by
2019-08-26
With unemployment at historic lows, everyone is fighting for talent. This is more apparent within the financial sector and specifically with accountants.
With droves of baby boomers leaving the industry and too-few new hires ready to replace them, hiring managers need to do everything they can when attracting prospective candidates.
Right now, competition is rife with businesses competing for the same candidates. On hiring, Harrison Doan, Director of Analytics at Saatva brings up, “The techniques that worked 10 or even 5 years ago just aren’t effective anymore. Candidates know they have choices, so it takes a lot of effort to really stand out.” Sometimes, it’s the smallest actions that turn a candidate one way or another. It’s YOUR job to ensure they accept YOUR offer. Here’s how you can position your company to have the best chance at choosing the candidate you want.
Enhance your Compensation & Benefits Package
Overall, compensation is the number one reason candidates accept a job offer. Why not use it to your advantage to get you over the hump? To keep up with the competition for the best talent available, sometimes you need to spend a little more.
If the budget doesn’t allow for a pay increase, get creative. People are finding flexible schedules, unlimited vacation, and gym memberships as additional value added to benefits packages when determining which company to accept.
Seek Out Transferable (Soft) Skills
Experience tells you a lot about a candidate, but not everything. In a perfect world, experience and skills match the job posting, and you move right into the interview phase. But this isn’t always a reality in today’s hiring landscape.
When experience doesn’t match up with your requirements, think of these transferable skills that will morph into your sought-after requirements:
- Writing and Oral Communications
- Critical thinking
- Effective communication
- Technical/Computer Skills
- Leadership
Using a hire-by-committee approach will help to sort these skills out. As each member of the team interviews the candidate, each one may gain a different perspective into the candidate. When making a choice based on theory, it’s helpful to have multiple opinions.
Set the Gold Standard in Candidate Experience
The candidate experience has two parts. One is technology driven through interactions with your ATS, website, social media and job postings — the other pertains to interviews and more personal interactions, such as communication, expectations of the candidate, and look and feel of the company culture when visiting.
Most candidates want to know specific questions pertaining to the job, the hiring process, and a timeline on how long it will take to hear back. Good news or bad, communication is key.
Expedite the Hiring Process
No one wants to make a decision that is rushed. Especially a hiring decision. However, there are things you can do before the interview to ensure that you’re able to evaluate candidates quickly.
- Develop candidate personas
- Write precise job descriptions to avoid wasted time.
- Be selective when deciding which candidates to bring in.
- Be open and honest about compensation.
- Ask targeted questions to get the most out of the candidate’s answer.
- Interview by committee to get a range of opinions.
- Call references promptly.
Time is essential to hiring any candidate. Your company must act in the most efficient way possible to attract a candidate before a competitor takes them first.
Veritas Recruiting Group
At Veritas, we have years of experience on our side and know the landscape you’re trying to place. We provide direct-hire placement, and interim-temporary staffing services specializing in corporate accounting professionals.
Let us do the hard work for you. Contact us today to learn more about our search process.