Boost Your Hire Quality with Employee Referrals

Asking your employees to recommend members of their network for job openings is an effective hiring method. Each employee who refers a candidate who becomes a new hire and remains for a set time typically receives an incentive.

An employee referral typically fits with your organization better than a non-referred candidate. As a result, employee referrals boost your hire quality.

Discover how employee referrals boost your hire quality.

Employee Referrals Have High Conversion Rates

A candidate with no connection to your company must undergo extensive screenings and interviews to determine their qualifications and fit with company culture. In contrast, an employee referral has a personal connection with your workforce. Therefore, the employee can provide extensive details about the referral’s background, qualifications, and fit with company culture. As a result, employee referrals typically receive more job offers for roles that non-referred candidates apply for.

Employee Referrals Decrease the Time to Hire

Hiring a non-referred candidate takes longer than hiring an employee referral. For instance, a non-referred candidate must undergo resume screening, extensive interviews, and background checks before potentially receiving a job offer.

In contrast, an employee referral has an employee advocate. Therefore, the employee can attest to the referral’s knowledge, skills, and experience. Also, because most people spend time with others who have similar personalities, the referral is likely to fit with your company’s culture. As a result, the referral typically needs a short interview process before potentially receiving a job offer.

Employee Referrals Strengthen Attraction and Retention Rates

An employee referral tends to remain with your company longer than a non-referred employee. For instance, an employee referral already knows a member of your workforce. Having personal ties to an organization encourages the employee to remain long-term.

Conversely, employees who lack personal ties from Day 1 can struggle to adapt to their new role and the culture. Therefore, if the employee does not form work relationships for guidance and support, they likely will not remain loyal to your company.

Employee referrals typically have higher job satisfaction than non-referred employees. For instance, an employee referral likely received accurate information about the company structure, culture, job duties and responsibilities, expectations, and other relevant details. As a result, the referral should understand what to expect and remain for several years.

In contrast, a non-referred employee might have received inaccurate information or misinterpreted the information. Therefore, the employee’s experience might not match their expectations. As a result, the employee likely will look for a new job within a short time.

Would You Like Help Boosting the Quality of Your Hires?

Employee referrals have high conversion rates, decrease your time to hire, and typically remain long-term. As a result, you save time and money on hiring, onboarding, and training.

Similar to employee referrals, Casey Accounting & Finance Resources can provide you with accounting and finance candidates to boost the quality of your hires. Connect with us to find out more today.

How Human Skills Are Reshaping Hiring Priorities

Human skills are reshaping hiring priorities. Many companies are transitioning from competency-based hiring to skills-based hiring for more effective results.

Adopting a skills-based approach to hiring lets companies capitalize on the potential of their workforce and external candidate pools for greater operational efficiencies. This approach provides opportunities for nontraditional employees to work for the organizations and helps optimize team and organizational performance.

Adopting a Skills-Based Approach to Hiring

Most CEOs say there is a global skills shortage but not a people shortage. As a result, many companies are switching from a competency-based model to a skills-based approach to hiring.

Implementing a skills-based approach to hiring lets an organization capitalize on the potential of its workforce and external candidate pools to support operational efficiencies. This approach is significantly more effective than a competency-based hiring model.

Breaking Down Skills-Based Hiring

Skills-based hiring breaks down job duties, responsibilities, and tasks into a set of skills and capabilities. Then, HR professionals use AI-based technology to match skills to roles, training sessions, and opportunities. These activities expand external talent pools and increase organizational capacity through hiring.

Differences Between Skills-Based Hiring and Competency-Based Hiring

Traditional competency models rely on static skills databases, disconnected systems, and inefficient interfaces. Therefore, companies manually make hiring decisions based on anecdotes and assumptions. As a result, leaders typically focus on candidate education and work experience to make hiring decisions. These factors leave out current and potential employees with untapped potential.

In contrast, a skills-based model relies on data and insights to make hiring decisions. As a result, current and potential employees increase their career opportunities, and companies elevate their operational capacity.

For instance, candidates without access to colleges and universities might complete technical boot camps or certification programs. If these candidates apply to companies with a competency-based hiring model, they likely will be removed from the application process because they do not have college degrees. Conversely, if these candidates apply to companies with a skills-based hiring model, they can be accurately and equitably matched to roles based on their capabilities. Therefore, hiring based on skills opens doors for nontraditional employees and eliminates barriers to entry.

Business Case for a Skills-Based Approach to Hiring

Using a skills-based hiring model provides employees with personalized career plans and information about required skill development for learning and growth. This model also shows managers which skills their teams lack. Then, managers can determine whether to provide relevant training to upskill or reskill their employees or to hire external talent.

