new hires better understand your company’s mission, vision, values, and processes. This increases engagement, performance, and longevity with your organization.

Involve Video in Your Recruitment Process

Video in your recruitment process enhances engagement with your organization. You present your brand in a compelling manner, capture candidates’ attention, enhance their experience with your company, and increase your number of applicants for a role. This provides more options when deciding which candidate to bring aboard to fill a role.

When it is time to find top accounting and finance professionals, reach out to Casey Accounting & Finance Resources. As a National Association of Personnel Services (NAPS) accredited firm, we are bound to a high code of ethics while serving our clients. Learn more about how we can help you today.

Did Your Performance Management Process Change During COVID-19? Should it?

If we have learned anything from the past seven months, we’ve learned flexibility, pivoting, agility and resilience. With many employees still working remotely and with less frequent occasions to interact with their managers, tracking performance goals determined at the beginning of the year has become increasingly difficult. The pandemic most likely created a shift or change in your company’s business objectives that rendered old metrics invalid and unattainable.

Typical performance management systems don’t always address uncertain times. Fortunately, we aren’t in a pandemic very often. However, other disruptions to a business or the industry your business is in create turmoil for performance management systems and ultimately, productivity and morale.

What Options Should Companies Consider?

Here are three essential characteristics outlined by the Gallup organization.

Agile Goals

Performance management should be filled with ongoing opportunities for collaboration and adaptation throughout the review period.

Ongoing Conversation

Rather than receiving feedback once a year, managers should have and encourage a cadence for conversations, prioritization, and outcomes.

Dynamic Adjustments to Accountability and Incentives

Clearly defining expectations and creating flexible and task-based metrics as work or the environment changes helps employees understand what activities are most important to the company’s success.

Gone are the days of ‘setting it and forgetting it.’ According to Ben Wigert, director of research and strategy, workplace management and Heather Barrett, senior consultant, both with Gallup “Static performance reviews, annual goals and infrequent feedback never really cut it before the crisis, but they certainly won’t cut it now. It’s time to make a change.” They go on to say ”Now is the time to honor everyone’s contributions and challenges, and talk about how we’re going to move forward together…It’s time to burn the boats, leave old performance practices behind, and create a performance management strategy that is adaptive, responsive and calibrated to the new workplace.”

Your employees are your greatest asset and they bring their very best to work when they feel connected to the team and the mission, have ongoing conversations with their manager on strategic priorities and insights, and receive timely feedback and evaluations. We are still in uncharted territory. Seeing your workforce through this new lens can improve employee engagement and increase productivity.

When’s the Last Time You Reviewed Your Candidate Experience?

Your candidate experience is a vital piece of your recruitment process. It’s how applicants view your brand during the hiring process. From your job description to a final offer, the candidate’s entire experience affects how potential employees feel about you as an employer they want to work for. This influences whether a candidate accepts or declines your job offer and how they convey your brand to other professionals. Since the candidate experience heavily impacts the level of talent you hire, you need it to be as positive as possible.

Consider these areas when reviewing your candidate experience.

Company Reputation

How does your company’s reputation compare to competitors’ and other company’s reputations? Candidates often take to social media to discuss their interview experiences. Many share how a negative interview experience led them to change their mind about an organization or position they liked. These candidates may recommend not working for a business they had a bad experience with. Conversely, a positive interview experience can encourage candidates to work for a company they may not have been interested in.

Job Descriptions

How accurately do your job descriptions represent the role and key details? Since your job descriptions are what encourage candidates to apply with your company, they need to be as straightforward and easy to read as possible. Include a clear explanation of the position, responsibilities, salary, benefits, perks, and company culture. Use bullet points, lists, and bold formatting to draw attention to the most important information.

Interview Process

Is your interview process as short and engaging as possible while providing the information needed to make a hiring decision? When calling candidates to set up interviews, let them know what to expect from the process. This includes whom they will speak with and how long it will take. During the interview, provide a full introduction to the company and culture. If you’re able to meet in person, give a tour of the office. Introduce each candidate to potential teammates. Leave time to answer questions. Maintain communication throughout the entire interview process, so candidates know where they’re at and what the next steps are. Keep in mind that candidates are evaluating you and the organization as much as you are evaluating them.

