Communication Practices to Incorporate in Your Organization Today!

Effective communication practices in your organization promote employee relationships, team bonding, and a positive work environment. These practices also elevate employee engagement, performance, and productivity. The results include greater job satisfaction, higher employee morale, and increased attraction and retention rates.

Strong communication practices elevate collaboration and your bottom line. As a result, you should implement effective practices in your organization today. These strategies can help.

Start incorporating these communication practices into your organization today.

Develop a Communication Plan

Consider where your organization’s communications are now, how they can improve, and when you want to start to see results. Then, use your answers to develop a strategy to move toward your goals. Include timelines and measurements for success.

Implement Communication Tools

Use relevant technology to reach your communication goals. Include communication software and systems that your employees will understand and use. Examples include cloud-based technology, videoconferencing, and group chats.

Promote Collaboration

Encourage managers to have their teams collaborate on projects. Inter-departmental teamwork helps employees get to know and learn from each other. The results include increased cohesion and productivity among your workforce.

Ensure Understanding

Ensure your organization’s communication practices include clear, concise exchanges of ideas, information, and input. These verbal or written exchanges should use plain language and enough detail to facilitate understanding. Clear exchanges encourage employees to take action based on the information.

Encourage Feedback

Ask employees at all levels to provide constructive feedback on your communication practices. For instance, you might send out an employee survey, encourage managers to discuss communication practices during team meetings or organize group chats to request open, honest input.

Determine which communication practices are working, which need to be improved, and specific steps to do better. Then, implement the most effective ideas to improve your organization’s communication practices.

Start Incorporating Communication Practices into Your Organization

Develop a communication plan, implement communication tools, and promote collaboration to incorporate better communication practices in your organization. Also, request employee feedback to determine how well your practices support understanding and how they can be improved.

When adding experienced accounting and finance professionals to your team, include Casey Accounting & Finance Resources in your hiring process. Learn more today.

Handling Year-End Closes for a Busy Market

The end of the year is a busy time for your accounting team. This is why it is important you have a year-end closing checklist to organize how the year gets wrapped up. Then, the books should be updated, accurate, and ready to transition to a new year.

Encourage your accounting team to follow these guidelines to handle year-end closes.

Get the Financial Statements

Gather the income statement, cash flow statement, and balance sheet. This shows where the business is at financially and provides the information needed for tax filing. The income statement summarizes the money gained and lost during the year. It lists the revenue, tax expenses, operating expenses, cost of goods sold, depreciation, EBIT/EBITDA, and other financial costs and gains. The cash flow statement lists the company’s incoming and outgoing cash. This includes the timing in which the money came in or went out. The balance sheet lists the organization’s assets, liabilities, and equities and tracks its financial progress. The assets should be equal to the liabilities and equity.

Collect on Overdue Invoices

Contact customers who are late in paying company invoices. Be professional, understanding, and patient. If a customer cannot cover their debt, set up a payment plan with due dates. This shows you care about their business and understand their situation. Document each conversation and what the results were so you can refer to them as needed.

Gather Employee Information

Get together the Form W-4 you have on file for each employee. Use the information to complete each staff member’s Form W-2. They will need this information for tax filing.

Verify Payroll

Ensure your payroll records are accurate and current in your books. This includes raises, year-end bonuses, withheld tax amounts, and benefits.

Account for Inventory

Verify accurate counts of the materials and supplies on hand. This shows how much was spent on inventory during the year and its value. Make sure the inventory totals match the balance sheet. If you find discrepancies, make the proper adjustments.

Organize the Business Receipts

There are many ways you can organize receipts. For instance, you can sort them by the type of expense or in chronological order. You also can use folders and labels to keep the receipts separated or store them digitally on a mobile device.

Reconcile the Bank Accounts

Bank account reconciliation verifies that your accounting records match your bank accounts. The process involves comparing your bank statements to your accounting records. Your statements should match the balance stated in your books. If they do not, you need to uncover the discrepancy. This may involve adjusting a record for the balance to be equal.

Need Help with Your Year-End Close?

Handling year-end accounting procedures is a challenging process. Each step needs to be completed on time to transition into the new year. Having a checklist on hand can ensure everything gets done and the records are accurate and organized.