Would You Like Help with Skills-Based Hiring?

Adopting a skills-based approach to hiring lets you capitalize on the potential of your workforce and external candidate pools to support operational efficiencies. This approach opens doors for nontraditional employees and eliminates barriers to entry.

Casey Accounting & Finance Resources can provide you with skilled accounting and finance candidates to help you reach your company goals. Contact us to learn more today.

CSR’s Ripple Effect on Branding and Recruitment

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has a ripple effect on a company’s branding and recruitment efforts. This management concept describes how an organization contributes to the well-being of communities and society through environmental and social measures.

CSR is a strategic method to enhance employer brand and help attract and retain top talent. Organizations that prioritize CSR stand out from the competition and appeal to new generations of employees. The results include a more attractive business reputation, stronger relationships with stakeholders, and a more sustainable and equitable future.

Why You Shouldn’t Neglect CSR

Core CSR Responsibilities

The three main CSR responsibilities help a company positively impact the environment and society. These responsibilities include:

  1. Adopting ethical business practices to ensure transparency, fairness, and integrity in business operations. Adhering to legal regulations, respecting human rights, and avoiding exploitative or harmful practices.
  2. Actively working toward environmental sustainability. Implementing eco-friendly practices, conserving resources, and minimizing pollution to reduce the company’s ecological footprint. Embracing renewable energy, reducing waste, and supporting conservation efforts.
  3. Engaging in philanthropic activities to give back to the community. Supporting social causes, educational initiatives, healthcare programs, or other projects that benefit society.

Categories of CSR

CSR typically falls into four categories:

  1. Ethical labor practices: Treating employees fairly and ethically.
  2. Environmental efforts: Taking steps to reduce a company’s carbon footprint.
  3. Philanthropy: Donating money, products, or services to nonprofit organizations.
  4. Volunteerism: Employees donate their time to local causes and community events.

Examples of CSR

CSR can take forms such as:

Importance of CSR

Many companies prioritize CSR for different reasons:

  • Improved brand: Many stakeholders look for socially conscious organizations to work for or conduct business with.
  • Stronger employee attraction and retention: Millennials and Gen Z are among the employees who want jobs with companies that emphasize people, planet, and revenue.
  • Investor appeal: Demonstrating a developed CSR program and initiatives helps attract and retain investors.

CSR for Branding and Recruitment

Employer branding is the perception of a company as a place to work. This branding reflects the organization’s culture and employee experience.

Strong employer branding helps differentiate the company from its competitors. Showing why the organization stands out helps recruit and retain qualified candidates. The results include:

  • Higher employee engagement
  • More productivity
  • Increased performance
  • Greater job satisfaction
  • More team cohesion
  • Better collaboration
  • Elevated employee morale
  • Greater innovation
  • Lower recruitment, onboarding, and training costs
  • Stronger bottom line
  • Bigger competitive advantage

Need Help to Recruit and Retain Accounting and Finance Employees?

CSR has a ripple effect on employer branding and employee recruitment and retention. Companies that contribute to the well-being of communities and society through environmental and social measures are more attractive to employees, customers, and other stakeholders than companies that do not engage in these activities. As a result, businesses that prioritize CSR typically have strong employer brands and high employee recruitment and retention rates.

Partner with Casey Accounting and Finance Resources for help with recruiting and retaining accounting and finance employees. Find out more today.

How to Utilize Automation to Better Your Hiring Process

The implementation of automation helps streamline your hiring process. The benefits include:

  • Time savings: You can automate tasks such as sharing job postings, sourcing candidates, scheduling interviews, and generating job offer letters. These actions free up time to build candidate relationships, conduct interviews, and fulfill other core activities.
  • Reduced biases: Automation in your screening process focuses on a candidate’s credentials rather than ethnicity, gender, age, and other personal identifiers. This process helps reduce unconscious biases that can influence hiring decisions.
  • Shorter time to hire: Automation of repetitive tasks helps speed up your hiring process. Filling jobs with the right candidates in less time helps save time and money.
  • Better candidate experience: Maintaining communication throughout your hiring process encourages candidate engagement. This process increases the odds of hiring the best candidates and receiving positive employer reviews.

As a result, you should start implementing automation in your hiring process today.

Discover how to utilize automation to better your hiring process.

Share Job Postings

You can use automation to share job postings with both the public and your employees. Letting your employees know which openings you are hiring for encourages them to provide referrals.

