2021 Mid-Year Accounting and Finance Salary Survey Available!

The labor market remains to be very tight across the board! It is just not direct-hire but contract-to-hire and contract roles.

Casey Accounting & Finance Resources has compiled its July 2021 salary data for the fields of accounting and finance. Recruitment is really heating up, and job postings are plentiful. The war for talent is on so, having the most up-to-date information is vital!

With compensation trends changing on a monthly basis, both sides can benefit from having this information during job negotiations.

Casey Accounting & Finance Resources can help financial professionals who want to learn more about what salary expectations should be. We have compiled our salary survey list with updated facts and figures, including job descriptions for more than 110 accounting and finance positions for the Chicago metropolitan area.

Email us today at FinancialSalarySurvey@caseyresources.com, and we will be happy to share this with you.  In the “YOUR MESSAGE” section, please enter “2021 Accounting & Finance Salary Survey”.

Gen Z’s Workplace Expectations Are Different From the Generations Before Them

The May 2021 jobs report showed encouraging news that the job market is continuing to recover and has picked up some additional momentum. As the country begins to ramp up from the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of job postings increases. Companies of all sizes are looking to add employees in temporary, temp-to-hire, and direct hire positions.

While these jobs require various amounts of experience, many job postings look for candidates with approximately two to four years of experience. Generation Z, those 18-22 years old, are beginning to enter the workforce. For hiring managers, it’s important to know how Gen Z will fit into the company culture and what they expect a company to offer. It’s become a special kind of balancing act with generations spanning from Gen Z to Baby Boomers in the workplace. Here are some tips on how to navigate the generational gaps to put your company at a competitive advantage while addressing the unique motivations of this emerging group of workers.

Article Highlights:

  • Gen Z Candidates Are Qualified
  • What Benefits Attract Gen Z
  • Gen Z Expectations and Motivations
  • Recruiting and Onboarding Gen Z
  • Working in Teams
  • Giving Feedback
  • Getting it Right From the Start

Professional Experience

It’s hard to believe that Gen Z candidates bring experience to the workplace because they are so young. The Gen Z generation is highly ambitious. According to Ryan Jenkins, a Millennial and Gen Z Expert, 55 percent of Gen Z feel pressure to gain professional experience in high school. This generation already participates in internships before college and tests the waters on what type of career is meaningful to them. With that in mind, when they graduate from college, they typically come with several years of workplace experience that may be a good fit for your open jobs. Jenkins also states that 84 percent of Gen Z believe that they have the skills necessary to be successful in a professional environment. Reinforcing that data, Pew Research finds that Gen Z job candidates are the most highly educated generation.

Jenkins goes on to say that 56 percent of Gen Z would rather write their own job description than being given a generic one. With the experiences they gain in high school and college, Gen Z candidates are clear about being the boss of their career growth and advancement. They want their work to have meaning for themselves and society.

Top Benefits Gen Z Looks For

According to a Zippia survey of 1,000 American job seekers, health insurance, the option to work remotely, and retirement benefits top the list for Gen Z. Jenkins adds to the list a competitive salary and a boss they respect. They are also looking for flexibility, longer breaks, employee assistance programs, and open communication because these candidates are also four times more likely to experience anxiety. The World Health Organization states, “Stress is a health epidemic of the 21st century.”

Gen Z believes it’s fine to leave a job in less than a year of employment if advancement opportunities are lacking and work-life balance is nonexistent. It’s no surprise then that Gen Z finds authenticity and transparency crucial to a robust work environment. They want to be kept in the loop via top-down communication via mobile phone as they continue to grow their career and determine what projects interest them.

How Gen Z Job Candidates Find YOU?

That’s right, Gen Z candidates find you.

  • Recruiting
    • When Gen Z is on the hunt for a job, like most job seekers, they scour job sites. However, Gen Z values the opinions of friends and family and other connections on social media. Your company’s level of diversity and corporate social responsibility policies and practices play an important role in whether they have an interest in working at your company.
    • Long, complicated interview processes are a turn-off.
    • Some Gen Z applicants want to work in teams, while others prefer to get the job done on their own. It will be important to know how a candidate fits the culture of the company and the job expectations because they will most certainly be asking these questions to gauge whether you’re a match for them.
  • The Onboarding Experience
    • Rea Regan, the Head of Content at Connecteam – developers of an all-in-one employee app, suggests setting the tone the moment your Gen Z employee steps foot in your company. Introduce them via a company-wide email or text with a photo and fun facts. Place training materials in an app or through a document-sharing program so they can learn at their own pace and review materials as needed. Hiring managers can monitor progress via a notification through the app.