If you need help with your year-end close, get in touch with Casey Accounting & Finance Resources. We can provide temporary accounting professionals to help you close out the books and get ready for 2022.

Communication Skills You Should Have to Help Improve Company Culture

Strengthening communication skills in your organization provides a wealth of benefits. Among them are improved performance, stronger engagement, more cohesive teams, and innovative ideas. Because active listening and sharing are vital parts of your company’s success, they need to be embedded in your culture.

Promote these communication skills throughout your organization to enhance your culture.  

Inform Employees of Company News

Ensure that employees at every level find out company news at the same time. This shows that staff at all levels are valued and respected members of the organization. Include what the next steps are and how the news may impact specific departments or employees. Allow time to answer questions and provide support during transitions.

Clarify Expectations

Share with team members what your standards and expectations are. This is especially important if your staff is working remotely. For instance, let them know which individual and team projects should be worked on at a given time. Also, regularly check in to discuss timelines, issues, feedback, next steps, and questions. This helps keep everyone on the same page.

Recognize Employee Accomplishments

Publicly and privately, thank team members for their efforts and achievements. For instance, mention during individual and team meetings specific examples of how they positively impacted the company. Also, give your staff hand-written thank-you notes expressing appreciation for their hard work and results.

Check for Non-Verbal Cues

In addition to body language, look for non-verbal cues that may signal miscommunication, defensiveness, or conflict. This is especially important for remote employees who do not benefit from the in-person interactions of working onsite. For instance, check employee emails and messages for signs of distress, frustration, or burnout. Red flags include messages sent late at night, frequent errors, and a curt tone. Also, speak privately with employees who exhibit excessive absenteeism, non-participation in meetings, and other signs of disengagement. Work to better understand the situation and offer support.

Maintain Personal Connections

Stay in regular contact with employees, colleagues, and coworkers. For instance, have conversations about personal news and outside stressors that may be affecting their work. Also, check to see how your team is doing with their well-being and job satisfaction. Additionally, celebrate birthdays, work anniversaries, and special life events.

Make Open Communication Part of Your Culture

Open communication needs to be prioritized in your company culture to maximize business success. The more staff members at all levels actively listen, share ideas, and provide support for each other, the more cohesive your workforce will be. This results in greater goal attainment long into the future.

When you are in the market to add skilled accounting and finance professionals to your organization, get in touch with Casey Accounting & Finance Resources. Find out more today.

Ways to Push Employees Outside Their Comfort Zone and Set Them Up for Success

Everyone needs to step out of their comfort zone to be successful. The more education, skills, and experience we gain, the more value we have to give employers. As an accounting manager, this is one reason why you should encourage your team members to regularly take on new challenges. The more progress they make, the more your company benefits.

Follow these guidelines to encourage your accounting staff to continuously expand their comfort zone and reach their full potential.

Get to Know Your Team

Have ongoing conversations to learn all you can about your employees on a personal level. Find out their work styles, communication preferences, professional goals, strengths, and interests. Use this information to determine which tasks to delegate to each team member, who should lead a project, and specific ways to help each employee earn a promotion. Showing commitment to your team’s professional growth helps them advance in their careers.

Provide Stretch Assignments

Give your team stretch assignments and other challenges that promote growth. Provide guidance and advice as they work to solve problems and overcome obstacles. Having space and responsibility to work independently and collaboratively develops independence and self-reliance. These skills are important for career development.

Offer Support

Demonstrate confidence in your team’s ability to independently handle their work. Your staff members need to know they can accomplish their tasks using their knowledge and skills with little oversight. This promotes the belief that they can build on their strengths and abilities to get the desired results. Being available to provide support when needed increases team trust and cohesion.

Provide Feedback

Give feedback in real-time to enhance your employees’ performance. Share what they are doing well, what can be improved, and specific ways to do so. Understanding what, how, and why change is needed encourages your team to continue to do better.

Recognize Achievements

Point out when your employees attain success on their way to reaching individual or team goals. Because reaching each milestone is important, privately and publicly acknowledge what the team member accomplished and how their results benefitted the organization. Be sure to provide bonuses, raises, and promotions when appropriate. The more you praise and reward your team, the more likely they are to continue to add value to the company.

