Covid-19 has re-shaped the way organisations are approaching the recruitment process.

In recent years, the talent ‘war’ in finding the right candidate from those available was the main barrier to making a great hire.

Now, there is a very different problem.

Furlough, redundancy, restructuring, and businesses pivoting in response to the pandemic – all of these are happening right now, and it is affecting business output and ultimately, the success of your company.

Add into the mix the need to recruit for a critical position, and you have the perfect scenario which is likely to result in masking the ‘wrong’ hiring decision.

We’re increasingly seeing the need for our recruiting services become realised by companies who recognise that trying to ‘go it alone’ is potentially harmful to their business.

Today’s blog is about highlighting the hidden costs of trying to recruit, without a dedicated recruiter, in a post-pandemic world.

Let’s start with the logistical challenges of hiring in a market now full of candidates.

Dealing with the Influx Of Candidates and Applications

Recent data shows that the number of roles that have been made redundant from UK companies due to the pandemic is in the hundreds of thousands – of course, it’s still early days, and the full picture won’t be known for some time.

But for now, this means one thing – a significant rise in the number of candidates applying for each role; and it’s not just those who have sadly already been made redundant.

The unsettling nature of the pandemic has meant that more people are thinking about their future and making big career decisions, either out of fear or the realisation that their company hasn’t been flexible this year.

But an influx of applicants has caused companies with vacancies to become overwhelmed by candidates – not an ideal situation when you need to make the ‘right’ hire.

Sifting through hundreds of applicants costs time and time is money. I was reading in the Independent recently about a trainee accountancy role which received 3,272 applicants.

Sorting through this amount of applications would have been incredibly time-consuming, yet each application must be considered if you are to make the ‘right’ hire – it’s a logistical dilemma.

Even when you spend the time individually reviewing applications, go through the interview process and recruit someone you believe is perfect for the role – in the current market there’s no guarantee that they will stay – let’s look at why.

Predicting Candidate Intentions

As I mentioned earlier, lots of candidates are going through a mindset change – the pandemic has caused people to evaluate their careers and their lives.

There is still a lot of uncertainty, and middle and senior managers with key skills and experience will be wondering what their next career move should be. This can lead to them applying for a range of roles, without really acknowledging what their long-term plan is.

Additionally, with the level of redundancies that we have seen occurring in the UK, someone with management skills looking for work will be essentially looking for something ‘right now’ rather than something ‘right’ for them.

There is so much change happening in the market right now; how can you be sure that the person you hire isn’t just waiting for the next best thing? Middle and senior management employees are still trying to find their feet in an emerging marketplace; many will feel pressured into taking the first job that comes along – unbeknown to you this might be your vacancy.

When you work with an experienced recruiter, you can guarantee that the candidate is right for the role.

A specialist recruiter works with candidates to place them only in roles that they know are suited to the long-term aspirations of the individual; that’s why good recruiters focus on talent and personality matching rather than someone, anyone, to fill a vacant role.

Which leads onto the hidden cost of DIY recruitment most companies don’t appreciate.

The Cost of a Bad Hire

In pre-pandemic times, the cost of a ‘bad’ hire was always a risk, but now it is even more likely to occur and here is why.

Organisations are now dealing with multiple changes within the structure or the nature of their business.

From changed teams because of furlough and redundancy and the broader shifts in remote work, disruptions caused by the wrong hire are more likely to happen and could be one problem too many.

Hiring the wrong individual has the potential to cause problems in two ways –

• You hire someone who isn’t right for the role, or your organisation, and they cause a shift in the company culture, they are hard to manage, or they struggle with their position.
• You hire someone who you believe is right and they leave shortly afterwards, leaving you under-resourced and at the start of the recruitment process again.

Now, more than ever, you must find the ideal candidate to meet your criteria – an individual who is not only right for the role and your company culture but can also help your business grow in what is potentially a challenging time ahead.

Using a specialist recruiter is a logical and time tested way to avoid the common recruiting challenges I have mentioned here.

Working with a Recruiter for Your Post-Pandemic Hiring Decisions

Working with a recruiter is not the same as going it alone but with a fee – if this were the case, recruitment wouldn’t exist.

A specialist recruiter can proactively find the ‘right’ hire for your position, rather than the passive type of recruitment that is causing businesses to be overwhelmed with applicants and the barriers to finding the right hire that this presents.

In the current climate, which would you prefer –

Being swamped with potentially hundreds of applicants and not having the time to separate the suitable ones from the highly unsuitable, or not getting any suitable applicants at all?

Be presented with a shortlist of a few highly relevant candidates with the exact skills, experience and culture fit that you’re looking for?

We are a specialist recruitment company, and we can help you achieve this second scenario.

To find out how we can locate for you the candidates you’re looking for – get in touch with us here.

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, Nursing, 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.

We are now living in a world that is very different from what we were used to only a few short months ago.

The monumental changes to all of our working lives, and now, trying to rebuild teams and businesses in a new environment will be a challenge for many leaders.

Managing change is a pertinent leadership topic, but it is particularly relevant right now.

No single management method will suit every company. You must be finely tuned to your organisation’s needs, your employee’s capabilities and find a process which works for both.

In today’s blog, we take a look at how leaders can manage their teams effectively through the changeable period we are currently in. Let’s start by looking at the most well known psychological model for dealing with change, the Kubler-Ross Change Curve.

The Kubler-Ross Change Curve

You might be familiar with this model in terms of loss; it is the renowned ‘five stages of grief’ framework.