Working in Teams vs. Working Alone

The experts differ in opinion on this subject. Many suggest that Gen Z thrives on the diversity and inclusion of a collaborative environment across generations and feels more engaged with individuals because of their different ideas, experiences, and perspectives. For these Gen Z candidates, their personality may hold more weight over their experiences if the position they are interviewing for requires team collaboration. On the other hand, several experts suggest that Gen Z candidates prefer working alone, in their own space, and believe they are the right person to get the job done alone. This candidate is better suited for a position in a less collaborative environment.

Giving Feedback

Jenkins reports that 67 percent of Gen Z is comfortable with having their manager check in with them but only for five minutes or less. They are “already comfortable with being monitored in some fashion or another at work,” he says. Regan suggests managers deliver feedback that is frequent and measurable to ensure specific points are addressed.

Getting it Right From the Get-Go

Managers and supervisors need to be more flexible in their hiring processes and adapt to their employees’ work and communication styles, regardless of age, to boost morale and have a productive and engaged team. Regan sums up the way to ensure your Gen Z workforce is at the top of their game. She says, “By understanding that Gen Z in the workplace are more fearless and crave opportunities to learn and grow, you can create an environment that helps them thrive.”

Having a solid recruiting plan for generational hiring and retention is key to business productivity. Businesses of all sizes face similar human resources challenges:

  • Should we fill the position with a temporary or direct hire candidate?
  • Are we up to date on the legal and compliance regulations that are constantly changing?
  • Do we have the ability or technology to assess not only qualifications but personality and behavior to match candidates with jobs and the teams they’ll work with?
  • Is our benefits package robust enough?

Understanding and addressing these human resources challenges are important to the business decisions you make. Casey Accounting and Finance Resources is here to provide the expertise and resources to assist you in matching the best candidate for your team and company culture. Reach out to us for your next hire. We’ll help you navigate the changing landscape.

Get Ready to Start Hiring Again

With many indicators pointing to life returning to normal, an uptick in the economy, and lower unemployment claims, companies are most certainly considering hiring employees again. The pandemic changed recruiting as we knew it with virtual interviews, Zoom training, and hiring workers who didn’t even live in the same geography. For the most part, these were all positive advancements for the recruiting world. After all, the last real revolution for recruiting was online postings, job applicants, and more advanced screening software. So, what have we learned in the last 12 months?
  • Employees can work remotely and be productive.
  • The talent pool widened when recruiting wasn’t constricted by geographic boundaries.
  • Employees are even more acutely aware of work-life balance and belonging to their organization.
  • DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) is a passionate topic when discussing talent acquisition.

Adapting Your Hiring Strategies

According to The HR Digest, the US is facing a 69% shortfall in available employees, the highest in a decade. Even though layoffs and hiring freezes will drop off, many workers used the pandemic to re-evaluate their career and life goals. With that said, what are the best ways to find talent and attract them to work for your company?

Hybrid Recruiting and Hybrid Workforce

  • Remote Work: many employees have determined that they like working remotely, at least for some portion of the workweek. Flexible schedules will continue to be the norm and should be incorporated into your recruiting culture.
  • Remote Hiring: the ability to interview candidates via video conferencing is a time saver for both employer and candidate. The technology options have improved. Personality assessments can be completed remotely. In the end, you might still want to meet the top candidates in person, but if remote work is an option, chances are you might not meet your new employee face-to-face for several weeks or months.
These are significant trends that have emerged in the last year. The hybrid workforce model will provide a greater pool of qualified candidates for talent acquisition, allowing recruiters to tap into the best talent for a position without geographic limitations.

Where Are the Best Candidates?

  • Look at your employees. The Boston Consulting Group, along with programmatic job advertising provider Appcast, found that 89% of US workers are willing to retrain to a different job role. Among the findings: Workers ages 31 to 40 and those with master’s degrees and above are the most willing to reskill. But even workers within the services sector or that require workers onsite (i.e., production and manufacturing) can adapt with access to the right training and resources. Re-skilling and up-skilling workers are positive investments for a company. Among many things, it reduces the costs of turnover and rehiring and keeps the employee’s intellectual capital at the company.
  • Look at Gen Z graduates. Many 2020 college graduates may not have entered the workforce in their area of study, and with 2021 graduation upon us, additional qualified candidates are ready to work in their chosen career.
  • Look at retirees. The pandemic forced early retirement for some very talented individuals who still have value to bring to a company. Consider this untapped talent pool for your open positions.

