Is your company paying attention to its employees, as well as your customers?

Your employer brand might be the silent reason between attracting the accountancy candidates you want and being left wondering ‘where are all the great candidates?’

Currently, three in four employers state that they find it hard to fill vacancies. It is a candidate-driven market, and the best candidates invariably flock to the ‘best’ companies.

Your employer brand is a tool which you can use to attract the kind of people who will enrich your company and who will be good for business – so what exactly is an employer brand? And how can you use it to your advantage? This article will show you how.

What Does Your Employer Brand Say About You?

Before you can decide how your employer brand needs to be tweaked (or overhauled), you first need to understand what kind of employer brand you currently have.

When you think of a company – take Google, for example – what is the kind of ethos that you associate with this brand? They’re forward-thinking, have a famous reputation for their incredible workspaces and are at the cutting edge of most software technologies.

What do you think would be the first things that pop into potential candidates’ minds when they think about your company? Do you have a strong market presence? Are you active on social media? What kind of people works for you?

You can create an audit using a variety of sources – ask your current employees to take part in surveys, hold stakeholder interviews with key figures, and send questionnaires to people who have rejected your job offers.

When you have compiled an analysis of your current employer brand, you can start to see where you might like to improve.

Size Up The Competition

In your quest to win the best candidates, your main barrier is your direct competitors.

When you are based in a big city, there can be several firms all competing for the best talent, but over a smaller area, the numbers can get uncomfortably close. You might even personally know the accountants working for other firms – you might have lost out to them previously.

If you have one, or a few, direct competitors (be that geographically or in your sector specialism) how does your firm measure up?

I’m not suggesting you copy mission statements or logos from your competitors, but you can take inspiration from organisations you admire. Has a rival firm recently upped their marketing with physical and online adverts? What are their job descriptions like? These are places where you can take inspiration from.

Create a Plan

Once you have identified the issues with your current employer brand, how would you like these to improve?

If you are attracting X kind of candidates, but you want Y candidates, how can you get these candidates to interact with your business more?

It is here that you can develop your ‘Employer Value Proposition’. Your EVP describes the salary, compensation and benefits that you provide to your employees.

In today’s job market, EVP’s are becoming increasingly competitive. Driven by a younger workforce (millennials are set to make up a third of the global workforce by 2020), employers are increasingly offering health insurance, dental plans, childcare, and health and wellbeing programmes.

Recent research from the United States shows that 80% of employees think that workplace benefits are more important than salary, and it’s a similar picture in the UK too. Get your benefits package right, and the great candidates will follow.

Review your candidate avatar and direct your online presence toward the kind of candidate you want – starting with your online content.

Upgrade Your Online Presence

Updating your online profile is a great way to cultivate your employer brand. Gone are the days of dry finance websites full of blocks of monochrome text.

While accountancy might have once had a reputation for being a sector which operates strictly behind the scenes, this is now changing.

A desire for transparency in all areas of the workplace has meant that companies are now more forthcoming with information which was previously only ‘behind the scenes’. An example of this is CEOs of companies getting involved in online videos that can be shared as advertising – think of Amazon’s Jeff Bezos. Twenty years ago we never knew the directors of large multinational companies: now they are never out of the news.

Some of the biggest news stories in the last few years have included accountancy – there is rarely a week where the global financial powers are not in the news.

Adapting your online presence is an easy way of remodelling your employer brand. Most job seekers will now check your website as their first port of call before applying to your firm, and they have certain expectations. They will be looking for active social media accounts, a modern and informative website containing blogs and other forms of content.

Encourage Advocates

Thanks to our hyper-connected world, review culture have made it possible to ‘try before you buy’ for almost anything and everything.

Your current employees should be involved in your employer branding strategy, and this is an opportunity to build the kind of team you want.

LinkedIn is a great way to involve your current employees to act as advocates for your firm.

Use your company’s LinkedIn company page to share articles, give company updates and engage with your staff and other companies whose values align with your own.

A company with a robust online presence with actively engaged employees is a crucial way to impress prospective candidates. Job seekers are far more likely to apply to a company that has provided them with some credible information and can demonstrate a good employee experience.

Remember – you can’t make your employees engage with you on social media, but they are far more likely to if you are providing them with a great employee experience!

About Clayton Recruitment

Clayton Recruitment has been partnering with organisations across the country since 1989 and during that time has built up an excellent reputation for trust and reliability.

With specialist divisions covering Commercial, Financial, Industrial, and Engineering appointments, on both a permanent and temporary basis. If you are looking for your next career move, we can help. Call us on 01772 259 121 or email us here.

If you would like to download our latest interview checklist, you can do so here.

Accountancy can be incredibly rewarding, but as with many great jobs, there comes a set of specific difficulties. Going through a tough period at work, and wanting to leave and join a different firm are two different things – so, how do you spot the difference?

There is a big difference between dreaming of a new job and actively seeking out new opportunities. At this time of the year, many people’s minds start to wander to the ‘what-if’ situations.

If you have come back from your summer holiday and realised that something isn’t quite right in your role – this article is for you. A little time away from your company can sometimes give you the fresh perspective on your career that you need to ask the question – ‘have I got the mid-year blues, or it is time for a change?’

This article should help you find out which it is.

The Accountancy ‘Calender’ Isn’t Always Easy

Now, this is an understatement if we’ve ever heard one. Yes, accountancy can be incredibly tough – long hours, deadlines that seem impossible, and not to mention the hectic seasons dictated by the taxman.

Did you predict that accountancy was going to be tough when you decided on this as your career path? Think back – you probably did, but might not have realised the extent of the pressures.