Employee referrals typically fit the job requirements and blend with your culture. As a result, you can fast-track referrals through your hiring process.

The sooner you begin onboarding and training employee referrals, the quicker they can begin producing. Even better, referrals are likely to remain long-term because they already know employees within your organization.

Streamline Your Resume Screening Process

A chatbot can evaluate resumes based on the criteria you set. Then, the bot can post on your chat platform the resumes of qualified candidates and mark them in your applicant tracking system (ATS) the rejected resumes. This process significantly reduces the time needed to screen resumes.

Schedule Interviews

Automation of the interview scheduling process lets qualified candidates decide when to meet for job interviews. The interviews get scheduled both in your ATS and on your scheduling platform.

The chatbot sends the interviewers and candidates reminders of the dates and times of the interviews. The bot also sends interviewers a link to each candidate’s profile in your ATS to prepare for the interview.

Sharing the interviewers’ availability lets candidates schedule or reschedule the times that work best for everyone. This process simplifies the ability to coordinate interviewer and candidate schedules.

Support Candidate Evaluations

Evaluating candidates soon after interviews helps provide performance feedback:

  • When a candidate moves to the interview stage in your ATS, a channel on your communication platform is created for the interviewers.
  • After the discussion, the interviewers receive a scorecard to fill out.
  • The responses populate the candidate’s ATS profile.
  • An HR chatbot schedules an interviewer videoconference to share thoughts on the candidate and determine the next step.

Deliver Job Offer Letters

Sending job offer letters soon after making hiring decisions increases the odds of candidate acceptance. Then, you can add the best candidates to your team.

The following process can create a job offer letter:

  • When a candidate in your ATS moves to the offer stage, a chatbot shares the offer details with the appropriate stakeholders through your communication platform.
  • The stakeholders approve or reject the candidate.
  • Approved job offer details are included in a letter created on your electronic signature platform.
  • A chatbot shares the job offer letter with the stakeholders to review and approve or reject it.
  • An approved letter is sent to the candidate through your electronic signature platform.
  • The signed letter is uploaded to your ATS.
  • The candidate’s status changes to hired.

Would You Like Help to Hire Accounting and Finance Professionals?

Casey Accounting & Finance Resources can provide you with qualified accounting and finance professionals to benefit your team. Contact us to learn more today.

How to Write a Good Job Description

Writing a good job description involves sharing the duties, responsibilities, expectations, and requirements for the role. This information helps job seekers determine whether they can see themselves in the position and should apply.

Creating a clear job description helps create questions for the interview process. It also supports the hiring team throughout the candidate selection process.

Having an effective job description helps create new hire goals and training and development plans. It also supports job performance evaluations, career pathing, and company growth.

Implement these tips to write a good job description.

Choose a Targeted Job Title

Use a title with keywords that many job seekers search for. Titles that indicate what the role involves, such as “Call Center Agent” rank higher in search engine results than vague titles, such as “Rock-Star Marketer.” Job postings that rank well typically have a high number of clicks that can lead to qualified applicants.

Outline the Job Duties and Responsibilities

Highlight what would be expected of the new hire. Include the day-to-day activities and to whom the individual would report. Help job seekers determine whether this is the right position for them.

Limit the Qualifications

List the most essential education, skills, and experience required for the role. Keep in mind that hard skills can be taught while on the job. Limiting the number of qualifications encourages more candidates to apply.

Share the Salary Range

Let job seekers know what type of compensation to expect. Candidates who desire a higher salary can apply for other positions. This saves time reviewing resumes and scheduling interviews.

List the Benefits and Perks

Let job seekers know which benefits and perks make the role desirable. Examples include health insurance, a retirement plan with a company match, paid time off, a remote or hybrid work environment, and a flexible schedule. Supporting job seekers’ quality of life encourages them to apply to your openings.

Are You Looking for Help with Writing Job Descriptions?

Choosing a targeted job title, outlining the job duties and responsibilities, and limiting the qualifications encourage top talent to apply for your open positions. Sharing the salary range and listing the benefits and perks show job seekers what they can gain from working for your organization.

For additional help with writing good job descriptions, get in touch with Casey Accounting & Finance Resources. Contact us today.

Tips for Filling Accounting or Finance Positions

Filling your accounting or finance positions during The Great Resignation can be challenging. Many employees are leaving their jobs for opportunities that better align with their goals, values, and interests.

Fortunately, understanding what candidates are looking for in accounting or finance positions helps guide your approach to hiring. These suggestions can help.

Implement these tips for filling accounting or finance positions.