In this time of coronavirus and with many working remotely, consider creating a virtual tour video of the office space or photos that demonstrate the company environment and culture.

Job Offers

How well do you personalize each job offer? Rather than using email, deliver the news over the phone. This helps immerse the candidate in company culture. For candidates who aren’t extended a job offer, send a personalized email encouraging them to apply for roles in the future. They’ll be more inclined to share a positive impression of your organization and encourage others to work there.

Enhance Your Candidate Experience

Your candidate experience impacts the employees who want to work for you. Providing a positive experience filled with communication, clarity, and efficiency increases your odds of securing the level of talent needed to move your company forward.

When the time comes to find accounting and finance professionals, look no further than Casey Accounting & Finance Resources. We focus on understanding your business and goals, then match you with candidates to help achieve them. Learn more today.

How to Build a Positive Culture with Remote Teams

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of remote teams is on the rise. As the numbers increase, odds are you are or will be managing a remote team. One of the issues you’ll have to tackle is creating and maintaining a strong culture. This defines the experience your employees have working for your company or on your team. Having an established culture and positive employee experience increases engagement, productivity, and retention. These are a few reasons why you need an effective approach to building the culture you need for your team to be successful.

Consider these tips to create a strong culture with your remote team.

Match Communication Tools with Culture

Use communication tools that promote company culture. For instance, Slack can be used as a virtual water cooler. Employees can share random work discussions, talk about the news, tell jokes, and discuss pop culture. The company intranet or programs such as WordPress theme P2 can be used to post internal updates. Threaded comments make it easy to share posts welcoming new team members, discuss work issues, and share other topics your team needs to be informed about. Google Hangouts or Zoom can be used for team meetings. Even a simple, emailed newsletter updates employees and keeps them engaged.

Send Company Swag

Ship each employee company-branded materials. They can wear the clothing, display company items on their desk, and decorate their home office with posters to create the same design aesthetic and cultural life elements as the office.

Promote Team Building

Develop communication and trust through team-building activities. Randomly set up two members of your team every week to have a casual conversation. This gets the emphasis away from business and promotes camaraderie. Or, put employees in groups based on common interests. Let each group set up some time to chat.

Create Shared Leadership

Provide opportunities for employees to take on leadership tasks. Rather than simply assigning a list of things to do, let your team take initiative on certain projects or parts of a project. This may include mentoring new team members as part of the onboarding process or leading a virtual team-building exercise. This helps your team members experience managerial functions, learn other areas of the business and potentially move up within the organization.

Establish Traditions

Encourage your team to create traditions. Repeating these activities, processes, or events creates cohesion. Teammates feel they can trust each other and openly communicate because of these shared experiences. They’ll be more open to expressing their ideas and opinions, knowing they’ll be listened to and respected.

Promote Culture Among Your Remote Team

Remote work isn’t going away anytime soon. As it continues to grow, you must promote a strong culture among your team members to maintain a cohesive company.

To find qualified professionals for your accounting and finance team, reach out to Casey Accounting & Finance Resources. Our candidates understand the importance of promoting company culture while working remotely. Partner with us today.

The Name of the Game is Flexibility

If there is one thing we have learned through the COVID-19 pandemic, it is flexibility. There are countless examples of companies who are adapting their business operations, determining what work options employees have, and addressing ongoing or new project needs, to name a few. It’s not for the faint of heart, but strong business leaders have adapted well and companies with strong employee cultures are navigating how to keep remote workers engaged.

We’ve talked about how to keep employees as safe as possible in the work environment and we’ve talked about interview and onboarding practices when your workforce is offsite. What about when your business needs require the addition of employees or you’re hearing from current employees that they need more flexibility? Work still needs to be done, but the pandemic and business landscape continue to shift. What are the options?