It is natural in any sector to have peaks and troughs – times when you feel like you’ve got the best job in the world, and times when you don’t want to get up in the morning. The usual ebb and flow of any career is not something which should be making you write your resignation letter, but if you’ve felt unhappy in your accountancy role for quite a while now, it could be a sign you’re ready for something new.

January through to March is when an accountant’s work will seem never-ending, with the end of year tax deadlines looming and every client wanting a moment of your time.

This can make some people feel overwhelmed, while others thrive on it.

If you feel as though you’ve lost your passion for accountancy of late, is it simply the mid-year slump that has left you feeling deflated? If you’re someone who thrives on being busy, having quieter times such as the summer can be the last thing you want.

During quieter periods, however, there are steps you can take to make sure that you’re not getting bored in your role.

Ask your manager if there are any other tasks or projects that you can take on during the summer lull. They will be happy for the help, and you might learn a part of your firm’s processes that you weren’t aware of before – it could be the start of a learning curve for you.

It is important to remember that if your firm always gets quieter this time of year -it might be just a lull. Compare January to June during the times you’ve been in your current role to assess the typical trajectory of your workflow.

Where Do You Fit In?

Some people say that when you know a job isn’t working out – you just know.

As a recruiter, I witness accounting employees and candidates at all stages of their career journey and this experience has given me a good handle on some of the main reasons people feel unhappy, and finally decide to leave their current role.

Yes, sometimes it is about the salary and the compensation packages, but quite often – it is down to the company culture.

Working for an accountancy firm where you get on with and share the same values and interests with other staff members can be a joy. It some cases it can even make up for other less desirable elements of your job.

A recent workplace study found that 56% of employees valued a good company culture fit over salary.

Did you take this particular accounting job because of the high salary? If so, did you also carefully weigh up if you are a good fit within the culture of the firm?

Quite often, when employees start to feel disengaged and eventually unhappy at work, they think ‘why do I feel like this? I’ve worked hard to get to this salary level!’ without realising that their ‘perfect fit’ of a job is to do with far more than the salary that lands in their bank account each month.

Your mid-year blues could be a sign that you are working in a firm whose culture you don’t fit in with. Talking to a specialist recruiter can help you figure this out.

How Can a Recruiter Help?

Recruiters don’t just deal with placing candidates in roles (although, that is what we are famous for!). Every day, we deal with inquiries about roles, we are sought out for advice from both candidates and clients, meaning we have an in-depth knowledge of the deep-seated and variety of reasons people have for looking for a new job.

If your current accountancy role isn’t making you as engaged as it once was, call us today to discuss your options. We recruit for a variety of accountancy roles – we might have the role you’ve been searching for.

About Clayton Recruitment

Clayton Recruitment has been partnering with organisations across the country since 1989 and during that time has built up an excellent reputation for trust and reliability.

With specialist divisions covering Commercial, Financial, Industrial, and Engineering appointments, on both a permanent and temporary basis. If you are looking for your next career move, we can help. Call us on 01772 259 121 or email us here.

If you would like to download our latest interview checklist, you can do so here.

Every company, from the smallest start-up to a multinational organisation, needs an effective development plan.

The phrase ‘development plan’ can mean something different to each company, but in this article, we will set out what we believe are the most critical elements of a company development plan and how it can help drive your business.

What Is a Business Development Plan?

Scott Pollack for Forbes describes a business development plan as “Business development is the creation of long-term value for an organisation from customers, markets, and relationships.”

Does this sound like the kind of development plan you have in place in your organisation? Alternatively, is yours defined as something different?

We have used this definition as we believe it the most encompassing, as many businesses focus too much, or sometimes not at all, in certain areas. It is no good putting all of your efforts into increasing revenue and ignoring your customers or staff, and vice versa. More on this later.

As people often say, you have to know where you are going before you can start a journey, so let’s start here;

Define Your Goal

The lack of a clear goal is often associated with smaller and newer companies who might not know or be sure of their potential, but you might be shocked at the number of larger companies who either don’t have a clear goal or lose sight of their aims along the way.

A goal does not necessarily have to be a purely financial aim; it can be to sell a certain amount of units, have recruited and on-boarded a defined number of new employees, or have moved to new premises by a specific time next year.

Managers in companies, small and large, need to communicate the aims of the business as a whole to those working in their teams. Poor communication or a lack of communication is frequently one of the biggest problems organisations face.

When employees lack an understanding of where the business is heading and what they are looking to achieve, staff can become disengaged and demotivated. As a result, this can impact productivity. Disengaged staff can potentially mean that they decide to pursue their career elsewhere. Retaining staff is something every business should aim to achieve.

Use the 90-Day Action Plan

After deciding on your yearly goals, break these down into smaller segments – 90 days is the most effective amount. The 90-day plan is effective because it is the range in which aspiration and development meet each other perfectly.

Even a year can seem a long time frame to set attainable goals; it can all feel overwhelming. If you want a new product launched by this time next year, then where do you need to be in three months, six months etc.? Research demonstrates that having goals that are nearer to you makes them more achievable.

(Re) Evaluate Your Market

It can be easy for businesses who do well at first or are still sailing on the back of previous successes to become complacent.

Take Phillip Green’s Topshop empire Arcadia, for example. For years his brands were leaders of the high street fashion sector, but earlier this year the company had to be saved from administration by way of a deal with its creditors and landlords.

An industry insider said at the time that the reason the chain came so close to dissolving was that those at the top “sat back and milked the cow”.

The moral from the Arcadia story is that no matter how unsinkable a company can seem, failure to change and evolve with your market and assess what your customers want could be your unravelling.

Whether you have just celebrated your first anniversary, or you are in a managerial role in a company that has been going for 100 years, constant evaluation is needed to keep yourself relevant in your customers’ eyes.