Hire Top Performers

Encouraging your accounting team to continuously move beyond their comfort zone helps set them up for success. Getting to personally know your employees, providing stretch assignments, and offering support show you trust them to be self-reliant in solving problems and overcoming obstacles. Giving feedback and recognizing accomplishments encourages your team to continue to improve their performance.

When the time comes to add top finance professionals to your team, get in touch with Casey Accounting & Finance Resources. Contact us for more information today.

3 Old-School Ways That Still Yield Recruiting Results

As recruiters, we utilize many recruiting sources to match the right candidate to our clients’ job order requests. Even though the economy is improving and more people are going back to work, we can have difficulty in finding the best candidate. With our years of experience, we have used a number of tactics to break through recruiting challenges. While job boards are helpful, we thought we would share some of the older methods that are still very effective.

Discover three old-school methods that still generate strong candidates.

Build Relationships

Create and expand on your connections. The more people in your sphere of influence, the more folks you can seek out when you are recruiting for your next open position.

Ask for Referrals

Our current clients are a top source for future clients and job orders. We ask for referrals from the clients who trust us to exceed their expectations. We often find commonalities with the referrals who may operate in the same industry, are the same size or need similar roles filled. You can use your existing professional relationships to help with candidate referrals.

Monitor Your Ratios

Your recruiting primary ratio shows how many candidate presentations you must give to obtain a quality candidate. Your goal should be no higher than 3:1. You may want to invest time in researching and planning to find the types of candidates you need. Additionally, match your primary ratio of quality candidates to send-outs. The lower the ratio, the better you are at matching what your hiring managers are looking for with qualified candidates. Pay attention to the job requirements, a fit to your company culture, and hiring goals and objectives to keep this ratio at 2:1 or better.

Work with a Staffing Leader

Enhancing client relationships and asking for referrals are two ways to widen the pool of potential candidates. Paying attention to your ratios and working to improve them also is effective.

When you need your accounting and finance job orders filled, reach out to Casey Accounting & Finance Resources. We ranked on the Forbes 2020 top 250 Best Professional Recruiting Firms in America. Learn more about our services today.

June Is National Safety Month: How to Improve Cyber Security

National Safety Month is a perfect time to focus on the importance of increasing your company’s cybersecurity on an ongoing basis. Because hackers continue to refine their attempts at accessing vulnerabilities in your system, everyone in your organization must remain vigilant in protecting against cyber threats.

Be sure your office is following these five tips to enhance cybersecurity.

Require the Use of Virtual Private Networks  

Make it mandatory for employees to use virtual private networks (VPNs) for all connections. Because a VPN blocks your IP address and encrypts the data you send over the internet, hackers cannot tell your location or access the information. VPNs also block malicious websites, ads, and popups that can download malware and trackers on your device.

Enforce Password Rules and a Password Management Tool

Make sure your employees create strong passwords and regularly change them. Establishing new passwords increases the odds of keeping hackers away from your system. Using a password management tool can create secure passwords for every site and keep them confidential while allowing employees to log into accounts.

Make Two-Factor or Multi-Factor Authentication Mandatory

Two-factor or multi-factor authentication adds layers of security to the password method of identification. In addition to entering a username and password, a personal identification code, second password, fingerprint, or other authentication method is needed to access the account.

Use Anti-Virus Protection and a Firewall

Anti-virus protection software blocks malware and other malicious viruses from entering your device and compromising your data. A firewall helps screen out hackers, viruses, and other malicious activity that determines which traffic is allowed to enter your device. Windows and Mac OS X come with their own firewalls, as your router should too.

Keep Your Connections Updated

Every connection to the internet needs to be regularly updated. Implementing software and system security updates adds patches and enhancements to your operating system and applications. This limits potential exposure to vulnerabilities that hackers can try to exploit.

Hire Top Accounting and Finance Professionals

Maintenance of your cybersecurity should be a top priority at all times, especially within accounting and finance departments. Consistently changing and protecting passwords, running updates, and watching for suspicious emails help protect your company from hackers.

When you need to add accounting and finance professionals to your team, let Casey Accounting & Finance Resources help. Reach out to learn more today.

