Careers In Finance Archives

The 12 Joys We are Grateful For!

As the year ends and a new one is on our doorstep, we reflect on how fortunate we are and what we are grateful for in our everyday lives as we work to place people in outstanding job opportunities with great companies!

“I am grateful for the ability to impact someone’s life by finding them a career that has truly made a difference in their life. The best is when they come back to me years later to let me know! I am grateful for my standing desk. It allows me to burn calories while I work away…can’t beat that!” Cheryl

“I am grateful for strong working relationships.” Denise

“I’m grateful for terrific coworkers that know me better than I know myself some days, and for the ability to build new relationships every day. Also, couldn’t be more grateful for a sense of humor that helps me keep everything in perspective.” Rachel

“I am definitely thankful for donuts!” Jake

“I am grateful for the clients and candidates that contact me to assist with staffing and placement when needed, knowing I will do my best to assist!” Linda

“I am grateful for LinkedIn! As a new recruiter, I LOVE IT!” Adam

“I am thankful for great companies that we work with that allow us to place our wonderful candidates. I am thankful for a warm office to come to every day with great team members, wonderful leaders and owner!” Barbara

“I am grateful for the trust that each person places in me during the search process. And a hot cup of coffee each morning!” Pete

“I am grateful for the team I work with. We are a family and work together to help one another succeed.” Jessica

“I am grateful for the office treats!” Erika

“I am grateful for the client and candidate relationships I have developed and maintained over the many years! I am grateful for the technology available to me to make my job easier and accurate. I’m grateful for working with a dynamic and loyal management team.” Eileen

“I am grateful to be able to work with a great group of recruiters and staff who love what they do, for our amazing clients and the ability we have to give back to our community! Every day, we get to improve people’s lives and make an impact on their future. I am grateful to be a part of it all! Best wishes to all in 2016!” Patty

Learn About Financial Technology to Make Yourself an Attractive Job Candidate

Keeping up with technology should be the top priority of all those in the workforce today, especially those who work in the financial industry. By keeping up with the times and learning technology as it continues to change, you will turn yourself into a desirable candidate for plenty of financial companies looking to hire the right person. Here’s how to boost your ability to land a great finance job in Chicago by using financial technology.

Understand that Technology Relies on People

Believe it or not, technology relies on the people who use it. For this reason, it is important for companies to find candidates who excel in financial technology if they want to succeed within the industry. If employees are hired, but they are not efficient in the technology being used by the company, then the company will suffer in the end. Develop your “people skills” and your financial technology skills in tandem.

Companies Need Employees Efficient in ERP Systems

When financial companies look to hire new employees, they want candidates who are efficient in enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. They automate a lot of the financial processes these days, but the employees working on them must be proficient in order to help the company succeed. Employees must be able to mine business data and turn that data into guidance. Even though data is incredibly powerful today, companies need to have employees on their payroll who know how to harness that data.

Examples of ERP Systems

There are a number of options for companies using ERP systems. Some of the examples include:

Each of those systems features different benefits and characteristics. Taking time to evaluate the ERP systems and see how they match the goals of your company will lead to selecting the best fit for your organization.

Become an Attractive Financial Candidate

To become an attractive financial candidate in today’s highly competitive job market, you must not only learn technology being used, but also do each of the following things:

Determine what areas of your career need to be developed better. Talk with your manager about any training programs available to you from external providers.
Show curiosity for the technology that affects the financial industry and the company for which you work.
Jump aboard projects at work where new technology is being implemented, even if you have never used the technology. By volunteering yourself and your time, you show the company how dedicated you are to learning new things.

Turning yourself into an attractive job candidate in the financial world these days can be difficult, but it can be done if you learn the technology being used by companies today. Casey Accounting & Finance Resources can support your goals of landing a job in the finance sector. Contact our great team of financial recruiters today!

Hire Fast! Great Accounting & Finance Candidates Land Quickly!

In the job market, finance and accounting candidates are easy to come by, but the really great ones are few and far between. This means the top companies are competing for high-performing finance and accounting candidates, before others can snatch them up. They do this using smart recruitment practices.

How can your company attract and hire great accounting and finance candidates fast before they land at other companies? Start with these tips.

Offer something the other companies don’t.

Do your research to find out what finance and accounting candidates are looking for. First, conduct a salary and compensation survey using the most recent data for your region and type of industry. PayScale is a good place to start, and you can also search at the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational data or Salary.com. Find out what the best finance and accounting employees are earning, what benefits they enjoy, and what the market trends point to, in terms of career opportunities. Make this the foundation of your recruitment offering.

Become an employer of choice for finance and accounting pros.

Finance and accounting professionals are very much like other working people – they want to work for a well-respected company in the industry. Therefore, if you want to land the best candidates, your efforts should be about making your workplace the best in the market. Provide excellent compensation packages, highly ethical work practices, and proactive ways of getting people to that place they dream about.

Provide flexible work arrangements and career growth.

Working in the accounting and finance fields can be exhausting. Accounting and finance pros often find themselves working grueling hours on time-sensitive projects that drain them. This is why a company should offer flexible scheduling that allows for generous amounts of time off when needed. On top of that, career growth is a big need for many who work in this area of business. Offering training and advancement opportunities speaks loudly to top candidates.

Don’t forget about passive finance candidates.

When trying to obtain the best finance and accounting candidates possible, think outside of recruiting active job seekers. Look further and start connecting with passive candidates who may be seeking something better in the future. Building relationships with passive finance and accounting candidates gives you a chance to attract those who are highly valued in the market, so when they are ready for a new job, they will consider your company first.

Hire on a temporary basis.