Use KPI’s to Track Progress

You might be thinking, But ‘our organisation does track KPI’s’. The question is, how often do you crunch the numbers? On top of other daily tasks, it can often seem like an unwanted extra job if you don’t have practical software tools to let you analyse the data correctly.

There are many effective programmes you can use to track KPI’s, but if you aren’t monitoring them consistently, the data is essentially meaningless.

Are you monitoring the right KPI’s? How long ago did you last assess which KPI’s are essential to your business and at what level they need to be growing to meet your targets?

We recommend a monthly KPI meeting to re-evaluate these stats.

As mentioned at the start of this article, every good business development plan should aim to give long-term value to the company.

So many businesses think this means increasing revenue and nothing else. Many companies fail to include their staff in their business development plan and see them merely as a tool for their goals, rather than being intrinsically involved.

Find a Recruiter Who Understands Your Business

Staff shortages are affecting every sector in the UK as demand exceeds supply. Many businesses are short-sighted when it comes to recruitment and take the ‘cross that bridge when we come to it’ approach.

As recruiters, we know the value a great recruitment company can add to your business. They don’t merely find staff for you as and when but can work alongside your business on an on-going basis, looking for candidates who would be a good fit for your company and culture.

Including partnering with a recruitment company in your businesses development plan means, you will always have an impressive talent pipeline when you need to;

• Recruit to fill a role as a result of a promotion
• Expand a team

Next Steps

If you would value a conversation about how partnering can work for your company, call one of the Clayton Recruitment Team on 01772 259 121 and let’s have a chat to explore what’s possible.

About Clayton Recruitment

Clayton Recruitment has been partnering with organisations across the country since 1989 and during that time has built up an enviable reputation for trust and reliability.

With specialist divisions covering Commercial, Financial, Industrial, and Engineering appointments, on both a permanent and temporary basis. If you are looking for your next career move, we can help. Call us on 01772 259 121 or email us here.

If you would like to download our latest interview checklist, you can do so here.

Does it feel like your company is forever going back to the drawing board in attempting to fill vacancies? Many companies wildly underestimate both the time and the cost of recruiting the wrong candidates again and again. At Clayton Recruitment we are experts at finding the right candidates for the right clients, and we can easily spot the mistakes companies continue to make in their hiring process.

In this article we share five of the most common big mistakes we see hiring managers make in hiring the wrong talent.

1. Hiring On Your ‘Gut Feeling’

There can be a lot to say for basing decisions on ‘gut feeling’ and it isn’t the panacea we sometimes think. Yes, hiring managers need to be interested in people, but they must also look beyond the shiny exterior candidates often present to them. Candidates can often be over, or under friendly on the day of the interview, as is familiar with nerves.

A skilled interviewer can see past the veneer and ask relevant questions that dig deeper to reveal what a person is like beyond what they are presenting.

If your hiring manager has a tendency towards one particular type of person (we all do, we’re all human) this can sway them one way or another, but they should be mindful of what will be good for the business as a whole, not just who they think they will get on best with.

2. Rushing the Process

We are currently in the lowest period of unemployment we have seen for 40 years. While this is excellent news for candidates, it means that many companies are struggling to recruit not just the right candidates but any candidates at all.

As a result many employers are taking what they can get – literally, even if they know straight away that this person is not right for the job or the business. The cost of hiring someone because there is a vacancy that needs filling urgently only accentuates the problem.

When the candidate doesn’t work out, it means investing more money on advertising the position as well as hr and the hiring managers time to go through the whole recruiting process again.

We understand that it might seem like the logical thing to do at the time, but it really is detrimental to your company in the long run, costing more money and time overall.

Hold off for the right candidate and you will not end up paying twice for the privilege.

3. Taking Too Long

One of the biggest mistakes hiring managers make in their process is taking too long to get back to interested candidates. The Balance report that the average time to hire is around 38 days – this is far too long considering the shortage of candidates in many sectors.

A job-seeker will probably have applied to a handful of positions in their initial job search – can you afford to be the last company that gets back to them? If you have legitimate reasons for taking more than a couple of weeks to get back to candidates, tell them there will be a delay.
Candidates appreciate honesty, and it stops them from wondering if they have been rejected without so much as a callback. They might be setting up more interviews in the time you are taking to reply, and are likely to accept an offer from a responsive employer.

Lack of communication is a problem which is so easy to solve, yet it can be so costly if done wrong.

4. Searching For a Unicorn

You want the very best candidate for the job, we understand. But is your search for a specific person and their talents causing you to reject hidden gems?

You might be delaying your search for a person that doesn’t exist. In recruiting we refer to these candidates as ‘unicorns’, and a hiring manager’s fixation on finding one could be to your company’s detriment.

If you haven’t captured the exact candidate that you want, take a look at the soft skills of the ones who have applied. Have any of the candidates got a strong track record of turning their hand at a variety of skills? Are they exceedingly bright?

A proven track record of the skills you desire might be your first choice, but in the skills-short job market we are currently in, now is the time to start looking to develop talent rather than pluck it out of the hiring process.

5. Ignoring Company Culture

Each time you have a vacancy that needs filling, this is a new opportunity for you to shape your company culture in the way you want. One of the main reasons people cite when deciding to leave their job is their relationship with co-workers. Do you have a harmonious workplace where everyone respects each other and gets along? Or are there often issues and disagreements?

If you are interviewing a candidate and they have a perfect set of skills, but they clearly would not get along with the rest of the staff, are they the best hire for the job?

Are you a hiring manager struggling to identify the best talent for your company? Clayton Recruitment is a trusted expert with 30 years of experience in the field. Get in touch with us today to take the stress out of boxing-off those hard-to-fill positions.

About Clayton Recruitment

Clayton Recruitment has been partnering with organisations across the country since 1989 and during that time has built up an enviable reputation for trust and reliability.