High-Priority Accounting Positions to Fill Outside of Tax Season

As a manager of an accounting team, you need to be ready to hire at any time throughout the year. Although there are times when your employees are busier than usual and may need temporary help, there also are times when they decide to retire, go on leave, or seek other employment opportunities. These are reasons why you should be prepared to bring aboard additional team members at any point.

Discover three types of accounting positions you need to prioritize filling.

Positions of Retiring Baby Boomers

With an increasing number of baby boomers retiring, be sure you have a succession plan in place. Keep in mind that filling the gap may be a challenge. Most baby boomers invested a significant number of years with their employer. When they leave, they take a substantial amount of knowledge, skills, and experience with company culture, coworker relationships, and the organization’s inner workings with them. As a result, make it a priority to have these employees train their successors. This is especially important if your new hires have limited work experience.

Positions of Employees Going on Leave

When your employees plan to go on family, parental, or other planned leave, be sure you have a temporary worker lined up to fill in. This can minimize disruption to workflows and production processes. Gaining a short-term worker with the skills and qualifications needed to take over responsibilities reduces the amount of downtime your team experiences.

Positions of Employees Pursuing Other Opportunities

If an employee unexpectedly quits or is let go, you need to fill the vacancy as soon as possible. To expedite the process, have a list of skills and qualifications needed to include in the job description. Set aside adequate time to create a job posting, advertise the role, interview candidates, and extend a job offer. Better yet, work with a staffing agency that specializes in placing accounting candidates. You gain access to a diverse network of qualified professionals ready to meet with you and begin performing in a short amount of time. You spend significantly less time and money finding top talent than if you recruited on your own.

Partner with an Accounting and Finance Recruiter

When your accounting positions become vacant due to retirement, planned leave, or unexpected vacancies, you need the roles filled as quickly as possible. Because these scenarios can happen at any time, it is important you have a plan for how to best proceed.

Part of your plan should include contacting Casey Accounting & Finance Resources. As a recipient of ClearlyRated’s Best of Staffing Award from 2014 to 2020, which less than 2% of staffing agencies in the U.S. and Canada earn, our high client satisfaction scores show our dedication to providing quality service. Contact us today to find out more.

Management Challenges to Avoid

Managing an accounting and finance team has its challenges. Among them are adequate communication with your team, performance levels meeting standards, and maintaining enough team members to handle workflows. Fortunately, there are ways to overcome these issues and continue to move forward.

Discover three challenges most accounting and finance managers face and how to avoid them. 

Low Communication with the Team  

Inadequate communication with your team members can lead to problems down the road. For instance, your employees may not understand their role in a project, what they should be focusing on at a given time, or when the work should be done by. To avoid these issues, talk with your employees on a frequent basis. Redefine your standards for reaching team goals and objectives. Ensure your employees understand their individual and team responsibilities and deadlines. Reinforce the importance of asking questions.

Performance Levels Below Expectations

Your employees will have times where they are less productive than usual. This can affect your other team members, especially if they need to take on additional tasks to maintain productivity. When this happens, you need to motivate your employees to get back to their typical performance level. For instance, schedule time to talk privately with your team member. Clarify what their work hours, targets, and goals are. Compare your expectations to actual performance. Ask what has been causing the employee’s decrease in performance and how you can help. Work together to create a plan to improve by a certain deadline. Provide constructive feedback until you get together for further discussion.

The Team Is Understaffed

Consistently having more work than your employees can handle can lead to burnout. This is why you should consider adding a permanent or temporary member to your team. The additional worker can take on tasks that team members had been adding to their plates. This division of responsibilities allows everyone to focus on what they do best while reducing stress levels.

Work with a Professional Recruiter

Managing an accounting and finance team poses significant challenges. Among them is lack of adequate communication with your team, employees not meeting performance expectations, and regularly having too much work for your team to handle. Fortunately, these issues can be worked on with clear planning and action.

When you need help finding qualified accounting and finance candidates who are a good fit for your company and department cultures, partner with a recruiter from Casey Accounting & Finance Resources. Find out more today.

When’s the Right Time to Discuss Salary, Flexible Work Arrangements and Other Benefits During an Interview?

