Employer Advice Archives - Page 14 of 21

5 Must-Follow Tips for Successful Open Enrollment Communication

When open enrollment arrives each year, you need to be prepared. Choosing benefits is often stressful for employees. They need enough information and time to determine which benefits best meet their needs. Therefore, you need to begin preparing well in advance. Here are five must-follow tips to successful open enrollment communication.

Review Last Year’s Results

Review your previous year’s open enrollment results to determine areas that were successful and areas that needed improvement. You’ll face similar challenges this year, and you want to learn from previous mistakes. Meet with key team members to review what worked and didn’t work last year. Ensure each member leaves with action items and deadlines. Also, define your open enrollment objectives and how you will measure success. Use that information to decide who your audiences are and what your overall and targeted messages will be. Then, determine what media you’ll use, what your timeline is and what barriers you may face in achieving your goals.

Set Goals

Determine hard goals, such as the number of new enrollees you’d like to see in your company retirement plan. Also, determine one to three soft goals to make the enrollment process easier and more understandable. For example, ask how well an employee feels they understand your company’s benefits, how aware of the benefit process they are and how they would rate the effort needed to sign up for benefits.

Use Data Analytics

Have year-over-year data showing how benefits are being used to determine what training materials may help employees take better advantage of underused or under-valued choices. Keep track of and compare enrollment data in a manner that gives useful insight into how employees choose their benefits, which can show where additional education is needed during open enrollment.

Highlight Key Information

Because your employees are busy, highlight key information in all open enrollment communication. When you send employees printed material or an email, ensure the information can be read in 30 seconds, the amount of time an employee will devote to looking at the material. Use bold graphics and clear, concise language to increase engagement and comprehension of the information.

Emphasize a Call to Action

Stress a call to action at the end of each communication. Your employees must know what they need to do after reading the information to make it most effective.

Contact Casey Accounting & Finance Resources

For assistance with finding top accounting and financial candidates, contact Casey Accounting & Finance Resources! As an award-winning financial staffing agency, we have the process and team ready to help your business!

Trends in Contingent Staffing

At a recent conference for the National Association of Personnel Services, the following trends were identified for the contingent workforce:

96% of companies use contract staffing
83% of companies say that contractors work harder than full-time employees
It is projected that 73% of companies will switch to having their full-time employees be C-Suite level and the rest will be part-time and contract employees

In addition, according to Staffing Industry Analysts, when they asked the companies, “What is the size of your contingent workforce?” the average response for 2017 was 20%. They anticipate by 2027 their contingent workforce will be 25% of their workforce including: Direct Temporary Workers, Independent Contractors, Human Cloud Workers and Agency Temporaries.

At CASEY ACCOUNTING & FINANCE RESOURCES, we are dedicated to making an amazing difference in the lives of our clients, candidates and colleagues. Some of our recent temporary accounting and finance placements include the following:

TEMPORARY A&F POSITIONS FILLED:

A/P Clerk-Temporary-Schaumburg, IL
Cash App Specialist-Temporary-Lincolnwood, IL
Staff Accountant-Temporary-Des Plaines, IL
A/R Specialist-Temporary-Elk Grove Village, IL
Accounting Clerk-Temporary-Deerfield, IL
Tax Accountant-Temporary-Arlington Heights, IL
Staff Accountant-Temporary-Chicago, IL
Payroll Manager-Temporary-Northbrook, IL
Collections-Temporary-Wood Dale, IL
Staff Accountant-Temporary-Lombard, IL
A/P Clerk-Temporary-Mount Prospect, IL
Sr. Accountant-Temporary-Bridgeview, IL
A/P Clerk-Temporary-Mount Prospect, IL
Credit Analyst-Temporary-Chicago, IL
A/P Clerk-Temporary-Northlake, IL
Staff Accountant-Temporary-Northlake, IL
Accountant-Temporary-Glenview, IL
Bookkeeper-Temporary-Schaumburg, IL
Payroll Associate-Temporary-Hoffman Estates, IL
A/P Clerk-Temporary-LaGrange, IL

In addition, we are busy helping our clients hire regular full-time staff to their teams! Some of our recent placements include the following:

DIRECT HIRE A&F POSITIONS FILLED:

Credit Analyst-Chicago, IL
Sr. Accountant-Chicago, IL
Payroll Specialist-Northbrook, IL
Accountant-Schaumburg, IL
Financial Analyst-Northlake, IL
Accounting Clerk-Rolling Meadows, IL
Billing Analyst-Deerfield, IL
Payroll Manager-Chicago, IL
Bookkeeper-Schaumburg, IL
Sr. Accountant-Deerfield, IL
Payroll Manager-Chicago, IL
Financial Analyst-Schaumburg, IL
Sr. Accountant-Chicago, IL
Payroll Specialist-Rosemont, IL

What Does Your Financial Talent Brand Say About You?