With specialist divisions covering Commercial, Financial, Industrial, and Engineering appointments, on both a permanent and temporary basis. If you are looking for your next career move, we can help. Call us on 01772 259 121 or email us here.

If you would like to download our latest interview checklist, you can do so here.

Are you preparing for an upcoming accountancy interview? Would you like to know the common questions that come up time and again?

When preparing for any interview, it helps to have some insider knowledge on what types of questions typically come up. Having in-depth recruitment knowledge at our disposal here at Clayton Recruitment based on over 30 years experience, we share the most common accountancy interview questions. Read on to find out which questions accountancy hiring managers are asking this year.

Why Do You Want to Work For THIS Company?

You have accountancy skills, that’s why you’re sitting in this interview, but hiring managers will often want more than this. They will want to know why you are more hungry for the job than any other candidate. Is the location where you want to be? Did you see something on their website that caught your eye? Was it the culture, potential career opportunities or the chance to work with a marketing leading product or service. Demonstrate that you’ve done your research on the company to nail this question.

Do You Know About These Accounting Standards?

Rehearse your basic accounting principles including real and nominal accounts, accounts payable and receivable, everyday business transactions and the difference between International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).

When applying for a higher level role such as senior accountant, be prepared to talk in depth about how provide financial support to your current business ensuring sufficient understasnding of various financial issues that facilitates the achievement of business targets.

How Have You Managed Bad Debts?

This is a handy question for hiring managers to see not just how much experience you have, but your financial nouse. As an accountant, the blame often lies with you when the numbers don’t look good, even though the root of the problem might have come from a different department.

Have specific examples that you can share of when you have turned around a negative debt situation. Be able to describe what the situation was, what you did and the result you achieved for your company. Only by sharing these situations do you demonstrate the value you bring to a company who is lucky enough to have you on their team.

What Would You Do Differently?

All candidates are human, and hiring managers know this. There is often a worry from the candidate that they think the interviewer expects them to be superhuman – they don’t. This question is useful because it helps the candidate talk about how they approach and solve problems, without having to admit to previous mistakes.

When this or a similar question about problem-solving arises in the interview (because there will be one), remember to answer with a focus on the positive. You can say ‘while this was a problem at the time, this is how I solved it…’ or ‘if this problem arose again, I would approach it in this way…’.

Tell us About a Time When You Reduced Costs

As an accountant, you will be expected to be able to reduce outgoings at all costs. Give examples of when you have achieved this in previous roles, by sharing the details of the problems and the steps you took reduce expenditures.

Showing that you are continually looking to manage and reduce costs for a business will get the attention of a hiring manager’s good books and validate that you are responsible in your role as an accountant – looking after the health of the companies finances and not just keeping them in order.

Hiring managers are looking for pro-active candidates who understand how vitally important credit control is in today’s financial sector, not just someone with the right certificates.

Tell us About Your Hobbies and Interests

This might seem like an outdated question but now more than ever hiring managers are trying to create a company culture which aims to retain staff. This question is not necessarily about finding whether you are going to be a new member of the company squash club, but it seeks to find out what drives you and if you have a similar ethos to other employees. Be honest and talk about your passions outside of work – hiring managers want to see the real you, not a homogenised version.

Where Do You See Yourself In (X) Years?

This is a standard question but it applies now more than ever. There is a chronic skills shortage in specialised sectors such as accountancy and businesses are desperate to keep the best talent. If the truth is ‘I want to do it for a year to put on my CV’, you might want to modify this answer.

Make it clear that you want to grow with the company. Talk about the plans you have for the future that you can incorporate these into their business, sharing how you want to develop professionally and you see yourself doing that with this company.

Prepare your answers to these common questions and you will have all the main topic areas covered.

Remember, this isn’t an exhaustive list. If you work in the field of tax, audit, treasury or management accounting, be prepared to answer more in-depth questions on your subject area. Remember that interviews are not about being right or wrong, they are mostly about allowing the interviewer see the real you.

After all, if you get the job and you realise you aren’t the right fit, it will be costly for the company and yourself. Lastly, relax, and remember to smile!

About Clayton Recruitment

Clayton Recruitment has been partnering with organisations across the country since 1989 and during that time has built up an enviable reputation for trust and reliability.

With specialist divisions covering Commercial, Financial, Industrial, and Engineering appointments, on both a permanent and temporary basis. If you are looking for your next career move, we can help. Call us on 01772 259 121 or email us here.

If you would like to download our latest interview checklist, you can do so here.

In today’s hyper-connected world, every company has a reputation, whether they actively cultivate it or not.

In a similar way that a commercial brand can affect the way a consumer feels about you, so too can your employer brand impact a candidate’s decision on whether to work with your company. That’s why leaders across every sector are now investing more time and money into effective employer branding exercises.

For example, your employer brand image can play a key role in getting the right kind of candidates for your organisation. The best candidates will naturally gravitate towards organisations that put their best face forward both online, and offline.

So, how can you create an employer brand that attracts the talent that’s right for your company?

1. Evaluate Your Current Reputation

Before you can begin making changes to your employer brand, you need to know where you stand. A survey or poll of key employees can help you build a foundation for your future employer brand.

Finding out what your current staff think about your organisation will help you identify the gap between where you are and where you want your employer brand to be.

2. Personalise Employee Experiences

You’ll also want to establish your Employer Value Proposition, by determining what you (can) offer your team that no-one else in your industry does.

In order to stay competitive, finance companies need to offer their employees an employment experience unlike any other. The key to attracting the best talent is being able to demonstrate that you have a healthy company culture and that you understand and accommodate modern needs.

For instance, as well as offering exceptional support and development opportunities to your employees, you can also promote work/life balance through remote-working or flexible scheduling and offer employee wellness programmes that include family days and partner events.

