Tag: Employer Resources

There’s a consensus among employers: talent is hard to find. And that’s a battle that can bring down the most established of companies.

Alter your approach to meet the demands of the skilled professionals you’re looking to court. Century Group’s 2021 Salary Guide for Financial Professions found three trends that ranked highest among job seekers when considering a new position — factors employers must capitalize on to edge out competing offers. And most importantly, attract and retain talent in today’s tight labor market.

1. PRESENT ROLE AS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR PROFESSIONAL GROWTH.

Upskilling and training employees is a resourceful option for employers who need to fill open positions. But it’s also an aspect of the modern workplace that professionals crave. According to Globoforce, 21% of professionals left their jobs because of a lack of career development opportunities — the leading reason for employee turnover in 2018.

Candidates are seeking more than a paycheck, gravitating toward roles that provide growth potential, mentorship and personal gratification. Creating a robust training program that expands and reinforces on concepts learned in new employee orientation is a successful tactic to both attract and retain talent. While some companies turn to outside experts to invest in their employees, such as encouraging them to attend relevant conferences or inviting speakers to engage with their team at the office. Employers should also map out clearly defined career paths as an added incentive for new hires.

2. OFFER COMPETITIVE SALARIES, BENEFITS AND PERKS.

Here’s the thing: candidates know their skills are in demand. Offering below market compensation and inadequate benefits just won’t cut it. In fact, innovative perks like flexible work schedules and paid meals are more aligned with what today’s employees want. Not sure how your company stacks up? Our 2021 Salary Guide features accurate salary ranges for 41 finance and accounting positions. Make sure you’re not losing strong candidates due to sub-par wages in your region.

3. SHOWCASE A STRONG COMPANY CULTURE.

In a traditional work environment, you spend most of your waking hours at your job. Why wouldn’t a strong company culture be a priority for candidates with options? This can encompass a few aspects of a business, including its mission, values and how its team members interact and support one another.

Think Google. Even if you’ve never stepped foot on its campus, Google’s reputation for curating a successful culture permeates the company’s entire operation. From free meals and onsite physicians to its creative office settings and mentor-like managers, these elements promote a positive environment for employees to thrive. Not all businesses can adopt measures at this scale, sure. But by creating a space that promotes open communication and focuses on the employee’s well-being is at the core of any strong company culture.

Want more insight into how to attract and retain top talent? Browse our blog for tips, trends and news impacting the finance and accounting community.

Hiring is hard. And as companies continue to adapt to this post-COVID-19 workplace environment, those challenges have only amplified. CEOs are tapping into staffing and recruiting firms to address these concerns head-on — investing in experienced experts to make smart, sound hiring decisions instead of handling talent searches internally.
Here are five reasons why companies are outsourcing their company’s accounting needs:

1. Speeds Up the Hiring Process

The waiting game isn’t enjoyable on either side of the table. For employers, it only prolongs an unfilled seat and unattended workload. And for candidates, “breadcrumb recruiting: can become tiresome — allowing talent to find or move forward with other career opportunities during the interview process. Outsourcing hiring needs to a staffing firm can help sidestep this issue by using its expertise to shorten this often lengthy process. Recruiters spend their careers nurturing a pipeline of skilled professionals, knowing exactly when a candidate is ready to make a move. Coupled with remote onboarding experience and an innate understanding of job responsibilities, recruiters can match you with the right professionals quickly and have hiring managers interviewing candidates within hours.

2. Access to Untapped Talent

The trouble with relying on job boards is managing the influx of submissions. Sure, some of the more advanced platforms offer a level of application screening, but you’re still only reaching candidates actively seeking new opportunities in the market. Your company can do better than that. Recruiters are constantly engaging with both passive and active candidates in a wide range of positions. In fact, specialized staffing agencies like Century Group work exclusively with accounting and finance professionals — helping to find and fill roles from accounting operations to C-suite level.