Your talent brand consists of what your employees think, feel and share about working for your company. Because your talent brand significantly impacts your recruitment results, you need to ensure your talent brand portrays the appropriate messages about working for your organization. As a financial services company, here are four benefits of determining what your financial talent brand says about you.

Control Company Reputation

Manage your talent brand by controlling your company’s reputation as much as possible. Monitor what’s being said about your organization on Glassdoor, CareerBliss and other review sites. Set up alerts so you can stay on top of newly posted reviews. In addition, watch your ratings on salary and advancement to see if they need attention. Furthermore, encourage happy employees to share their experiences. Plus, respond to negative reviews with positive comments.

Engage Passive Candidates

Because these highly skilled workers comprise the majority of the workforce and enjoy maximizing company contributions, you need to position your company as a rewarding place to work. Since candidates use Glassdoor to learn more about roles, salaries, culture and reviews, you need to actively add photos, videos, summaries and other branding tools to portray a positive image, monitor what’s being said about your company and positively respond to negative reviews. You can also use Google Analytics to attract passive candidates. Ensure you monitor what your most effective inbound recruiting channels are, such as social media, email or organic searches; which pages candidates enter on and leave from; how much time is spent on a page and on your entire site; and what your bounce rate is to determine ways you can improve.

Generate Employee Referrals

What employees say about their company has significantly more impact on job candidates than what employers say about working for their company. Happy employees can tell their families, friends and colleagues about what makes your company great; share your latest company news, reports and open roles; and encourage others to work for you. Also, because top performers typically associate with other top performers, you have an excellent candidate pool to draw from. Furthermore, you’ll gain additional insight into candidates’ background and reasons why they’re an excellent fit for a position. Referrals typically report greater job satisfaction and remain loyal to your company longer because they received detailed information about the role and your organization before being hired.

Retain Talent

Ensure the financial increases, benefits, perks and advancement opportunities guaranteed during recruitment are continually fulfilled. Also, encourage employee input in all areas, including how to more effectively manage their department, streamline business operations and move the company forward.

Work With a Top Financial Recruiter

For assistance with finding top accounting and finance professionals, contact Casey Accounting and Finance Resources and work with an award-winning financial recruiter in Chicago.

Using Flexible Financial Talent in a Gig Economy

Due to changing business strategies, the gig economy is playing a more substantial role in how companies find top talent. As a result, organizations have to adapt to utilizing an evolving workforce to reach company objectives. Here are some ways your company may benefit from using flexible talent in a gig economy.

What a Gig Economy Is

A gig economy includes workers who take on freelance projects to either supplement their income or replace their need for a full-time job. Workers come from varied backgrounds, from service workers to top executives. Baby boomers who can’t or don’t want to completely retire; Gen Xers who want flexibility to pursue personal interests like raising children or caring for aging parents; and millennials seeking an independent work style are attracted to a gig economy. Due to advances in technology, work can be completed remotely at any time.

Gig Economy Benefits for Companies

Because your labor costs shift from fixed to variable, you may be able to save money. Also, you can contract with gig workers who possess niche skills you may need for a set time but not on an ongoing basis. Since gig workers don’t receive a salary or benefits, you can access talent you may be unable to afford on a full-time basis. Furthermore, you can assess a gig worker’s skill and cultural fit before deciding whether to hire them full time, if needed. Plus, gig workers begin quickly contributing to your organization because they don’t need much training, if any. As a result, gig workers increase your company’s productivity, allowing you to take on additional projects and improve your bottom line.

Accessing the Gig Economy

You can contact local or global intermediary organizations that make it easier to find, vet and contract with gig workers. You can also contact retirees and former employees who fit well with company culture, understand your organization’s processes, are highly productive and left for greater flexibility. Former employees may be interested in contracting with you as gig workers.

Managing Gig Workers

There are many considerations to make before deciding whether to hire gig workers. You should establish similar financial controls for both employees and gig workers to effectively measure how they contribute to your bottom line. Work with your legal department to create a plan for ensuring compliance while contracting with gig workers. In addition, manage your employees and gig workers in a similar manner, such as communicating clear objectives, providing purposeful work, showing respect and giving recognition for achievements. Create a plan for maintaining company culture among gig workers, such as viewing them as partners rather than vendors.