Find what makes you unique to the specific types of talent you want to attract, then keep those features in mind when you start working with a specialist recruitment agency.

3. Celebrate (And Market) Your Company Culture

Make sure that you’re continually demonstrating your value to top-tier talent.

Today’s professionals begin the search for the ideal position online. If you’re looking for a great accountant for your team, then you need to make sure you’re posting ads on all of your social media channels as well as the specialist job listing sites where prospective finance professionals are looking.

In addition to your presence on social media, your website also needs to be packed full of useful information about what your business does for both employees, and the industry overall. At the same time, your recruitment agency can help you to develop job specifications that highlight the most attractive parts of working for your company.

Though a great listing is a great way to inspire top-performing talent, showcasing your company culture doesn’t have to stop there. Demonstrate what applicants can expect when they come to you by publishing blog posts, recording videos to share on social media, and generating case studies about your recent projects.

The more information you make available to your candidates, the more confident they’ll feel applying for your position.

4. Develop an Advocacy Programme

If you’re hoping to use your online presence to share information about your employer brand with possible future recruits, then the best things you can do to showcase your value is through your existing employees.

Advocates among your staff can share stories about their experiences with your company in videos, case studies, review websites like Glassdoor, and across your organisation’s social media platforms. This primarily involves asking your existing staff to share their thoughts, opinions, and experiences related to working for you with their social networks.

Advocacy is a powerful way of building your brand because the words of your team are far more believable than the messages your business creates to attract new talent. Therefore, make it as easy as possible for people to join your advocacy programme and offer rewards for the professionals who get involved.

5. Make the Hiring Experience Count

In our highly-connected social world, it’s important to make sure that the conversations you inspire are as positive as possible. This means that every aspect of your recruitment process, from your job specs to your hiring interviews and onboarding process, must support your image.

While a specialist recruiter like Clayton Recruitment can make it easier for you to track down the perfect candidates for your team, it’s up to you to convince the talent you speak to that they should want to work for you. Personalise the questions you ask potential hires according to the roles they’ve applied for, and make sure that they know how you’ll be keeping in touch with them when the interview is over.

Once you’ve brought someone new into your company, make sure that you nurture the relationship you’ve begun to build by offering plenty of clear communication and recognition. Providing a stress-free onboarding process with regular feedback will improve morale within your company while motivating your employees to continuously give their best work.

6. Ask for Feedback and Adapt

If you want to know how you can convince a new fees administrator or purchasing coordinator to join your team, why not simply ask for guidance from an existing professional on your staff? If you can figure out what compels your most valuable hires to stick with your brand, then you can draw more attention to those features the next time you advertise a role, or conduct an interview.

Avoid the mistake of not listening to your team; asking for feedback doesn’t necessarily mean listening to all the good things your employees have to say about your business and ignoring the rest. Consider sending out surveys to find out more about what’s working well for your company, and what you might need to change.

While it’s a good idea to stick to your core values and vision, it’s always important to be flexible if it means attracting the best skills for your team. Maybe you need to give your finance professionals more options for remote working, or invest in new tools for your engineers? A simple change can make a big difference.

7. Monitor Your Reputation

The most important thing you can understand about your employer brand is that it will continue to change and grow with time – regardless of whether you’re refining it or not.

Employer brands are organic things. They require frequent attention to ensure that they don’t veer off in the wrong direction. The best companies know how to manage the perceptions they build around their business as it grows, carefully monitoring their reputation on everything from social media to satisfaction surveys.

There are always going to be people out there talking about your company, and being aware of the conversation ensures that you can start to steer it in the right direction. Failing to monitor your efforts may mean that you miss out on some of the best talent on the market the next time you need to fill a gap in your team.

Maintaining a great employer brand takes a lot of effort and focus, but it can be the key to building a high-performing team.

About Clayton Recruitment

Clayton Recruitment has been partnering with organisations across the country since 1989 and during that time has built up an enviable reputation for trust and reliability.

With specialist divisions covering Commercial, Financial, Industrial, and Engineering appointments, on both a permanent and temporary basis. If you are looking for your next career move, we can help. Call us on 01772 259 121 or email us here.

If you would like to download our latest interview checklist, you can do so here.

Here’s a good question to reflect on: when was the last time you stepped outside of your comfort zone?

Comfort zones exist for a reason; they provide a sense of peace and safety, and the confidence that comes from knowing what to expect. As such, they do an excellent job of protecting us from danger, impulsive decision-making, and potential embarrassment. However, the flipside is that our comfort zones also protect us from growth.

Sometimes, a comfort zone is just a cleverly-disguised cage, holding you back from achieving your true potential. When you’re “comfortable” in a position, you stop striving for greatness, which means that you stay in the same place rather than moving forward. Although staying still can seem like a good thing at first, it can too often hold you back – especially when it comes to standing out in your career.

Here are five ways your comfort zone might be holding you back from achieving your professional ambitions.

You’re Not Reaching Your Goals

Everyone wants to feel comfortable in their jobs; we spend a large portion of our lives at work, so it’s crucial to feel satisfied with what you do. That’s why organisations invest so much time into company culture to attract and retain the right talent.

However, when you’re too comfortable in your position, you can begin to be swallowed by it. Eventually, you realise that you’re not making any progress towards your long-term goals, you’re just standing in place.

There’s a common idea among successful people that you’re either moving forward, or you’re letting your ambitions die. If you stay in the same place for too long, you may miss out on opportunities to explore new roles and challenges that improve your quality of life. For instance, if your accountancy career hasn’t got off on the right track, it’s up to you to set the necessary goals that will improve things.