And now that we realize this pandemic isn’t going away any time soon and kids are still in remote learning or hybrid academic environments, employees are also reviewing their options. Let’s face it. It was hard enough to work from home and help with homeschooling this spring. Rather than lose valuable employees, what if there were more creative ways to address your employee’s needs and your hiring needs? There is!

Working with our team, you have most likely used our services to fill both direct hire and temporary positions. Rather than jump further into the deep end of the pool of uncertainty, it seems logical that filling open positions with temporary workers makes the most sense. Plus, with most companies still allowing work-from-home options, your talent pool has grown exponentially. There is lots of potential to tap into from unemployed workers who aren’t even located nearby. Let’s snap up that talent. What a great position to be in.

How to Creatively Manage the Budget and the Workload

Here are some options and ideas to consider:

First, talk to your employees about any struggles they are having. Determine if there is a way to offer more flexible schedules or fewer hours. Help them address their family needs while keeping their job and getting work done.

Second, if you reduced your workforce earlier this year, look at that pool of former employees to see if some of them could fit well into the new flexible work schedule. Figure out what is being offloaded by current employees needing flexibility and/or fewer hours and determine who are the good candidates to handle the work. After all, they know the company and culture and would still make a great addition without bringing them back onto your payroll full-time.

Temp, Temp-to-Hire, Direct Hire and … Direct Sourcing

Besides temporary, temp-to-hire and direct hire opportunities, another option to consider throughout the pandemic is direct sourcing. This term is commonly referred to as the process by which you source the candidate or a member of your internal staff, and those “employees” are placed on our payroll. This might help with budgeting as you already have found the candidate, but you are uncertain how long you will need them. It’s the best of both worlds and here is how it might work for you.

In the previous example of a current employee who wants more flexibility or fewer hours, you could work out an arrangement where he or she switches over to our associate as a temporary. Then, if you have an employee who was furloughed who is also available to pick up the rest of the work, that employee can become our associate as well. The temporary needs can fluctuate based on the workload. When things improve and the pandemic is behind us, you can decide which associates convert to your payroll.

According to Staffing Industry Analyst’s Workforce Solutions Buyer Survey 2019 report, 26% of employers use direct sourcing today and 41% plan to seriously consider it within the next two years.

Being agile will win in the long term. Let us help you with your business strategies and develop the best blend of hiring options for you today and into the future.

Recognizing Mistakes Can Positively Impact Employee Performance

Employees make mistakes from time to time. Perhaps they don’t clearly understand what you want them to do.  Maybe they didn’t thoroughly consider all the information or potential results before making a decision. When mistakes occur, it’s your managerial duty to decide how to handle the situation. You need to take steps that involve the employee’s input for finding a solution and creating lasting change in their behavior.

Follow these suggestions to effectively talk about employee mistakes and improve performance.

Ask Questions

Come up with questions aimed at changing future behavior. For instance, “If we did this project again, what could we do differently to change the results?” Or, “How could I have better supported you and your team?” Ask the employee to get back with you the next day with their thoughts. This encourages them to focus on finding solutions rather than a new job.

Provide Feedback 

Give the employee feedback about the problem. They may need more information about a situation in order to change their behavior. Use “I” statements rather than “you” statements. For instance, instead of saying, “Can I give you some feedback?” say, “Here’s my reaction.” Rather than suggesting, “Here’s what you should do,” try, “Here’s what I would do.” Instead of saying, “You should do X” when asked for advice, respond with, “What do you feel you’re struggling with, and what have you done before that worked in a similar situation?”

Use the 8D Model

For a higher-level mistake, implement the 8D Model to modify employee behavior. The D stands for discipline, meaning an area of study or influence. This model encourages the team to understand the problem and provide an answer. Begin by planning the time, people, and resources required to resolve the issue. Choose individuals with diverse skill sets and product/process knowledge. Define the who, what, where, when, why, and how of the problem. Create and implement a temporary solution to contain the issue. Use tools such as cause-and-effect diagrams to determine the root causes of the problem. Create a permanent, systemic solution that addresses the root cause. Implement the corrective actions, then verify their effectiveness. Focus on areas of the solution that need work, then modify practices, procedures, and management and operation systems to address potential issues in the future. Recognize your team’s efforts in solving the problem.

