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.

You Can Find Talent, but How Can You RECRUIT Them to Make the Move?

The internet and social media have made it easier than ever to recruit talent and network with potential candidates. However, you need to make an effort to sell the job effectively in order to attract and retain the right candidates. Getting the candidate interested and on the phone or in the office for an interview is an important first step, but you also need to make sure the candidate is truly interested in the position and has good interpersonal skills to handle the job. After that, you will need to position the company appropriately and share important information to keep the candidate interested.

Here are some important things to consider with your recruiting efforts.

Hiring During a Good Economy

When unemployment rates are low, it can be difficult to find people who are actively looking for a new job. Even if you have plenty of great positions to fill, there’s a chance that there just isn’t enough talent readily available to apply and fill those positions. Hiring during good economic times means you will need to be more proactive and creative with your recruitment efforts. You may also need to raise the bar on your offerings and attract high-quality candidates with higher-than-average salaries and benefits packages.

Identifying What Your HR Department Does Well

If your recruiting efforts aren’t paying off or you just aren’t able to tap into a large enough candidate pool, it may be time to review your hiring process. Take some time to identify what your HR department does well, and where it may be lacking. Consider which recruitment efforts are paying off and which ones are not attracting enough candidates. Whether it’s your social media and online job posting activities, or your efforts to attend career fairs and networking events, make sure you have a clear idea of what is working and what isn’t, so you can recruit higher-quality candidates consistently.

Learn From New Hires

If you have managed to recruit and retain a good group of new hires, consider sending out surveys about their experience, so you can figure out what you did right. Sometimes the best way to learn about your effectiveness with various hiring initiatives involves going straight to the source. Consider asking them what part of the selling process made them come to your company and what made them stay. Was it the way a job was presented? Was it how the hiring manager explained the role and followed up? Take the time to learn what worked — and what didn’t — from some of your best candidates.

Finding top talent can be a challenge, but there are several things you can do to improve your recruitment process and ensure qualified candidates make the move to secure the position. If you need help finding and retaining the right talent, let Casey Accounting & Finance Resources, a top financial staffing firm in Chicago help! Call us today for more information.

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