You’re Not Networking

The easiest way to change up your work life and step out of your comfort zone is to look for ways to network and collaborate with others. Take advantage of opportunities to work on challenging projects with others on your team. Even if you discover that you don’t like the work, you’ll still be investing some time into networking, which can be crucial for your future.

Whether it’s done online or in person, networking can be challenging; talking to people we don’t know and advocating for ourselves are things most people would rather avoid, regardless of their qualifications or experience. However, expanding your professional network is an essential part of career development in today’s competitive job market.

Not only will regular updates on LinkedIn allow your network to keep up with the work that you’re doing, but it can also serve as an excellent tool for recruitment. You wouldn’t want to miss out on the next big step in your career, just because networking was outside of your comfort zone.

You’re Afraid of Change and Failure

Fear isn’t always a bad thing; it can sometimes keep us safe from dangerous experiences. However, fear of change in the modern workplace is often detrimental to career development. With the ever-changing landscape of the finance sector, if you’re unable to evolve with the times, you may find that your career is stuck in a rut.

Often, a fear of change in the professional world comes from the desire to avoid failure. We assume that if we stick to the things we know, we’ll be less likely to make mistakes. However, the best employees know that they need to take risks from time to time.

As with being afraid of change, being afraid to fail will keep you a prisoner in your comfort zone. Rather than going after the career you really want, you’ll only focus on what you know how to do. We shouldn’t be afraid to fail, however, because failures pave the way for improvement and growth.

You’re Not Developing New Skills

The only way to discover your potential in any career is to experiment. You only find out more about yourself when you take on new challenges and explore unique opportunities by pushing your limits. It’s also important to remember that you might be heading toward redundancy if you’re not proactive in developing your skill set and adapting to workplace changes.

Trying new things in the workplace improves your chances of thriving in your career. You’ll learn more about what you like and dislike about your role so that you can pursue positions that suit you better in the future. Plus, you show that you have an experimental side with new experiences to place on your CV, which improves your chances of standing out to a future employer.

Twenty years of employment as a relationship manager is excellent, but not if you haven’t gained anything from it. On a successful finance professional’s CV, you’ll see endless accomplishments that came from each of the roles they took on, no matter how long they stayed with a firm. A career is much more than just a profession; it’s a way to develop your knowledge and talents as an individual.

You’re Starting to Settle

Finally, if you stay in your comfort zone for long enough, then you might be conditioning yourself to settle. Even if you’re no longer happy in your role, you’ll tell yourself that it’s better to stay where you are than try something new.

However, this prevents you from pursuing a life where you’re delighted by your career. You may even reject opportunities to grow and explore new things because you’re afraid of the uncertainty the future holds.

The most successful people know that sometimes, to accomplish great things, you need to be willing to embrace change. You don’t have to be a risk taker, but you should be confident in yourself to know that if you do fail, you’ll learn from it and grow from it. It’s therefore critical to be confident in your abilities and know your worth.

Future employers want to see that you are willing to try something new as evidence that you’re motivated and passionate in your professional endeavours. Don’t let your fear of the unknown or of failure hold back your career; you alone have the power to transcend the boundaries of familiarity and comfort that you’ve established for yourself.

About Clayton Recruitment

Clayton Recruitment has been partnering with organisations across the country since 1989 and during that time has built up an enviable reputation for trust and reliability.

With specialist divisions covering Commercial, Financial, Industrial, and Engineering appointments, on both a permanent and temporary basis. If you are looking for your next career move, we can help. Call us on 01772 259 121 or email us here.

If you would like to download our latest interview checklist, you can do so here.

Interview stress is common, and in all honesty, everyone has probably experienced it at one time or another. When you stop to consider how important interviews are in shaping our futures, it’s completely understandable why so many of us get stressed out by them.

There are lots of articles online about how to boost your interview confidence, but the truth is, if you’re nervous and anxious, sooner or later it’s going to show, potentially sabotaging an otherwise successful interview.

At Clayton Recruitment, we understand the anxieties and pitfalls that job-seekers face in interviews. We know how stressful it can be, but we also understand why employers look for confidence and poise in their candidates.

With that in mind, we wanted to share our five secret strategies for dealing with interview stress.

1. Research Your Potential Employer

One of the biggest keys to managing your nerves in an interview is knowing what to expect, which means knowing what you’re interviewing for. Understanding the history of the company and what they’ve achieved (as well as what they hope to achieve) is crucial for knowing what you can bring to the table.

In addition to understanding what services the company offers and who their clients are, you should learn as much as you can about the duties and expectations around the role you’ve applied for. For instance, if you’re interviewing for a role as an assistant accountant, you should ideally know which level of AAT qualification is required as well as which type of accounting software the company uses. You should also consider the ways in which the company’s philosophy align with your personal values.

The more you understand about the company’s needs and goals and where you might be able to fit in, the more likely you are to project a calm and confident demeanour during your interview.

2. Prepare a List of Questions

Just as important as researching the company is coming away with questions that will help you learn more about it. Your research will likely reveal more questions than answers; therefore, as you learn about the company, you should make a running list of questions that you may want to ask in your interview.

Remember, at some point, your interviewer will expect you to ask questions, and you’ll want to show them that you’ve given careful thought to both the position and their company. While active listening and genuine curiosity during the course of the interview might naturally yield some great questions that you might not have thought of beforehand, it’s always good to have a list to fall back on just in case.

3. Rehearse with a Mock Interview

In addition to making a list of questions for your interviewer, you should also brainstorm the kinds of questions they are likely to ask you. Try to anticipate what kinds of questions you might be asked and practice answering these. You can also find many great resources online, listing both general and more critical interview questions. However, it isn’t enough to simply think about how you might answer these questions.