Improve Employee Performance

Your employees won’t change their ways if you simply tell them what they’re doing is wrong. You need to ask questions, provide feedback, or use another effective method to enhance employee behavior and bring about lasting change.

When you need to hire top accounting and finance professionals in Rolling Meadows, turn to Casey Accounting & Finance Resources. We match you with candidates who have the skills and experience needed to solve problems. Get in touch with us today.

How to Ensure You’re Hiring a Diverse Talent Pool

Having a diverse accounting and finance team increases your company’s innovation. Cultivating different perspectives and backgrounds contributes to more creative ideas that effectively solve problems. This leads to better individual, team, and company performance. Building your group of qualified professionals regardless of their gender, background, race, religion, sexual orientation, or other personal characteristics, provides you increased access to top professionals needed to keep your company moving forward.

Here are five ways to include diversity in your candidate pool.

Revisit Your Job Postings

Rewrite your job ads to include language that speaks to a larger range of candidates. Certain words tend to discourage different types of candidates from applying. For instance, ads with words such as “ambitious,” “assertive,” and “self-reliant” tend to attract more male applicants. Ads with words such as “committed,” “interpersonal,” and “responsible” tend to attract more female applicants. By eliminating such gender-coded words, you can reduce the bias in your job ads. This includes using neutral job titles and descriptive language that includes both male- and female-coded descriptors.

Target Your Sourcing

Source candidates from diverse places they tend to hang out. For instance, if you’re looking for high caliber female finance candidates, this may include online and offline groups dedicated to women in finance. If you seek veterans, LGBTIQ people, or people with autism or disabilities, advertise your jobs in forums they may visit or magazines they may read. Niche job boards such as Diversity Working, Hire Autism, Hire Purpose, Recruit Disability, and 70 Million Jobs are options as well.

Request Employee Referrals

Ask your diverse employees to refer people they know. They should have networks of people with backgrounds similar to theirs. Encourage your team members to share job postings with their connections. Provide tools to promote company culture. Show that you value teammates’ ideas and input.

Provide Targeted Internships

Offer internships to people with a specific background. Reach out to local schools and community groups to form connections with students—team up with established programs that encourage growth. Internships provide work experience and immersion in company culture for potential new hires. Seeing firsthand what your company is like encourages diverse candidates to join your team.

Refocus Your Screening Process

Reconsider the traits to look for in candidates. Think about which skills, experience, and qualifications are most important for the role. Make sure they’re not favoring one group of people with similar backgrounds over other groups. Evaluate your interview questions and testing process. Determine whether the results are being steered toward specific types of people more than others. Include a diverse range of peers in conducting these evaluations. Change your methods as needed.

Diversify Your Talent Pool

Focusing on diversity among candidates increases engagement, productivity, and team performance. You gain access to a broader range of skills and experience needed to solve problems and drive innovation.

Find diverse talent by partnering with Casey Accounting & Finance Resources. We provide the experienced candidates needed to help bring your business to the next level. Get started with us today.

Applying Lessons Learned From the 2008 Recession as we Lead Employees Through COVID-19 and Beyond

Five months into the pandemic and we have seen many changes and shifts. Our businesses and employees are experiencing disruption, panic, and unpredictability as we adjust to this new and ever-changing landscape. As leaders and managers, we are probably experiencing most, if not all, of these same feelings. How can we be present to the emotions while keeping our employees motivated and meeting productivity goals with so much uncertainty?

Lessons Learned

This isn’t the first pandemic or recession and it won’t be the last. We do know that there is always a recovery. In a 1948 speech by Winston Churchill, this multi-dimensional leader paraphrased a previous statement from philosopher George Santayana. Churchill said, “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” This article isn’t about doom and gloom, but it is a compilation of what strong leaders did right during a crisis.