3. Flexible and Skilled Accounting Team

Companies are also embracing temporary or interim staff to handle their accounting needs. In the past year, 52% of businesses surveyed in a poll by PeopleReady say they’ve increased their use of temporary workers — indicating the pandemic has changed how they staff their workforce. Partnering with staffing firms can help connect your company with experienced professionals who are comfortable and capable of hitting the ground running in any role, whether it’s for a few days or several months.

4. Return on Your Investment

As the pendulum swings back to being a candidate-driven market, the war for talent has resumed. Investing in a staffing firm gives companies peace of mind that seasoned recruiters are working on their behalf — often engaging with talented candidates who are passive or not actively seeking new opportunities. Coupled with helping your team to screen and find the most qualified professionals, this partnership provides long-term value to your company’s goals.

Does your company have a temporary position or key project to complete? Learn more about our process and services.

In a job interview, there are those requisite questions employers expect to hear from candidates. One of the most common: “How would you describe your company culture?”

But instead of breezing through the topic, companies need to understand how important their response is to prospective employees. It can mean the difference between an offer being accepted or declined — and even influence a business’ long-term success.

Our 2021 Salary Guide revealed accounting and finance professionals ranked company culture as one of the top reasons they choose a new role and stay with a company — proving the concept is much more than a buzzword. As the growing millennial labor force sets the tone for the workplace, it looks like we’re playing by their rules. Values matter. Finding purpose in a professional role matters. And locking down a position that embraces both of these principles? Yes, that definitely matters.

“Today, employees aren’t looking for the highest paying job or the best boss first,” says Century Group’s Talent Acquisition department. “They want to be at a place where flexibility, professional development and the culture of the company are aligned with their own personal interests.”

We break down company culture and its impact below:

1. ESTABLISHES YOUR BRAND

With the internet’s relentless noise, a strong culture is essential to establishing a unique voice. “Job functions and responsibilities of a particular job are the same at all organizations,” the Talent Acquisition department explains. “But the one thing that sets it apart is the company culture.” Put simply: An organization’s culture also functions as its brand. It should successfully translate the company’s values and goals — giving applicants (and employees) a clear idea of who you are.

2. CREATES A TEAM ATMOSPHERE

Everyone wants to feel like they belong. Add the incentive of contributing to a shared goal, and you have a solid foundation for a productive company culture. “It sets expectations for success, core values and minimizes failure.”

3. ATTRACTS AND RETAINS TOP PROFESSIONALS

The word is out. With online platforms like Yelp, Glassdoor and Trip Advisor, people can easily share their experiences with the world with a single tap of a smartphone. More importantly: the world listens. Job seekers regularly utilize these type of sites to gauge a company’s reputation — attracting (or detracting) talented professionals at a moment’s glance. Organizations should make their values a transparent priority to help draw other employees who believe in those values, too, Century Group says. And, will hopefully keep them there long-term. “When a company culture is the priority of a company, employees see that and know that they are important and valued.”

Download Century Group’s 2021 Salary Guide for additional industry evaluations and key insights relevant to today’s financial professionals. Looking for top talent to transform your team? Contact our recruiters today.

The best companies understand that their most valuable asset is their people. That even as the job market fluctuates, a top-notch team can provide the stability needed for a business to succeed.

And developing a hiring strategy that supports this goal is more important than ever in 2021. Accounting Managers — like other supervisory roles — are integral to the efficient operation of the company’s accounting team. From monitoring and analyzing accounting data to enforcing proper protocols, finding the right professional goes beyond job duties. We highlight four critical things to consider when hiring an Accounting Manager to lead your team.

1. Go Beyond the Job Description

Listing the position’s responsibilities and requirements is pretty standard for most job postings. To attract the best accounting professionals, however, the advertisement needs to sizzle. Exaggerating or painting a false narrative of the role is never a good idea, but creating a sense of excitement around the opportunity will help your job stand out. Be sure to focus on the role’s must-have requirements, while also giving insight into the key intangibles you believe an ideal candidate will possess.