You should ideally conduct one or two mock interviews with a friend or relative playing the role of the interviewer. Failing this, you could even interview yourself out loud in front of a mirror. Better yet, video yourself with your phone, so that you can play it back and critique yourself. While just the thought of this might make you cringe, it can be an extremely effective tool for lowering your anxiety and improving your performance.

4. Stay Calm & Don’t Rush

This one might seem like a no-brainer, but it’s an easy one to neglect. Not feeling rushed or flustered is hugely important in terms of keeping your stress in check. Make sure you know exactly how to get to your interview and give yourself more than enough time to get there, ensuring that you account for any traffic or other possible delays. No matter how much of a people person you might be, arriving late and agitated to your interview is not only going to make you feel stressed and anxious; it will likely ruin any chances you might have had of getting the job.

This advice doesn’t just apply for getting to your interview; try to take your time when answering questions, as well. This doesn’t mean waffling on endlessly or taking dramatically long pauses before or during your answers. It means being yourself, pacing yourself, and remembering to breathe. Remember, at the end of the day, an interview is really just a conversation.

5. Connect With Your Interviewers

While projecting confidence is important, being overly confident can do more harm than good. Boasting or bragging is an immediate red flag to most potential employers. Rather than trying to impress your interviewer, you should channel your nervous energy towards connecting and empathising with them. By focusing on connecting with people rather than on performance (or worrying about how they perceive you), you’ll be more at ease and more confident – you’ll also come across as likeable.

When you shift the focus of the interview onto the needs of your potential employer, you’re not only showing genuine interest, but you’re likely to inspire their confidence in you as a potential employee.

About Clayton Recruitment

Clayton Recruitment has been partnering with organisations across the country since 1989 and during that time has built up an enviable reputation for trust and reliability.

With specialist divisions covering Commercial, Financial, Industrial, and Engineering appointments, on both a permanent and temporary basis. If you are looking for your next career move, we can help. Call us on 01772 259 121 or email us here.

If you would like to download our latest interview checklist, you can do so here.

Business can often be very fast-paced and demanding, but that doesn’t mean you have to neglect the wellbeing of your employees. A stressed employee is often an unproductive employee, which can ultimately hurt your company’s bottom line.

There’s a growing body of research that confirms the link between employee happiness and workplace productivity. For example, a recent study at the University of Warwick revealed that happy employees work harder and are 12% more productive and motivated than those who are unhappy or stressed.

Workplace stress can often be alleviated simply by providing opportunities to fulfil basic human needs. In addition to being less stressed, employees who feel their needs are being met in the workplace, feel more comfortable, confident, and motivated to work productively.

Here are five simple practices that will help foster a stress-free culture in your company.

1. Develop a Wellness Programme

This is something Japanese businesses have known for some time: the company that exercises together, stays together. Working out as an office will not only build camaraderie; research shows that daily exercise out can be extremely effective in lowering stress.

Whether it’s a lunchtime yoga class or an office sports team, your company’s exercise can take many different forms. You could even arrange to have monthly matches against other companies – imagine competing in a football match against your leading business competitor! Working together to achieve a common goal on the field will translate to having a high-performing team in the office. It’s also a great way for people to get to know everyone in the company better.

In addition to providing opportunities for group exercise, you could bring in a wellness coach to speak to staff on ways they can fit daily workouts and proper nutrition into their busy professional lives. Having a healthy diet and regular physical exercise will not only reduce work-related stress; it will also lead to clearer and more creative thinking.

2. Mentor Young Talent

Research shows that employees who benefit from mentoring programmes have higher job satisfaction, which often correlates to increased productivity and reduced turnover. Frustration and stress over not knowing how to correctly do a job are some of the leading causes of turnover for many organisations; therefore, providing new talent with the scaffolding and feedback necessary to carry out their work correctly and effectively will increase both workplace efficiency and retention.

So, if you’ve recently hired an assistant accountant, it’s crucial to ensure that a more experienced member of your accounting team will be assigned to answer any questions they might have about using the SAGE 200 software your company just purchased.

Workplace mentoring programmes not only help new employees learn the ropes; they also help them to build strong professional relationships with senior members of staff. In addition to helping them perform more effectively, mentorships also give younger new team members a sense of belonging and worth.

3. Encourage Open Communication & Employee Feedback

Ineffective communication is one of the leading causes of workplace stress and discontent. One of the best ways to reduce anxiety in the workplace is to improve employer to employee communication channels as well as encouraging open communication between all team members. This will help to ensure that all employees are clear on their purpose and what their role is in the company’s shared vision, which will facilitate a reduction in work-related stress.

Another great way to help improve workplace culture and reduce stress is by implementing an employee feedback system, where all employees can provide feedback to your company’s leadership team. An employee feedback system will give your employees a sense of importance, allowing them to feel understood by giving them an outlet to voice their opinions and concerns.

4. Focus On Work-Life Balance

The secret behind many highly successful companies is their promotion of work-life balance. In addition to encouraging staff to make the most of their personal time, there are many things your business can do to promote a healthier work-life balance amongst your team.

You could adopt a flexible schedule, allowing employees to start/end work an hour or two later when needed. In addition to this, you could also implement a work-from-home scheme, where employees might be eligible to occasionally work at home in certain circumstances. You could even promote digital downtime by encouraging staff to go for a walk at lunchtime and take ‘digital breaks’.

Allowing employees to take time off when they’re feeling burnt out — or encouraging them to work from home when appropriate — can make a big difference in the health and satisfaction of your team. For instance, if your PA needs to stay at home during the week to look after a sick child, allowing her the option to answer emails and manage your schedule from home will help to reduce her stress while making her feel valued and appreciated.