Work With a Top Financial Recruiter in Chicago

For assistance with securing accounting or finance professionals, get in touch with Casey Accounting & Finance Resources and work with an award-winning financial recruiter!

2017 Mid-Year Accounting and Finance Salary Survey Available!

Casey Accounting & Finance Resources has compiled updated salary data for the fields of accounting and finance. Having passed the middle portion of 2017, 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 “2017 Mid-Year Accounting & Finance Salary Survey”. Enjoy the rest of the summer!

What Can You Do to Overcome the Skills Gap in Tax Employees?

According to the 2016 American Staffing Association’s Skills Gap Index, one of the hardest positions to fill is that of a tax preparer. With baby boomers retiring and millennials not stepping into tax preparation roles, it’s increasingly challenging finding workers to fill those positions. Fortunately, there are steps companies can take to find qualified candidates. Here are three ways you can overcome the skills gap in tax employees.

Change Position Duties

Because these workers have specialized skills, let them focus more on completing tasks only they can perform and assigning additional responsibilities to other accountants. When tax preparers have more time to focus on areas they excel in, they’re more likely to want to work for your company, stay engaged in their tasks, produce higher quality output and remain with your organization longer.

Train Candidates

Focus more on attitude and aptitude than on experience when searching for candidates. This is especially important when considering recent graduates with little job experience. They’ll be eager to add to their skill sets, quick to adapt and more likely to work for less pay in exchange for on-the-job training. You may also cross-train or promote employees within your organization who express an interest in becoming tax preparers. Because your staff members already know their co-workers and have inside knowledge of your company, more time would be focused on training than on acclimating to your workplace. Your employees would be more productive in a shorter amount of time and begin benefitting your organization sooner.

Provide Increased Income

Research what the current salary range is in your area, then offer a bit more than average. Consider what skills and experience each candidate has to offer, how many employees you have to pay and what laws affect their income before deciding on final numbers. In addition, think about future bonuses and raises you may have to offer to stay competitive. Furthermore, consider the cost of benefits such as health insurance, retirement plans with company match and PTO. Think about perks such as a flexible schedule, working remotely and participating in an employee wellness program. All of these factors will affect how competitive your compensation package is.

Work With a Top Accounting Recruiter in Chicago

For help with filling your accounting roles, reach out to Casey Accounting & Finance Resources and partner with a top accounting recruiter in Chicago.

Top Finance and Accounting Candidates – June 2017

Controller

Areas of expertise: Strong Manufacturing Industry background at the plant level
Noteworthy: CPA with a mix of public Accounting/Audit experience and MFG Controllership experienced.
Position Interest: Controller or Plant Accountant
Available for: Direct Hire
Location: Northwest Suburbs, IL

Credit Manager

Areas of expertise: Credit department leadership and development of staff and driving process improvement.
Noteworthy: MBA, strong leadership of credit/collections staff, Credit reviews and financial statement analysis, develops and implements credit policies and procedures.
Position Interest: Credit Manager or Senior Credit Manager
Available for: Direct Hire
Location: West Suburbs, Northwest Suburbs, or Chicago Loop, IL

Corporate Controller/Chief Financial Officer

Areas of expertise: Experience leading Accounting/Finance function for small to mid-size privately held MFG/Distribution companies in the $50-$300M range.
Noteworthy: CPA, Drives cost savings initiatives, implements internal controls and establishing procedures, improving cash-flow
Position Interest: Corporate Controller or Chief Financial Officer
Available for: Contract or Direct Hire
Location: North and NW suburbs, West Suburbs and city of Chicago

Senior Credit Analyst

Areas of expertise: Analysis of financial statements, completing web-based research, determining credit worthiness, assigning, maintaining and monitoring appropriate credit limits, and releasing orders.
Noteworthy: Prior to his current company, stayed at his company for 16 years. Has experience with SAP, Salesforce, and Oracle in recent Manufacturing.
Position Interest: Supervisor role within credit and finance
Available for: Direct Hire
Location: Northwest Suburbs, IL

Senior Accountant

Areas of expertise: Monthly financial analysis, month end close, budgeting, fixed assets, endowments, reconciling investments, journal entries.
Noteworthy: Moved up while she was working for a public accounting firm. At her current role, she purchased two new modules for their accounting software and assisted in its implementation.
Position Interest: Senior Accountant or Accounting Manager
Available for: Direct Hire
Location: Chicago (loop), IL