2. Focus on Relevant Experience and Credentials

At a base level, successful Accounting Managers are equipped with a Bachelor’s degree in accounting, finance or a closely related field. But those who went on to pursue an MBA typically exhibit a stronger grasp of leadership and management skills that are necessary for this type of role. Specialized certifications — including Certified Public Accounting (CPA), Certified Management Accountant (CMA) and Qualification in Internal Audit Leadership (QIAL) — are also great indicators of professionals who further developed their expertise in the area.

Still, we’d caution employers to look beyond educational backgrounds when vetting someone to lead your company’s accounting team. Professionals with two to five years of Accounting Manager experience are likely to have a strong understanding of the varied job responsibilities in a real-world setting — allowing them to hit the ground running.

3. Be Flexible.

When looking for the right fit, that lengthy list of preferred skills and credentials all seem critical. The hunt for the “perfect” candidate, however, may deter your company from actually hiring the talent you need.

Be realistic about the responsibilities that makeup the majority of the role, and flexible on the nice-to-haves that can be learned on the job. Accounting professionals that exhibit success in those key areas may bring other experience that would better benefit the company – don’t miss out on considering them.

4. Partner with Hiring Experts.

Most companies can only devote a small part of its time to candidate searches — it has regular operations to run, after all. But for staffing and recruitment firms, developing a strong, health candidate pool is its bread and butter.

Recruitment firms save businesses cost and uncertainty while optimizing your search’s reach. Unlike internal acquisition teams who work on a reactive basis, recruiters are constantly nurturing long-term relationships with skilled professionals. That way, when a company has an urgent need, recruiters can quickly match the right candidate to the right opportunity without you having to miss a step.

Do you have a hiring need? Contact our team today.

Hiring is a fickle process. For one, companies must consider many factors when filling a position — expectations for the role, core skills required and culture fit to list a few. And finding a candidate that meets all of these requirements, understandably, takes time.  A new employee is a serious investment you want to feel confident in.

But taking too long to hire can actually cost you top talent. Today, companies’ hiring process spans an average of 23.8 days — 13 days more than the time it takes for a candidate to go off the market. They have options and your competitors know it. Still not convinced expediting your hiring process is important? Check out these key benefits that prove you can land quality employees fast without sacrificing your company’s values and goals.

Improve on Your Current Hiring Strategy

Reviewing your company’s current hiring process is a great opportunity to see where you can make improvements. Evaluate the core steps you employ to find and hire a new employee: the job description, type of search, interview process, job offer and onboarding period. Is your goal focused and clear? Where can you be more efficient? And most importantly, what’s the candidate experience like? An easy, speedier process reflects better on your company and attracts quality talent.

Save Your Company Money and Resources

The cost of hiring varies across businesses, but common expenses include external and/or internal hiring teams, job board fees, time spent recruiting candidates and overall cost of the unfilled role. Accelerating your hiring process minimizes the impact of these areas — allowing your company’s people to focus on what they do best.

Higher Acceptance Rates

Shorter hiring processes encourage two things: accessing and landing in-demand candidates. Decisive companies limit the interview process, allowing them to lock-in skilled professionals before they lose interest and find another opportunity. A faster time frame also curbs competing offers or counter offers from previous employers.

Are you looking to fill an open position quickly? Don’t risk taking too long to hire by contacting our team today.

The past several years have brought many prominent social issues to the forefront of discussion — forcing us to analyze how modern businesses operate. And with the rekindling of the Black Lives Matter movement and spotlight on systemic racism’s continued presence in society, the need for creating a more diverse workplace is more important than ever.

See, this is more than an outward gesture, but can impact a company’s bottom line. Professionals in a diverse and equal workplace are more engaged, attract talent and can spur higher profitability and creativity.

From requiring in-house discrimination and harassment training to making a commitment to building a fairer workforce, here are three effective ways companies are working to create a more diverse and equal workplace.

