by
2018-10-31
If your firm has had to fill a position recently, you know how tough the labor market is. With unemployment in the area hovering around 3%, finding and recruiting qualified talent is quite a challenge. In the accounting and finance industries, the challenge is even more difficult.
How can your firm avoid the grind of hiring? By driving employee retention.
Why Employee Retention is Crucial
There’s a long list of reasons why employee retention should be a top priority for your firm. Here are a few of the more pronounced ones:
- Cost Savings: Hiring is expensive. The time your firm spends recruiting, training, and integrating new employees adds up in a hurry. The better your employee retention, the less time and money you spend on hiring.
- More Experienced Workforce: The better your company’s retention rate, the more experienced and knowledgeable your staff is. The more time employees spend working for your company, the more they learn about your unique business challenges, market, and customers.
- Positive Corporate Culture: High employee turnover is bad for corporate culture. When people are constantly shuffling in and out of your company, your employees begin to doubt your ability to identify talent and question whether they to should explore other opportunities themselves. Conversely, low turnover reinforces an employee’s decision to remain at their company.
- Succession Planning: With so many baby boomers retiring, your company needs to have an experienced team ready to step up. With strong employee retention, your company can identify employees with potential and begin to groom them for advancement.
Management Training
In many cases, people don’t leave companies they leave managers. More specifically, they leave managers who struggle to communicate. Employees want to know how they’re performing and where they stand with their employer. Are they doing a good job? What areas could use improvement? A recent study found that 65% of employees would like more feedback than they currently receive.
If you did a study surveying only corporate finance professionals, chances are that number might be even higher. Why? Finance and accounting professionals are typically introverted personality types. This personality trait leads to highly efficient and effective employees but doesn’t always lead to a smooth transition into management. If your current management team struggles with communication, the employees they supervise might look elsewhere.
The good news is communication skills can be taught. With some management training courses that are geared toward communication, your management staff can quickly improve and create a more transparent relationship with their employees.
Adjust Compensation and Benefits
Another reason people switch companies is for increased compensation and benefits. Your firm’s salaries and compensation packages need to remain competitive. In today’s highly demanding labor market, many companies are failing to increase their wages accordingly and are losing talent because of it.
It’s best practice to refresh your firm’s compensation structure regularly. The last thing you want is to learn that your firm is paying your controller below your market’s industry average as they bolt to another firm. Stay ahead of the curve so your firm can avoid losing a key employee.
Flexible Work Schedule
The corporate world has long held a reputation as a dull and stagnant work environment. Employees expect to work their traditional 8:00-5:00 each and every day. For client-facing employees, a rigid and consistent work schedule is necessary. But for corporate accountants and finance professionals, a large chunk of the job is done in isolation and doesn’t require a strict timeline.
A great way for firms to improve their employee retention is to provide flexible work schedules. If you don’t, one of your competitors could dangle it in front of your employees as an incentive to join their team.
Your finance and accounting professionals can accomplish many of their tasks remotely so long as they have their computer. If their kid has a soccer game at 5:00, they can easily leave work early, enjoy the game and their evening with their family, and then plug in at 9:00 and finish up the work they’ve missed. By offering a bit of flexibility for your employees, you’ll improve their employee experience and reduce the likelihood that they will seek employment elsewhere.
Veritas Recruiting Group
By implementing the employment retention strategies above, your firm will position itself for success by having to hire less. However, when employees retire, or your growth calls for more help, hiring is unavoidable.
When time is of the essence and you need to hire a talented corporate finance or accounting professional, contact us at the Veritas Recruiting Group. From financial analysts to CFO’s, we have the talent your firm needs.
Learn More About Accelerating your Career Path from Veritas
On the hunt for financial and accounting talent in the Orlando area?
Contact Veritas Recruiting Group to set yourself apart from the competition.