Committing to a DEI Strategy to Build a Diverse Team

Most company executives will tell you that their company is successful because of the employees. Happy employees are productive employees and are key to a company’s success. But employee morale has become more than just benefits. Employee engagement has shifted. People want to feel as if they belong at work that they see others just like themselves in positions from entry-level to leadership. That they are comfortable with their team, that managers listen to them. Having a DEI strategy is a big undertaking and can’t be fully addressed in a few paragraphs. Ryan Healy, founder and president of technology company Brazen Technologies, Inc., says, “Offering job opportunities to job seekers in underrepresented and underserved communities brings fresh, diverse perspectives to organizations.” According to Mariah Scout, head of DEI at webflow, and Leah Knobler, director of talent acquisition at HelpScout, DEI is everybody’s responsibility – not something that is the responsibility of one person or the HR team alone. DEI also requires a strong commitment. They go on to share the benefits of a DEI strategy to a company’s growth – “So if you’re building a diverse team that represents a diverse set of identities and experiences and abilities…you’re setting yourself up to build a product that services more people across those differences.” That’s a pretty powerful argument for DEI. Where should you start? Scout and Knobler offer these changes to your hiring process:
  • Survey your employee base to understand where the DEI gaps exist.
  • Write job descriptions using inclusive language that addresses what a candidate has done in the past that would be valuable to the company. Criteria, must-haves, and limiting jobs to certain locations may create entry barriers to hiring a more diverse workforce so you need to distinguish and understand what criteria, such as certifications, are critical to the position.
  • Ensure your interview process includes a diverse pool of candidates, right down to your final candidates.
  • Understand any hiring biases, conscious and unconscious bias, which will negatively impact the ability to make an effective hiring decision about the best person for the job.
  • Use Standardized Interview Questions and ask them to every candidate. This will help minimize and eliminate bias.
This graphic from Josh Bersin, a world-renowned industry analyst, educator, and thought leader in all aspects of HR, leadership, and HR technology, emphasizes the importance of taking action to create an inclusive culture:

Hiring Recruiting Experts

Bersin says that recruiting is the most important thing that happens in a company. “If you don’t recruit the right people, forget everything else. You can’t just train people that are the wrong fit for your company, the wrong culture fit, the wrong skill set, the wrong background,” he stresses. “Your ability to understand the organization and operate in an empowered way to find the right people is critical.” Oftentimes it is easier for outsiders to see the gaps in processes. At Casey Accounting & Finance Resources, we have years of experience evaluating recruiting programs and assessing employees’ skills for our clients. We are great recruiters who have hired great people for great companies. The future of employee engagement will include a robust strategy of competitive perks, flexible schedules, and work environments, and the implementation of DEI processes. Let us help you adapt to this new hiring landscape.

Hiring Surges in March

Hiring activity in the U.S. exploded in March, as employers added 916,000 new jobs…

https://www.shrm.org/ResourcesAndTools/hr-topics/talent-acquisition/Pages/BLS-HR-Jobs-Unemployment-April-2021-COVID19-coronavirus.aspx?utm_source=marketo&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=editorial~HR%20Daily~NL_2021-4-2_Breaking_News-BLSReport&linktext=READ-MORE&mkt_tok=ODIzLVRXUy05ODQAAAF8Ma2LiCU_XBVIDbXxeVPkP8zAQmt2uPYNihfzN3I631RnSvwrLSZgrzGiNhCIXd9Egu3Z1_JGiJUvUeDqdLRJr8kMrAF57IVWng27oJtp4hS3ZA

Casey Accounting & Finance Resources Wins ClearlyRated’s 2021 Best of Staffing® Talent Diamond Award for Service Excellence

Diamond Award winners have won the Best of Staffing Award for at least five years in a row, consistently earning industry-leading satisfaction scores from their clients and job seekers.