Julie Bawden-Davis, a writer, author and speaker, offers these suggestions for today’s company leaders:

  1. Trust Your Instincts – While this pandemic wasn’t in the game plan, seasoned leaders can draw on past experiences and rely on their instincts to lead.
  2. Exude Calm – Bring order and structure to an otherwise out-of-control situation.
  3. Reassure Your Employees and Give Them Hope – Instill hope and be realistic to reassure employees and keep them focused.
  4. Focus on the Future or Resurrect Projects on the Back Burner – Restore projects on the back burner and/or strategize future projects, if possible. Review and revise company goals set at the beginning of the year and alter them as necessary to still achieve them.
  5. Face Reality and Be Transparent – Every business has been impacted by COVID-19. Keep employees plugged in by keeping communication lines open, providing regular status updates and sharing impacts to the organization as soon as you are certain those impacts will affect the employees.

Rick Bisio, an author and franchise coach, expressed these opinions in a recent Entrepreneur magazine article based on the lessons learned from the recession that spanned December 2007 to June 2009:

  1. Strengthen Your Operating Systems – A key factor for businesses that survived the recession is they had a strong operating system and the right people in place who understood the financials and goals and could effectively implement them.
  2. Always Be Prepared – Never get complacent and fail to think about the future. Always be prepared for what’s coming next, anticipate your next moves, and have a contingency plan. Read or reread Spencer Johnson’s Who Moved My Cheese for a great example of how to anticipate and react to change.
  3. Seize the Opportunity – Strong leaders look at situations as opportunities. Maybe there is less competition or more available employees. Position yourselves for greater success in the future.

To summarize, engaging in open conversations, setting clear expectations, and helping people cope with uncertainty will help your employees better orient through the crisis and regain some sense of control. These lessons and suggestions work particularly well if employee engagement was already high before the pandemic and employees feel their need for wellbeing is respected by their company. If not, review your employee engagement programs to see what you can implement right now.

Rick Bisio sums it up the best. “We don’t know everything about the future except it will be different, but it will also improve.”

3 Tips to Make Your Job Descriptions Stand Out

Part of hiring top talent involves creating an effective job description. Crafting an engaging, inclusive job description brings a range of highly qualified candidates into your pipeline. Combining details about the position, required skills, and competencies, and insight into company culture is key to presenting a role to job candidates.

Consider these three tips to create stand-out job descriptions.

Include Engaging Details

Craft up to four sentences about the major job functions, how the role contributes to company objectives, and why the position is important to both the business and society in general. Focus on how the role either helps make people’s lives better or solves existing business or social problems. Include invitational language such as “Join a creative team of… dedicated to…” to maximize interest. Sprinkle in keywords that candidates may be searching for. Avoid extreme language such as “best of the best” or “world-class.”

Emphasize Growth and Development

Use five to seven bullets to describe key job functions. Or, group two or three bullets under bigger categories, such as “technical skills” or “management skills.” Include the potential for advancement and how a candidate’s achievements can contribute to career progression. Show why candidates should be excited about your organization and the transformations taking place in your industry. Share what your business is doing within the industry, how technology makes it happen, and how working in the position can increase a candidate’s growth and development. For instance, “We anticipate growth beyond 25 percent this year.” Your objective is to attract goal- and action-oriented candidates who can move your organization forward.

Promote Company Culture

Ensure candidates will fit in and enjoy working with your team by emphasizing company culture. A candidate who’s a good culture fit typically will be more engaged and productive long-term than a candidate who isn’t a good fit. Highlight the benefits, bonuses, and perks your organization has to offer. This may include flexible schedules, remote work opportunities, or happy hour Fridays. Include photos, graphics, videos, and other multimedia in your job ads to attract diverse candidates.

Find Stand-Out Accounting & Finance Candidates

Making your job descriptions stand out encourages top talent to work with you. Gaining insight into how job responsibilities benefit the company and society encourages candidates to want to work for you. Focusing on growth and development, along with company culture fit, makes your organization a prime place for employment.

Turn to the experienced consultants at Casey Accounting & Finance Resources to find the talent you need when you need it. We provide innovative and creative solutions that exceed expectations to help achieve company goals and objectives. Get started with us today.