Senior Accountant

Areas of Expertise: GAAP compliance, month end close, journal entries, Tax Preparation, Auditing, Financial statements, A/P, Corporate tax, Account Reconciliations
Noteworthy: Has worked in both large and small offices. Has a little supervisory experience.
Position Interest: Senior Accountant or Accounting Manager
Available for: Direct Hire
Location: Northwest Suburbs, IL

Staff Accountant

Areas of expertise: Month End Close, Income Statements, Variance Analysis, Budgeting, Financial Statement Review and Preparation, GAAP, Lawson, Crystal Reports, Oracle, Advanced Excel.
Noteworthy: Complete responsibilities for month end close, rolling out all the financial statements for each department and as an organization as a whole. Presentations for upper management and President for explanation of variances and impacts on the bottom line.
Position Interest: Staff Accountant, Sr. Accountant, Financial Analyst, Sr. Financial Analyst
Available for: Direct Hire
Location: Northwest Suburbs, IL

Director of Payroll

Areas of expertise: Employee Relations, Payroll Processing for up to 25,000 employees, ADP newest SaaS product, Review, Audit and correct all tax related issues for 21 subsidiary companies. International Payroll, Multi State Payroll
Noteworthy: Oversees 26 bi-weekly payrolls. Processed payroll for up to 25,000 employees and up to 43 states. Handled 26 FEIN’s. Globally for UK, Asia, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Canada. 7 direct reports. Involved in numerous system upgrades and conversions. Worked with WorkForce Now, ETime, Kronos and HTML
Position Interest: Payroll Manager, Director of Payroll, Payroll Director
Available for: Contract to Hire or Direct Hire
Location: Western Suburbs or Chicago (loop), IL

Accountant

Areas of expertise: Advanced Excel (pivot tables, lookups, formulas), G/L Accounting, MFG Industry experience
Noteworthy: Excellent communication skills. Finishing up a Masters in Accounting with a goal to sit for the CPA exam in 2018.
Position Interest: Staff or Senior Accountant
Available for: Contract or Direct Hire
Location: Northwest and Western Suburbs, IL

Bookkeeper/Accounting Clerk

Areas of expertise: A/P, A/R, Bank Recs, Account Recs, Month-End Close, Billing, Payroll, ERP Systems
Noteworthy: Associates Degree in Accounting with a broad range of bookkeeping experience
Position Interest: Bookkeeper or Accounting Clerk
Available for: Temp to Hire
Location: Western Suburbs, IL

How Can a Staffing Agency or a Recruiter Help Your Workforce Stay Agile?

There are many benefits to having a flexible workforce. Having someone else screen, interview, hire, pay and let employees move to other opportunities frees up time and money that may be invested in other areas of your business. Fortunately, a staffing agency or recruiter may help with hiring and managing your workers. Here are four ways a staffing agency or recruiter can help your workforce stay agile.

Bring in Talent When Needed

You specify the number of workers needed, the timeframe and hourly rate target, and the agency or recruiter handles the rest. If the agency or recruiter doesn’t have the best candidate for the position, they’ll recruit for the role, review applications, conduct interviews and background checks, and hire the best person. The temporary worker becomes an employee of the staffing agency or recruiter, completes their job duties for your company and receives a paycheck and benefits from the agency or recruiter until the worker is no longer needed at your company.

Quickly Fill Roles

The agency or recruiter uses various sourcing techniques to prescreen and qualify candidates. An agency representative or recruiter will learn all they can about your company’s industry, daily operations, physical workspace and equipment for the open position, responsibilities and expectations for the role, potential career paths within the organization, and other pertinent information that candidates will want to know. Likewise, the agency representative or recruiter will tell you what skills and experience each candidate possesses so you know how they may benefit your company.

Develop a Relationship With Hiring Managers

Developing a relationship with your hiring managers will expedite future hiring needs. When meeting with an agency representative or recruiter, your hiring manager should let them know what skills, experience and qualities they’re looking for in a candidate; what the salary range is; whether anything went wrong with the last hire for the role; and how the new worker may perform better than the last. The agency representative or recruiter will discuss whether the manager’s expectations are in line with the current market or how they may be altered to become more achievable.

Increase Business Without Hiring Full Time

Because expanding your company costs money, and labor is one of your greatest expenses, hiring temporary workers will control your labor costs and free up funds for growing your company. Also, when a temporary worker is no longer needed, you may either let them move on to their next opportunity, or if the staffing agency or recruiter agrees, hire them on full time for your organization.