The staff of Casey Accounting & Finance Resources (www.caseyresources.com) is pleased to announce they have earned ClearlyRated’s Best of Staffing® Talent Diamond Awards for providing superior service to their job candidates for at least five years in a row. Presented in partnership with presenting sponsor, CareerBuilder, and gold sponsors Indeed and Glassdoor, ClearlyRated’s Best of Staffing Diamond winners have proven to be industry leaders in service quality based entirely on ratings provided by their candidates. This is the sixth consecutive year the company has won the Talent Satisfaction award. Less than 1% of staffing companies earn the Diamond award for Best of Staffing.

Focused on helping companies find the right people for their job openings, Casey Accounting and Finance Resources received a Net Promoter Scores (NPS) are 88.2% for talent satisfaction, far exceeding the industry average of 18%. The NPS question of “how likely is it that you would recommend XYZ company to a friend or colleague?” created by Fred Reichheld determines the tier of how strong your customer service is. Anything above 70% NPS is at the top of the echelon and considered ‘world-class service.’

We want to thank all of our associates and job seekers for trusting our team. We appreciate you and look forward to ongoing partnerships with you.

2021 Accounting and Finance Salary Survey Available!

Casey Accounting & Finance Resources has compiled updated salary data for the fields of accounting and finance. With the start of 2021 now passed and the recruitment industry getting busy, having the most up-to-date information is vital!

With compensation trends changing on a monthly basis, both sides can benefit from having this information during job negotiations.

Casey Accounting & Finance Resources can help financial professionals who want to learn more about what salary expectations should be. We have compiled our salary survey list with updated facts and figures including job descriptions for more than 110 accounting and finance positions for the Chicago metropolitan area.

Email us today at FinancialSalarySurvey@caseyresources.com and we will be happy to share this with you.  In the “YOUR MESSAGE” section, please enter “2021 Accounting & Finance Salary Survey”.

Affirmations for Highly Motivated Workers in 2021

Looking for a little inspiration after the year that 2020 was? How about some characteristics and habits of great leaders and ways to embody them as we enter 2021? Even if you don’t manage people, you do manage YOU. So why not ditch some of the bad routines and embrace some new behaviors that will make you more productive in the workplace and have a better year.

“To be a good leader, you cannot major in minor things, and you must be less distracted than your competition. To get the few critical things done, you must develop incredible selective ignorance. Otherwise, the trivial will drown you.”

–Tim Ferriss, Bestselling Author, Host of The Tim Ferriss Show podcast

Habits to Break

First, let’s look at some habits that we should leave behind in 2020.

Jodie Cook, a social media influencer, recently contributed an article to Forbes on this topic. In the article, Cook offers these habits to break in the New Year:

  1. Snoozing your alarm – it’s a waste of time. Five minutes a day add up to 22 hours of your year.
  2. Always being switched on – we hear this quite a bit, right? This “purgatory” is messing up your sleep and your mindset.
  3. Going on autopilot – familiarity often means your brain switches to autopilot — leaving the house and driving to work. Practice being conscious and present and notice what you had missed.
  4. Being too available – if you are constantly available, you’ll train others to constantly need you. Set your available hours and be strict with them. Focus on deep work for the rest of the time. Train resourcefulness, not helplessness.
  5. Living in the future – See #3. If you’re not in the present, it’s difficult to achieve what needs to be done here and now. Dreaming is good but do that in your time off when you aren’t snoozing your alarm or being too available.

Behaviors to Embrace

Entrepreneur magazine offers a great and short slideshow on the 22 qualities that make a great leader. It’s worth looking at for ideas on what characteristics of great leaders you want to study.

Great leaders are known for confidence, focus, trustworthiness, passion, drive, and innovation to name a few. Maybe you’re looking at how you can be more patient, open-minded, positive, and persistent or how to empower others, even if you don’t manage them.

If you want to communicate where others truly listen while also improving collaboration with your colleagues, study how great leaders achieve this.

“You must love what you do. In order to be truly successful at something, you must obsess over it and let it consume you. You lead by example, not because you feel like it’s what you should do, but because it is your way of life.” — Joe Perez, Founder, Tastemade

Bring back some certainty in your life by adopting the behaviors of great leaders and maybe even influence better outcomes for your colleagues, friends, and family.

Take a moment before the end of the year and jot down how you want to start 2021. Maybe it goes a little like this:

Today is January 1st and I will __________________ because I want ____________________.

This doesn’t need to be War and Peace – just intentional. Post it at your desk and in your car. Type it into your screensaver on your laptop, tablet, and cell phone. Add it to your email signature. Update it when you want to be intentional about something else. Be accountable and believe in yourself.

Have a happy and productive 2021!