5. Recognise and Reward Employee Achievements

Employees appreciate sincere and specific recognition of their contributions and achievements. Effectively recognising your team members will not only increase their sense of belonging in your company, but it will also simultaneously reduce any work-related anxiety while increasing their commitment to their role, resulting in a happier and more productive employee.

However, it’s important that employee rewards are not forced or seem contrived. While there are many ways you could show your appreciation, it’s crucial to ensure that your acknowledgements do not become expectations or entitlements. Each recognition should be tailored to the individual employee and the nature of their contribution.

Implementing an employee recognition programme that effectively rewards the successes of your staff, will not only help you to reduce stress and engage your employees, it will also work to attract the top talent you want in your company.

About Clayton Recruitment

Clayton Recruitment has been partnering with organisations across the country since 1989 and during that time has built up an enviable reputation for trust and reliability.

With specialist divisions covering Commercial, Financial, Industrial, and Engineering appointments, on both a permanent and temporary basis. If you are looking for your next career move, we can help. Call us on 01772 259 121 or email us here.

If you would like to download our latest interview checklist, you can do so here.

Keeping your company’s finances healthy is one of the most important responsibilities for any business. Every penny of revenue needs to be accounted for, bills and payroll have to be paid on time, and tax responsibilities need to be met.

In managing issues of credit and debt for your business, you can’t afford to cut corners. It’s vital that your organisation maintains accurate financial statements and records, and unless you’ve outsourced these responsibilities to an accounting firm, these tasks fall on the shoulders of the company’s accountant.

As your business grows, it would be a good idea to consider relieving yourself of financial management and working with a professional. If your company is ready to hire its accountant, it is essential that you find someone who is suited to your business’ needs. In this article, we’ll cover how you can find the right accountant for your company.

What to look for when hiring an accountant

If your company has the funds and is positioned for strong business growth, it makes much sense to bring on a full-time accountant. You’ll have the peace of mind knowing that a trained professional is keeping an eye on your company’s financial figures and growth at all times.

In addition to having business acumen, excellent organisational skills, and a strong aversion to risk, accountants must be trustworthy, highly precise, and great with numbers. Moreover, if they are working in a client-facing role or as part of a team, they also need to have great people skills. Finding all those qualities in one individual is a tall order. But to meet your business goals, you need to have the right people in place.

The best advice we can offer is to work with someone who understands your business. You could start by asking contacts in your industry to refer you to their recommended accountant or accounting firm. Working with a specialist recruiter in your industry – especially one who has served you well in the past – also has some advantages.

Once you’ve shortlisted some promising candidates, arrange to meet each accountant for an initial consultation. Here’s what you should assess during your interview:

An all-encompassing financial professional

Can the accountant handle your business needs? Depending on the size and complexity of your business, you may require a strong team to dedicate themselves fully to your business’ financial needs, working directly with you on high-level business planning.  Make sure whomever you choose to work with is capable of handling all of your present accounting requirements as well as those for the foreseeable future.

Assuming you’re hiring your first in-house accountant, you’ll likely need someone who can do it all, rather than specialising in a specific area. A well-rounded accountant should be able to not only maintain the company’s general ledger regularly but should also be capable of using it to point out trends and opportunities for financial growth.

They’ll also need to be able to manage payroll, ensuring that every employee is paid correctly and on time as well as managing expenses and paying bills. In addition to managing the ledger and payroll, your in-house accountant will be responsible for correctly paying your business taxes on time as well as maximising your deductions throughout the year.

Ability to communicate the numbers

Ultimately, you probably want someone who is able and willing to get past the jargon. Tax regulation, for example, contains a lot of technical language. You should look for an accountant who can explain high-level tax topics in an accessible way. An accounting professional who helps you understand financial topics more deeply will also enable you to better understand and manage your own business.

While communication is key in any job, it’s especially important for someone who solely manages a company’s finances. The nuances of accounting are complicated and difficult to grasp for anyone who isn’t a trained accounting professional. The best accountants can present these complicated concepts in layman’s terms.

You should seek an accountant who can meet with your leadership team and outline problems and opportunities in a way that everyone can understand — that way the team can discuss the best course of action and make the right decision.

An understanding of your industry and business type

Do they truly understand your business? An accountant who works predominantly with clients in your particular industry will hold specialised, up-to-date knowledge that could help you take advantage of tax breaks and deductions available to your business. They’ll also know how to navigate your type of business through any changes in tax law as and when they occur.

You should not only seek candidates who are well-versed in all aspects of accounting; you should also look for a financial professional who has the right background for your business. An ideal accountant will be familiar with how your specific company operates. If they already have experience working with companies in your industry, they are more likely to understand the costs and operating procedures of your business, which could be especially beneficial for tax preparation.

Additionally, you should seek a financial professional who has experience working with businesses at a similar stage as your company. They should know what opportunities and challenges lie ahead, so nothing catches them off guard as the company continues to grow.

An expert in the latest technology

Like most professions, accounting is being constantly shaped by new technology. Modern software helps accounting professionals efficiently accomplish tasks while giving them deeper insight into their company or client’s financials.

While many younger accountants are embracing this new technology, others continue to favour out-dated solutions. When meeting with a potential accounting employee, it’s crucial to ask them what software they use, why they prefer it and how they see technology impacting the profession in the future.

You’ll want an accountant who is up to date with the latest office technology, as well as someone who is willing to learn and embrace new technology. This flexibility and willingness to implement new technology will prove crucial to the future success of your company.

About Clayton Recruitment

Clayton Recruitment has been partnering with organisations across the country since 1989 and during that time has built up an enviable reputation for trust and reliability.

With specialist divisions covering Commercial, Financial, Industrial, and Engineering appointments, on both a permanent and temporary basis. If you are looking for help with recruiting call us on 01772 259 121 or email us here.

If you would like to download our latest interview checklist, you can do so here.