1. Be Accountable

Lip service and public announcements are nice, but putting those promises into action is where it really matters. Provide a safe space for employees to communicate their feedback or experiences. Establish regular seminars or programs that educate workers on how to be an ally or support their colleagues in the office. Many platforms, including LinkedIn, have free courses and materials to help instill inclusivity as part of the company culture.

2. Take Actionable Steps

Constructive feedback isn’t always easy to receive. But it’s imperative that workers feel safe to not only share their input, but see that it’s being taken seriously. Actionable steps like making donations to organizations is a laudable, effective gesture of showing your company’s commitment to a more diverse workplace. However, smaller strides can be just as impactful. Simply being transparent with how you plan to address any raised issues will go a long way.

3. Build a Diverse Pipeline

Probably the strongest and most important method to moving your company in a more diverse direction: the hiring process. Everything from the word choices in job postings to the type of interview questions asked can result in biased hires. “Blind” resume reviews that eliminate the name, sex or any other identifying factors can help eliminate this. As well as establishing standardized questions and including other employees in the interview process with different perspectives.

For more hiring insights and trends, check out our blog!

 

As companies begin cautiously welcoming employees back to the workplace, it’s important both employers and employees are prepared for what that really means. We share key considerations both should evaluate to help provide a safe working environment for all.

For Employers

Monitor and Maintain a Healthy Workforce

For employees to feel comfortable returning to the office, employers should make them feel like their health is of utmost importance. That means encouraging workers to stay home when sick and establishing an open line of communication to discuss health concerns moving forward. Enlist their input when it comes to creating a more inclusive, thoughtful return-to-work plan — and be flexible. After all, guiding your staff openly and empathetically is essential for a successful transition, and can have a positive impact on company culture.

Create Safe Workspaces

Providing employees with distanced workspaces, masks, gloves and other personal protective equipment aligned with CDC health and safety recommendations will enforce the message that you care about your workers’ well-being. In fact, a new product designed to help businesses safely reopen, Collective Go, shows that the use of masks and social distancing can lower the risk of workplace outbreaks to below five percent. Additionally, posting guidelines throughout the space helps reinforce ways for workers to protect themselves and keeps health top of mind.

Minimize Contact

Staggering return dates, incorporating alternating schedules and other strategies for your team can help minimize contact and ease them back into the office comfortably. Continuing with virtual meetings and video conferences — even with everyone in the office — also keeps with social distancing recommendations.

For Employees

Prepare for a Coronavirus-era Office

Work as you remember it is a thing of the past — at least for now. As your get ready for your first day back in the workplace, expect some changes and accept your role in keeping you and your colleagues safe.

Protective Equipment, Social Distancing and More

Many office buildings and employers are requiring employees to wear masks while walking freely in public spaces. While others, taking a more cautious approach, may ask staff to take their temperature at the start of the work day. And touch-less entries, limited elevator rides and sterile workspaces have been adopted in offices throughout the the U.S. But for all of these new safety measures to be effective, employees must do their part to follow them. Wash your hands often, stay six-feet-apart from colleagues and refrain from sharing office materials.

Remain Cognizant of Your Health

The time of work martyrdom is over. If you’re feeling ill, resist the urge to power through in the office and stay home. The health and safety of your coworkers is dependent on it. High-risk professionals and those who are fearful of possible exposure should discuss these concerns with their employer. Many businesses are following CDC and OSHA-recommended guidelines, and are encouraging transparency with workers in discussing health-related matters. In some cases, workers are entitled to protected time off and pay, if appropriate. And employers are more open to accommodating workers on an individual-basis.

For more career advice or help with staffing during this transitional period, contact our recruiters today.

As much of the U.S. settles into the changes brought on by the pandemic, employers are working to adjust accordingly. One area that your business may be overlooking: maintaining a strong company culture.