One of the best ways to attract and hire the top accounting professionals in the market is via temporary staffing agencies. Many accounting and finance pros are looking for better opportunities, and they will seek out temp projects going this route. This also works well for seasonal peaks in your business and those that demand specialists in finance and accounting topics.

Casey Accounting & Finance Resources, a winner of Inavero’s Best of Staffing® Client Award for the second consecutive year, can help your company meet all of its financial staffing needs. Contact our award-winning team today to get started!

How to Turn Off a Top Candidate in an Interview

Years ago, hiring companies didn’t care so much about the candidate experience and about turning candidates off in the process. Now, however, the tides have turned and it’s become a candidate-driven job market. Today’s companies have to work harder than ever to attract top talent. Then, once they have them in person at an interview, employers must do their best to impress an outstanding candidate enough so that they will enthusiastically accept the job offer.

How can you know if you are impressing the best candidates or if you are simply turning them off? If you are having problems getting top talent to call you back or accept job offers, this could be a clear sign that your interviewing process has issues. Here are some ways you could be ruining your chances of hiring the best.

Making the application process far too complex and time consuming

One of the biggest pet peeves of candidates is that they are often forced to spend way too much time filling out job applications, taking online assessments, and answering pre-interview screening questions. An overreliance on applicant tracking systems leads to candidates who would rather walk away than go through the hassle. If the candidate does “jump through all the hoops,” often weeks go by without any response from the company. When this happens, the professionalism of the company is in jeopardy.

Being unprepared or disconnected during job interviews

When the candidate comes to your office for an interview, is the environment welcoming? There is nothing more annoying for a top candidate than to be shuffled into an interview room to face an unprepared and unprofessional interviewer. Reading through canned interview questions, not taking notes or talking about things of relevance with the candidate is recruitment suicide.

Requiring candidates to endure group interviews or coming back for multiple interviews

This can be a huge waste of time that many candidates will not put up with anymore. Make interviews straightforward, intimate, and focused on the outcome. Try to schedule the candidate’s time effectively to meet with the key players at your organization on the same day. A top candidate’s time is important, too. Even worse, after the first interview the candidate does not get a response from the company, or the company calls him back many weeks later for another interview.

Doing all of the talking and asking all the questions during interviews

Another way that so many recruiters turn candidates off is by doing all the talking and not creating a dialogue. This is never a good idea. Don’t make the candidate feel like they are being interrogated in an interview. By creating a dialogue, you get to know your candidate better and the candidate gets to know the goals and mission of your organization, and how he/she can help you achieve these goals.

Rushing the candidate through interviews, form completion and background checks

Once you have a top candidate on board, don’t make the mistake of then rushing them through the hiring process. Respect that they will likely have to provide notice to their current employer, may need to relocate, and a whole slew of other responsibilities before they can come work for your company.

If you have noticed that some of these areas are a problem, take steps to correct your approach to hiring top talent. You’ll find that a staffing agency can also help to reduce losing good people.

Casey Accounting & Finance Resources, a winner of Inavero’s Best of Staffing® Client Award for the second consecutive year, can help your company meet all of its financial staffing needs for jobs in Chicago and more. Contact our award-winning team today to get started!

How Do you Use LinkedIn to Find Great Accounting & Finance Candidates

On the prowl for quality finance and accounting candidates for your business? If you are like most recruiters, you are tapped into social media on a regular basis. Recent studies have shown that nearly 90 percent of all recruiters look to social media networks like LinkedIn to produce high-quality candidates both passive and active. In other words, LinkedIn can be a gold mine for any hiring manager.

So what is the secret to finding the best finance and accounting employees using LinkedIn? In the following article we will talk about ways to make the best use of LinkedIn and the staffing agencies that have a strong presence on LinkedIn for finding outstanding finance and accounting candidates.

1. Set up a branded presence as an employer of choice

If you haven’t already done so, be sure to create an employer Web page and or the profile of your recruitment team on LinkedIn. You’ll want to make sure that it is well branded with a positive look and feel so that financial and accounting candidates will be interested in learning more about you.

2. Create a company page with the latest financial jobs

Once you have developed your brand as an employer of choice, it’s important to create a central company recruitment page that features the latest financial jobs at your company. You can do this within LinkedIn or you can set up a page on your main company website with links to your LinkedIn job postings. Enable candidates the ability to apply for jobs using LinkedIn recruitment tools.

3. Use the advanced search feature on LinkedIn

Just like many social media networks, LinkedIn has a special advanced search feature built right in. Use this to search for financial and accounting candidates who meet certain criteria that your company is looking for. For example, you may want accounting and financial candidates who have at least five years of experience in the industry. Type in the word ‘mid-level’ as you search for a candidate of this status.

4. Connect with the best financial candidates via groups

High-performance financial candidates will likely be participating in industry groups on LinkedIn. You can either create your own groups on LinkedIn or you can become a follower of the most popular LinkedIn financial and accounting groups. Connect with candidates by sharing valuable content, job leads, and in commenting on the content of other participants. You can also follow specific financial and accounting thought leaders and then connect with the people in their networks.

5. Join accounting and finance groups for a variety of benefits

LinkedIn has done a great job of creating groups to connect like-minded people. Those groups provide outlets to learn a number from industry thought leaders. With people sharing similar interests in one area, that’s an easy way to connect to potential job candidates – both active and passive jobseekers. On top of those connections, you also can learn about the current topics in the industry from people on a local, regional or national scale.

Remember, LinkedIn can be a powerful way to find the best financial and accounting candidates in the industry. Use common courtesy and respect the people who use LinkedIn for networking purposes. If you have questions about hiring financial and accounting candidates, be sure to contact our network of recruiters in this space.