Partner With a Top Financial Staffing Agency

These are four ways a staffing agency or recruiter can help your workforce stay agile. For assistance with your accounting and finance staffing needs, contact Casey Accounting & Finance Resources to work with a leading financial recruiter in Chicago!

Why We Love Millennials in the Workplace!

Millennial are often associated with negative terms including entitlement, poor communicators and technology reliant! But, we have found that it is actually a joy to work with millennials! Some of the attributes we enjoy about working with millennials include:

Focuses on Collaboration

Millennials are very collaborative to work with. They are very communicative, which is great when you work in an environment that has a lot of moving parts.

Purpose

Millennials share a sense of purpose with their teammates and work together on meaningful projects. They bring a creative spirit to new initiatives introduced within the workforce. Start an internal social group in your company and see what amazing benefits arise from it!

Technology

Millennials are tech-savvy and like to help others by offering solutions that support innovation. They are very good at leveraging technology! They want information fast since they often will be on their smart phone and working on their tablet/computer while viewing a program – and can switch easily between devices. Make sure you have multiple monitors for their desks!

Want to Make a Difference and Contribution to Society

Millennials are always looking for ways to better themselves and the community. Having a community spirit helps companies develop programs for the good of others. What better way to bring meaning to work!

Tolerance

Millennials are by far the most accepting of gender equality and LGBTQ rights. They are a generation of change and progression. They care about the issues and will help to make changes. They accept and celebrate their differences including breaking the stigma around mental illness. Having a tolerant workforce helps to lift everyone up!

Highly educated and they love to learn and be developed

Millennials are on track to become the most highly educated generation in the history of the United States. They want to be mentored and coached, and be the best employee they can be!

As you can see, there are many reasons that millennials are an asset to the workforce. From collaboration, purpose, technology, making a difference, tolerance and education, companies will have a new set of challenges that will bring meaningful change and growth to their organization.

Source: http://www.smartceo.com/zimmerman-millennials-in-the-workforce-what-they-want-and-how-to-manage-them/; https://www.theodysseyonline.com/6-reasons-millennials-awesome

4 Ways to Cut Down on Internal Employee Data Breaches

Data breaches may adversely affect a substantial part of your customer base and result in large financial losses. Although most people believe cyberattacks are initiated by individuals or groups outside the company, the majority of data breaches result from unintentional or malicious acts by internal employees. Fortunately, you can help reduce the threat of internal employee data breaches by taking action in these four areas.

1. Provide Ongoing Training

Provide ongoing employee training on cyber security. For example, develop policies and procedures for handling confidential information. Train your employees on their responsibilities for enforcing those policies and procedures. Also, discuss ways data breaches may occur if your employees don’t uphold their responsibilities. Have your employees sign a document stating they understand and will fulfill their duties. In addition, remind your employees to not open suspicious emails that may contain malware or view websites that may be used to phish for information. Furthermore, stress the importance of your employees choosing passwords with more than six characters, including symbols and upper- and lowercase letters, changing passwords every 30 days, and not sharing passwords. Additionally, ensure your employees use secure Wi-Fi networks to reduce the risk of man-in-the-middle attacks.

2. Allow Limited Access to Information

Provide your employees with the minimum amount of access to information needed to perform their duties. Because the majority of insider attacks happen 30 days before or after an employee’s last day, your employees may use their email account or VPN login to access your company’s servers. This may open up your company to all kinds of data breaches. Therefore, you should monitor each employee’s email account and VPN login leading up to their last day, if possible, and terminate access once the worker is no longer with your company.

3. Monitor Online Behavior

Monitor your employees’ online activities to uncover unusual activity. For example, review usage reports to proactively identify potential issues and resolve them before they become bigger. Also, communicate with and provide consistent sanctions for employees involved in activities that don’t comply with your company’s policies and procedures. Show your employees why their actions are noncompliant, what potentially harmful consequences could result, and which sanctions will occur if the employees are involved in another potential data breach.

4. Model Company Culture of Cyber Security

Because employees typically follow the behavior of colleagues and executives, every employee at every level needs to model a culture of cyber security. For example, your managers should consistently talk with their teams about how data security requirements align with team members’ work responsibilities to ensure teammates understand the importance of compliance with company policies and procedures. Also, your leaders should request real-time feedback on how effective your information controls are on completing work in a reasonable amount of time to reduce inefficiency.

Work with a Top Accounting Staffing Agency in Chicago

To work with an award-winning financial staffing agency in Chicago, get in touch with Casey Accounting & Finance Resources!