Be Involved in the Entire Hiring Process

Clarify exactly what you are looking for in a candidate. This provides a foundation on which other members of your hiring team can help source candidates.

For instance, assume you need to hire an accounting clerk. You might develop a list of the required and preferred skills as a guide for your hiring team.

Your list of required skills for an accounting clerk might include:

  • Knowledge of basic finance, accounting, and bookkeeping principles
  • Proficiency in mathematics
  • Ability to learn new technologies
  • Time management skills
  • Attention to detail

Your list of preferred skills for an accounting clerk might include:

  • Formal accounting training
  • Experience in administrative or accounting roles
  • Proficiency with budgeting and bookkeeping software
  • Collaborative work style
  • Strong communication skills

Stating exactly what you are looking for helps your hiring team properly source active and passive candidates. Narrowing down your pool of qualified candidates saves time when reviewing resumes and deciding whom to contact for interviews.

Build Candidate Relationships

Get to know active and passive candidates on a personal level. This increases their interest in filling your accounting and finance positions.

Learn all you can about a candidate’s education, skills, experience, goals, and interests. Find out what motivates them to work, what they like most and least about their jobs, and what attracts them to an employer.

Focus on how one of your opportunities fits with the candidate’s background. Emphasize what the candidate would gain by coming to work for you.

Focusing on your candidates’ wants and needs encourages them to want to work for you. This increases your likelihood of adding top talent to your team.

Ask Relevant Interview Questions

Pay attention to a candidate’s hard and soft skills and behavioral intelligence during an interview. For instance, if you need to hire an accounting clerk, you might ask:

How do you maintain quality control with your work?

Candidates should thoroughly check their work to ensure accuracy. Listen for cross-checking or strategies for quality control and attention to detail. Minimizing errors saves time and money.

How do you manage to work under tight deadlines?

Candidates should be able to juggle multiple projects and manage workflows while under pressure. They must work efficiently, delegate tasks, and request support when needed. Listen for a positive attitude while facing challenges, the ability to prioritize work, and effective time management skills.

How do you present financial data to nonfinancial professionals?

Candidates should feel comfortable sharing financial information in a calm, effective manner. Their audience should be able to understand and apply the information to their situation.

Need Help Filling Accounting or Finance Positions?

Being involved in the entire hiring process and building candidate relationships help source qualified candidates and encourage them to apply to your accounting or finance positions. Asking relevant interview questions lets you find the best candidates to add to your team.

For additional help filling your accounting or finance positions, partner with Casey Accounting & Finance Resources. Find out more today.

Struggling to Get Applicants? Why You Need to Examine Your Hiring Process and How Long It Takes to Hear Back

Like many employers, you may be having difficulty filling your job openings. One of the reasons may be that you take too long to respond to candidates.

Regular follow-up throughout your hiring process is important. This may include letting candidates know you received their application, would like to schedule an interview or are considering offering them a job. It also involves what the next steps in the process are and when the candidate should expect to hear from you.

Discover why regular communication throughout your hiring process is an effective way to hire the best applicants.

Respect

Responding to each candidate shows you respect their time. Applying for a job takes a significant amount of research and decision-making. Expressing interest in working for your company says a great deal about your organization. Showing appreciation is important.

Realistically, you may be unable to personally respond to each candidate. As a result, you might want to automate your responses with your applicant tracking system (ATS). This helps provide a positive candidate experience.

Candidate Engagement

Top candidates have many employment options. Following up with them throughout your hiring process helps keep them engaged. This increases the odds that your best candidates will accept potential job offers from you.

Be sure to let each candidate know when they should expect to hear from you. Also, fulfill these expectations as much as possible. If you need to extend a timeframe, let each candidate know as soon as possible.

Candidate Experience

Effectively following up throughout your hiring process improves the candidate experience. This helps set your company apart from the competition. It also helps you hire more high-quality candidates.

Even if you’re not ready to provide a job offer, share with your most desirable candidates feedback on their interviews. This encourages them to want to work for your organization.

Talent Pipelines

The more you keep in contact with candidates, the more your talent pipelines remain filled. A candidate who has a positive experience with your company but isn’t offered a job may apply for a role in the future. They also might refer other candidates to your organization.

Employer Brand

Regular follow-up with each candidate enhances your employer brand. The more you communicate with candidates, the more positive your company’s reputation remains.

Many candidates post reviews on Glassdoor and other employer review sites. They’re likely to share positive reviews when you follow up on an ongoing basis. This encourages other candidates to apply to your organization.

Want Help Hiring?

