How a Strong Company Culture Can Lead to Better Retention

Your company’s culture is one of its biggest assets. It shows what your organization stands for and serves as a guide for employee interactions.

Having a well-developed culture can encourage the best talent to work for you. Once these employees become part of your organization, they are likely to remain for an extended time.

The longer your employees remain, the higher your retention rates. This lowers the amount of time and money spent on hiring, which improves your bottom line.

Find out how you can develop a strong company culture to improve your employee retention rates.

Business Guidance  

Displaying a strong mission, vision, and values provides employees with a sense of guidance and security. It shows what you stand for as a company. This helps attract employees who align with your culture.

Employees with values in line with your company’s values tend to make better business decisions. This typically aligns with your company’s vision and business strategy.

Be sure to advertise your culture and exhibit it in everything your organization does. For instance, regularly talk about your company’s vision and strategy. Include what these topics mean for different teams. Helping your employees better understand the company can improve engagement, motivation, and retention.

Include your company values when evaluating employee performance. This can improve engagement.

Flexible Work Arrangements

Offering remote or hybrid work and a flexible schedule helps your employees manage work-life balance. Letting them handle their personal needs during the workday helps lower stress. This reduces the odds of experiencing burnout.

Your employees may desire additional paid time off (PTO), stipends for child care, or paid parental or personal leave. Providing these accommodations shows you care about your employees’ well-being.

Talk with your employees about individual accommodations they may need to fit their personal circumstances. Increased flexibility typically leads to increased retention.

Performance Recognition

Regularly thanking your employees for their efforts and results helps them feel appreciated. This tends to elevate engagement, productivity, and retention.

Performance recognition should take a variety of forms. This may include a hand-written thank-you note, verbal praise during an individual or team meeting, or a mention on the company intranet.

Regularly point out your employees’ contributions to benefit the organization. Include each employee’s specific actions, their results, and how they impacted the business. Provide bonuses, raises, or promotions when appropriate.

Looking for Accounting and Finance Professionals?

Employees want to work for companies that have a strong culture. You can promote your culture by using it to guide employees to make business decisions. You also can offer flexible work arrangements and provide performance recognition to increase the attractiveness of your workplace. All of these factors contribute to your retention rates.

If you need help adding accounting and finance professionals to your team, talk with Casey Accounting & Finance Resources. Learn more today.

What College Graduates Are Looking for in Their Job Search

It’s the time of year again for college graduations! This means more accounting and finance candidates are entering the workforce.

You want to take advantage of the knowledge, skills, and ideas this new group of talent has to offer. One of the best ways to attract these job seekers is through your benefits and perks. The more your benefits and perks fill these graduates’ needs, the more likely the graduates are to want to work for you.

Offering any of the following can encourage new college graduates to apply for your jobs.

Diversity and Inclusion

New college graduates prioritize joining a company that celebrates and values the differences among its employees. These companies tend to excel at innovation and problem-solving, making them highly attractive to job seekers.

Make sure your company has employees of different cultures, ethnicities, genders, ages, and backgrounds at all levels. Showcase your employee resource groups (ERGs), cultural holiday celebrations, and other commitments to diversity and inclusion as well.

Work-Life Balance

The ability to control their time is important for recent college graduates. This is especially important for stress relief as these graduates transition from an academic setting into a professional setting.

Ensure you emphasize whether your company offers remote or hybrid work, a flexible schedule, generous paid time off, and mental health services. These benefits and perks help make your organization attractive to job seekers.

Tailored Benefits Package

Recent college graduates seek benefits that fit their current career and personal interests. These benefits may include student loan repayment, paid family or personal leave, or financial planning education.

Consider offering one or more of these benefits. The more you cater to recent graduates’ needs, the more inclined they will be to apply for your jobs.

Professional Development Opportunities

Recent college graduates want to work for an employer that provides opportunities for professional development. Because their first job serves as a stepping stone for their career, these graduates want to know what the future within an organization may hold for them.

Consider offering opportunities for mentorship, skill-building, and leadership development. The more opportunities for professional development new graduates see, the more likely they are to want to work for you.

Attractive Company Culture

New college graduates seek a company culture that blends with their personality and interests. The more these graduates feel that the culture is a good fit, the more likely they are to remain long-term.

Be sure your culture actively supports learning and growth. This should include ongoing employee recognition for their contributions and results.

Need Help Adding to Your Accounting and Finance Team?

New college graduates typically look for diversity and inclusion, work-life balance, tailored benefits, professional development opportunities, and attractive company culture when deciding where they want to work. Offering these increases the number of new graduates who apply to work for your company.

If you need help adding members to your Chicagoland accounting and finance team, turn to the experts at Casey Accounting & Finance Resources. Learn more today.

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.

4 Ways to Get Your Employees Involved in Corporate Culture

Investing time and energy into designing a unique, effective corporate culture results in a positive employee experience. Encouraging staff to get involved in creating and exhibiting your company mission, vision, and values promotes buy-in and improves engagement. Workers perform their best when who they are as people is reflected in what they do for a living. Having an attractive culture makes others want to work for your organization.

Choose among these ideas to involve your employees in corporate culture.

Emphasize Employee Stories

Show what it’s like to work for your company through employee experiences. You may decide to create a Culture Book filled with staff members’ definitions of corporate culture in their own words. Team members sharing what they enjoy most about working for your organization provides transparency, honesty, and authenticity that job candidates find attractive. Include a mix of videos on your website and social media posts featuring employee stories that highlight your culture.

Set Up an Informal Team Meeting with New Hires

Schedule a time for your new hire to meet with your team in a relaxed setting. Getting together in a low-key environment provides space to develop true connectedness and friendship. Integrating work and life promotes lasting relationships among colleagues. Staff can learn from each other, ask for guidance, and build camaraderie and trust. This can extend to one-on-one meetings for coffee or lunch to further get to know others on a personal basis.

Demonstrate How Employees Live Corporate Culture

Include staff in specific activities that exhibit your company’s mission, mission, and values. This may be through giving out WOW cards with a company value on each. Employees hand a card to one another when they see someone demonstrating a specific value. This peer-to-peer recognition emphasizes core values as part of everyday behavior. If physical health is a company value, offer bonuses to employees who participate in internal wellness events such as a 5K, fitness classes, health screenings, smoking cessation programs, or an on-site fitness center.

Create an Employee Facebook Group

Encourage a sense of community among employees by creating an employee Facebook Group. Everyone can keep in contact and see what others are up to, both personally and professionally. They can share videos, family pictures, events they’re hosting, and more. Employees can welcome new hires, share important information, and help them get acclimated.

Find Top Accounting and Finance Professionals

Involving employees in corporate culture encourages buy-in to the organization. When staff talk and behave in alignment with company mission, vision, and values, it creates an atmosphere conducive to productivity, engagement, and company loyalty. Attracting top talent to your organization keeps your company competitive.

If you’re looking for experienced accounting and finance candidates, reach out to Casey Accounting & Finance Resources. Being named one of Chicago’s Best and Brightest Companies to Work For® shows our innovative and thoughtful approach to sourcing and placing qualified candidates. Learn more about our process today.