See, just because your employees are working from home, that doesn’t mean creating a collaborative, inclusive work environment isn’t important. In fact, it’s more essential now than ever to ensure your workers don’t feel isolated. Help promote engagement and remote team bonding with these virtually inspired ideas.

Encourage Water-Cooler Chats

While collaborating with colleagues through email and instant messaging is a common practice in the workplace, encourage your team to reach out to one another for non-work related conversations, too. Strong interpersonal relationships among coworkers breeds trust and results — a sense of unity toward achieving a common goal.

Video Conference, Video Conference, Video Conference

Sure, text communication is valuable and a preferred method by many professionals. But nothing can beat the ease, clarity and comfort of face-to-face conversation — lucky for us, video is pretty close. Schedule routine video chats to touch base with your team, and utilize ice breaker activities to engage your employees. For example, gauge how members of your team are doing by playing a quick round of “Red Light, Green Light” to start the conference. Or, take a page from the past by having each person “show and tell” a chosen item or household pet for a few minutes to kick off the meeting. Any exercise that inspires team-building can quickly dispel feelings of isolation, while getting to the root of potential concerns early on.

After-Hours Fun

Signs of a great company culture can be seen by how the team interacts off the clock, too. Happy hours, group lunches and the like also spur a sense of belonging — and, most importantly, can translate remotely. Free video apps like Zoom are a great place to host virtual meals and drinks. While game-based applications allow users to see one another in a fun, competitive environment. Houseparty is an easy-to-use tool that’s gained recent popularity, allowing players to enjoy games like Quick Draw and Trivia and naturally promotes remote team bonding.

Is your team adjusting to remote work? Check out our blog for more tips and insights.

 

 

CEOs agree: finding the right talent remains one of their biggest challenges. See, a bad hire is costly. There’s the loss of dollars put toward recruitment and training, as well as revenue from having an open position. Surveys by The Predictive Index, XpertHR and Gartner, Inc. each present this challenge in different ways — illustrating the impact the current lack of available skilled talent has on CEOs’ sleep and overall risk a poorly staffed team can pose to a company’s bottom line.

It’s time to get smart about your investment. Lean on recruiting and staffing firms that have their finger on the pulse of the regional talent pool and know which professionals are ready to make a career move. Or, take the time to flesh out the role and type of candidate you envision being the perfect fit. Director of Client Services Jordan Wood shares the best early practices employers and hiring managers should follow to find that next great hire.

1. Appraise the position.

When Wood first starts working with a company, there are key questions he needs answered. The first: why is the position open? This not only gives Wood a better understanding of how to fill it, but is an opportunity for the employer to reflect on the role, as well. If this is a reactive situation and you’re replacing an employee, why did they leave? It’s also a chance for the hiring manager to consider the type of professional they see in the role. Do you want someone with a similar skill set to the previous worker or are you seeking something different? “It’s important to understand how they’re approaching this next hire,” he says. “It opens up a lot of avenues of where to go next.”

2. Establish a process.

Pinning down the hiring process is helpful to both the company and a third-party firm. Employers should know the number of interviews, people conducting the interviews and overall timeline. Temporary and permanent positions tend to dictate the speediness of the process, but should coincide with the ideal start date for either the type of roles.

3. Go beyond the job description.

Detailing the responsibilities of the role, requirements, type of position and salary are all concrete points that should be nailed out early on. But it’s just beyond that where you can really identify your true expectations. Wood refers to it as the must-haves and the nice-to-haves — the skills, credentials and experience that a desirable candidate must or should possess.

“I often ask if there’s anything else not listed on the job description that’s important for the role that they can share with me,” Wood says. Here’s a good place to figure in the company’s culture and work environment, he adds. “Is it fast-paced? Is the environment social or do they just put their heads down and work? That type of information helps us find the right candidate that can work in that specific environment.”