Career coaches typically say to put an employer’s needs ahead of your own during an interview. As important as that advice is, you also need to determine whether the employer can fit your personal needs and interests with salary, flexibility and other benefits. The trick is how to gain the information you need without coming across as overly demanding or not focused on the company’s needs. With a proper strategy, you can determine when the right time is to discuss salary, flexible work arrangements and other benefits during an interview. Here are some suggestions.

When the Interviewer Shows Interest in Hiring You

A good time to discuss salary, flexible work arrangements and other benefits is after the interviewer expresses interest in hiring you. For instance, they may ask when you can start or whether you can provide references. Doing so shows you have their attention and are a good fit for the role. Because you showed the value you can add to the business, you have the leverage to ask for information about salary, flexibility and benefits.

After Being Offered a Job

Discuss salary, flexible work arrangements and other benefits after you receive a job offer. Be sure you thoroughly researched everything you want well before your first interview. For instance, review the company website and job description for salary information. Use sites such as Glassdoor and Comparably to figure out the organization’s salary range and benefit structures. Connect with employees through LinkedIn to ask about company culture. You can state your case and provide evidence for why you should receive it. After negotiating your salary, bring up benefits. Be sure you clearly understand what the company is offering and whether it fits your needs. For instance, find out whether you’ll receive health insurance, a retirement plan and PTO. Depending on your lifestyle and interests, you want to ask about reimbursement for ongoing education, daycare, a gym membership or other benefits. After negotiating your benefits, bring up flexible work arrangements. For instance, ask how the teams are structured and which work arrangements best serve the company’s mission. Ask about the number of hours employees work each week. If there is flexibility, share whether you’re looking for a variable start and end time at the office, a four-day workweek, the ability to work remotely one or more days per week or some other option. Be ready to compromise on what you request.

Interview with a Leading Chicago Employment Agency

As a leading Chicago employment agency, Casey Accounting & Finance Resources offers complimentary use of our Career Tools Portal to help with your job search. You gain access to top job search tools, an article and video library, professional resume review, career assessment programs and more. When you’re done, you can set up an interview with one of our seasoned recruiters. Contact us today to get started!

6 Tips to Help Improve Your Networking Skills

It’s true that your network is your net worth. When you network out of genuine curiosity in all environments, you learn things you otherwise may not have known. If you have a typical routine and see many of the same people each day, take the time to get to know them. You never know what opportunities you may uncover. Here are six tips to help improve your networking skills.   

 1. Introduce Yourself 

A great way to meet people is by introducing yourself. Wherever you are, walk up to someone, put out your hand and tell them your name. Talk about who you are and what you do. Ask the person to do the same. Put yourself out there and show who you truly are so you attract whom you need. 

 2. Make Friends   

Because friends do business with friends, focus on starting relationships. Discuss your goals, dreams, challenges and personal interests. Find commonality to bond over. If someone especially impresses you, ask them to coffee or lunch to continue your conversation. When you need an in at a company and you have an established relationship with an employee there, you’re more likely to find the value you’re looking for than if you simply picked up that person’s business card.    

 3. Listen 

Be unlike most people and attentively listen. Show you are truly interested in what they have to say. Given the opportunity to truly connect enhances that person’s view of you as a friend. People trust you and feel safe sharing who they are. You gain much more knowledge when you give someone your undivided attention. What you learn could lead to career opportunities down the road.    

4. Give Before Asking 

Always give before asking for something in return. When you meet someone, think about how you can help them reach a goal, make a connection or overcome an obstacle. Show your willingness to invest in them, add value to their life and build trust. If nothing comes from the relationship, be happy that you helped someone.   

5. Request an Introduction 

If you want to meet a person, ask the people you know if they know anyone who knows the person. When you find someone who does, ask them to introduce you. Because a warm lead is better than a cold one, you’re more likely to get in the door as a referral than a cold email or phone call. Be sure to reciprocate when possible.   

6. Keep your word 

Follow through on everything you say you’ll do. Your word and reputation are your biggest assets. If you promise to follow up, then follow up. If you say you’ll close a deal, uphold the deal to the highest standard. People make referrals to someone who’s reliable and always there. 

Network with a Chicago Employment Agency 

Find your next role by networking with Casey Accounting & Finance Resources. Our extensive networking and recruitment programs help us place all levels of accounting and finance candidates. Contact our leading finance recruiters today!