If you’re not regularly following up with candidates, you may be having trouble filling your jobs. Ongoing communication with candidates promotes respect for their time, engagement in the hiring process, and a positive candidate experience. It also helps keep your talent pipeline full and your employer brand positive.

If you need help hiring, Casey Accounting & Finance Resources can match you with qualified candidates to fill your business needs. Learn more today.

Are Cover Letters Outdated? Why Requiring a Cover Letter in Your Application Process May Deter Candidates from Applying

The majority of hiring managers have stopped requiring cover letters to be included with resumes. Most managers feel that cover letters have no impact on which applicants they decide to interview.

As a result, you may want to consider eliminating cover letters from your application process. Because this saves candidates time, they are more likely to apply for your roles.

Because they typically do not influence hiring decisions, you may want to stop including cover letters in your application process.

Automation in Hiring

The process of matching candidates with jobs is increasingly being done with technology. With the amount of online information available, applicant details are easily accessible. As a result, cover letters typically are not necessary.

You can learn about applicants through their social media profiles, online portfolios, websites, and blogs. This provides greater nuance and detail than a cover letter can.

Speed and Convenience

Online and mobile applications are becoming the new norm for job applications. This partly is because efficiency and effectiveness are required to attract top talent.

Requiring a cover letter may dissuade the best candidates to complete your application process. Most candidates will not spend more than 15 minutes on an application. Elimination of a cover letter can help resolve this issue.

Other Screening Methods

You may choose different methods to prescreen applicants. For instance, you might use assessment tools to validate the skills you are looking for. Or, you could request video submissions to get a feel for applicants’ personalities. This can help determine which applicants would be a good culture fit.

Make sure you use the right job titles and descriptions in your job postings. This can narrow down the list of applicants with the soft skills that otherwise may be listed in cover letters.

Tailor your job content to attract qualified applicants. These applicants have the experience, achievements, goals, and personality to excel in the role.

Get Help with Your Hiring Process

As cover letters continue to become outdated, you may want to reconsider whether should be included in your application process. The best talent does not want to spend a lot of time applying for a job. Also, most hiring managers aren’t considering content in cover letters when deciding which applicants to interview. As a result, it may be in everyone’s best interest not to require the submission of cover letters with resumes.

For help with hiring accounting and finance professionals, contact Casey Accounting & Finance Resources. Reach out today.

Top Talent Aren’t Getting Just One Offer! Here Is How You Should Approach a Counteroffer

When hiring accounting and finance professionals, your choice candidates likely will receive counteroffers from their current managers. Because employers do not want to lose their best talent, many will provide incentives for their staff to stay with their team. This is why you need to proactively address the issue with your shortlisted candidates. Providing reasons why applicants should turn down counteroffers increases the odds of having your top candidate decide to join your team.

Follow these guidelines to encourage your top accounting and finance applicants not to accept a counteroffer from their current employer.

Reinforce Each Candidate’s Reasons for Leaving

Remind your top applicants why they decided to look for a new job in the first place. Most of the time, it has nothing to do with making more money. This is why accepting a pay increase through a counteroffer likely will not retain the employee long-term. If the staff member does not get along well with their manager, they are not being challenged in their work, or there is no room for advancement, the issue is likely to remain.

Question Whether Staying Would Make Things Change

Ask each of your shortlisted candidates whether anything would improve long-term if they remained with their current employer. In most cases, the applicants began seeking new jobs because they felt restricted or unappreciated. They may have been passed over for a promotion or not given other opportunities to grow. Although the candidates may have expressed their concerns to their manager, the issues likely went unaddressed. Odds are these problems will remain even if the applicants decide to accept a counteroffer.

Point Out the Job Insecurity of Staying

Remind your best talent that once they submit their resignation, they damage the relationship with their employer. Even if your candidates accept a counteroffer, things will remain tense at work. Their manager may wonder how loyal they really are and whether they would accept an even better offer if it came along. Their employer also may begin making plans to replace the employee as soon as possible. Or, if the company wants to eliminate positions, the team member who tried to resign likely will be let go first.

Are You Looking for Top Accounting and Finance Professionals?

When adding skilled accounting and finance professionals to your team, they are likely to receive counteroffers from their current employers. One of the best ways to discourage your potential team members from accepting these offers is by pointing out why they decided to leave their jobs in the first place. You also can ask whether things truly will change by staying. Plus, you can point out how insecure the potential hires’ jobs may be once their managers know they want to leave.

When you need to add top talent to your team, get in touch with Casey Accounting & Finance Resources. We have the skilled professionals you need to reach your business goals.

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.