4. Take the call.

There are a few reasons why staffing and recruiting firms are a great solution for companies that find themselves strapped for talent. Staffing firms have access to candidates on a larger scale, knowing which professionals are available and have the background to address a specific employer’s needs. But it takes more than a bullet-point list to yield a successful outcome. In fact, a simple phone call can make all the difference.

“There’s only so much you can cover with a few notes passed back and forth,” Wood says. “I can hit those key points within a short conversation. Those 5-10 minutes can save you a half hour with a candidate that really wasn’t a good fit in the first place.”

Do you need help building your team? Check out our temporary and direct hire staffing services to learn more.

BY: Ron Proul, CEO

This hot, candidate-driven market reminds me of the bubbles of 1989, 2001 and 2007. And just like with those markets, many companies are understandably employing strategies that reduce outside fees. However, many of these strategies end up backfiring, rather than accomplishing the goal of attracting the very best talent.

In Century Group’s new series, CG Recruitment Trends, we’re going to take a look at some of the strategies that we’re seeing clients utilize in order to save on costs. As we demonstrate, it plays out like the classic scenario of saving on costs upfront, simply to pay more later. One such method: investing solely in internal talent acquisition. Unfortunately for these companies, this often does not yield the returns they had hoped for.

The Limitations of Internal Talent Acquisition

In contrast to utilizing a recruitment firm, developing an internal talent acquisition team takes time, is costly and requires talent itself — a Catch 22. Still, many companies choose to make this investment. But the volume of placements an individual or even a few individuals can handle has its limits, and it can become difficult for one person to specialize or develop a truly robust list of candidates. In contrast to internal talent acquisition teams who work with a limited pool of candidates, recruitment firms develop lengthy, up-to-the-minute lists of top-tier talent.

Recruiters Can Access Top-Tier Talent, Fast

As we outline in A Recruiter’s Guide to Finding Your Next Great Hire, recruitment and staffing firms have their finger on the pulse of the regional talent pool and know precisely which professionals are ready to make a career move.

At Century Group, we even pioneered a practice called The Group Concept, where recruiters are encouraged and incentivized to work on searches together. This philosophy ultimately magnifies search capacity as well as results for the client. Recruitment firms will save you cost and uncertainty while optimizing your search’s reach.

Reactive vs. Proactive

Most internal recruiting strategies are reactive — the talent acquisition team can only produce candidates interested in engaging when an opening occurs. Specialist recruiting firms, however, are proactive. Recruiters are constantly developing and refining a target list of talent — talent that represents the best of the market — to be tapped when the appropriate search arises.

When a client’s talent acquisition department says, “We have been looking for this position for months and you produced the candidate within weeks,” it’s indicative of how good recruiting professionals develop a deep talent pool and nurture relationships over a long period of time — maybe even years — so that they are able to immediately match the right candidate to the right opportunity.

The Value Proposition of Recruitment Firms

Many companies think recruiters just sit there passively waiting for the opportunity to send a bill for anyone who can pull from a job board. This common myth is due to the fact that the majority of recruiting professionals don’t adequately explain their value proposition.

At well-established recruitment firms like Century Group, recruiters nurture long-term relationships with skilled candidates and track these candidates throughout their career. Recruiters also have the advantage of being seen by candidates as an objective third party who can bring candidates multiple opportunities, which encourages candidates to engage more with clients.

Consider how a recruiter presents their value proposition when selecting a recruitment firm to work with — it will speak to how well they can negotiate on your behalf. In this market, a recruiter knowing and stating their value is not only paramount to their success in negotiations, it is also crucial to your success in this competitive marketplace. As Malcolm Forbes said, “Too many people overvalue what they are not, and undervalue what they are.”

When companies try to save on recruitment costs by investing solely in internal talent acquisition, the return on their investment suffers when it comes to talent, time and the reach of their job search.

In Part 2 of CG Recruitment Trends, we’ll explore the strategy of reducing fees and markups. Part 3 discusses the troubling trend of “tempnapping” and its detrimental effect on securing the best talent.