Businesses have been applying this model to their organisations to deal with change for years – to great effect.

The model outlines five different stages a person goes through when dealing with a significant change; let’s look at how this applies to change in business.

1. Stage one is shock and denial. Being presented with change can be overwhelming, so managers mustn’t overwhelm employees at this stage.
2. Stage two deals with fear. After realising the situation is real, employees might become scared of the change that lies ahead.
3. Stage three is bargaining. At this stage, the employee is looking at how they can best adapt to the new situation in a way that they can deal with.
4. Stage four is the learning stage. Here the employee must deal with learning how to cope in their new role or environment.
5. The final stage is embracing the change, where employees finally start to accept the new situation and build new hopes and aspirations.

As you can see, there is a lot involved in implementing change in your organisation; it is far from simple.

I want to share with you some strategies to help manage change in your organisation to ensure changes happen as smoothly as possible, starting with a key management principle – transparency.

Transparent Leadership

All change contains some risk of the unknown, and this is especially true of the current climate. However, there is a difference between being cautious about planning for the future and withholding information from your employees.

Transparent leadership builds trust, and the more trust you have in your organisation, the better you will perform. Right now, your employees need you to be transparent about potential changes in your organisation from social distancing measures to long-term business plans.

Four ways you can operate as a transparent leader are –

• Be honest with your team at all times. Nothing destroys trust like finding out you have been misled or lied to.
• Be open and accessible. Ask for, and be prepared to listen to feedback.
• Ask questions and show interest in how the team are coping with their current situation – can you do anything to help?
• Do not avoid difficult situations; confront them head-on.

Building trust with your team is essential to lead them through periods of change; your employees need to trust 100% that they can depend on you in a new and uncertain territory. But what else can you do to help your team through a period of significant change?

Think About How You Can Serve Your Team

Many leaders get this basic principle of leadership wrong: leading is about serving others, not being served.

You rely on your team to perform just as much as they rely on you to guide them. As members of your team return to a changed workplace, they will be looking to you to guide them not just on new work practices and changes in their role, but a whole new way of working and of thinking about work.

There will likely be significant differences as and when your team return to work. A noticeable change will be a reduced workforce, which many organisations are dealing with as they keep employees furloughed and working from home to keep workplaces socially distanced.

Think about the sub-teams in your organisation. As people return to work, are there key players missing? You might have to step in for members of your team who are now working from home or still furloughed. This doesn’t just mean managing workloads within teams; it means being emotionally supportive for those who are missing their colleagues.

Help Employees Find a New Purpose

A big part of management is training and developing your employees to increase their skills and confidence; do you currently have training plans in place for employees that were decided at the start of the year?

These plans are no longer relevant.

The goals of the organisation and indeed, each employee, might have been altered significantly by the COVID-19 outbreak.

Employees will be considering questions such as:

• How has my role changed?
• Where do I now fit into the organisation?
• How has the virus affected my career plans?

Some of your employee’s roles will have changed drastically; their workload might have increased or decreased; they might be assigned new tasks in new departments; they might even have to retrain.

You must have an in-depth discussion with all employees about what the changes in your organisation mean for them. If their roles have changed, this will include drawing up a new training and development plan with different goals and different milestones.

Aside from personal development plans, the aims of your workplace might have also changed. Is it time to re-evaluate your organisation’s purpose and vision?

Refocus Your Vision

At the heart of your business should be a vision or mission statement which underpins everything you do.

For example, Microsoft’s is ‘A computer on every desk and in every home’.

But what has this got to do with managing change? The senior leaders within your organisation must re-evaluate your company’s vision and goals – having a clear goal will be critical to your businesses success in a changing world.

Your new vision will then filter down to each employee, injecting meaning into their changed roles. Researchers at the State University of New York found that asking employees about their daily tasks and then asking ‘Why does it matter?’ four times afterwards helped connect employees to a higher purpose.

Teams which have been mostly disjointed over the past two months will be craving routine. Re-evaluating your vision and relaying this to employees will help them feel secure in an unfamiliar working landscape.

Finally

Many organisations are finding that where some areas are being scaled back, others are thriving. For example, online services are thriving, and working from home has meant that some organisations are exploring cost-saving measures by relocating.

If your organisation is looking to take advantage of opportunities in the marketplace to scale and grow, and you require talented employees to do this – we can help.

Get in touch with us today to discuss your vacancies, or call our team on 01772 259 121.

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.

Upon returning to work after lockdown, managers and leaders in commercial organisations will have a variety of concerns.

It is key to remember that every organisation right now is going through a period of change and that it will be a while before the dust settles and we find a ‘new normal’. In some sectors, employees were able to work throughout lockdown, but for many commercial organisations, their business was either drastically reduced or stopped altogether.

This is why it is essential to have in place a robust strategy to help your team move forwards now workplaces are opening up again.

In today’s article, I share advice for employers on how to manage and motivate their teams coming back to work after lockdown, starting with common team concerns.

Managing Your Team’s Concerns

A potential problem that managers will have to face is the integration of teams who have been disjointed by lockdown, and the individual issues they might have.

If members of your team have been working from home, some of them might have enjoyed it and wish to carry on; others will be eager to get back. There may be members of your team who are fearful of going back into work, especially if they live with someone who is currently shielding.

As an employer, it is essential to remain flexible to accommodate your employee’s needs. Options to consider for team members who have concerns include –

• Keeping someone on furlough for longer (the government furlough scheme is guaranteed until October) – discuss with all employees about their preferences, concerned team members may be happy to stay on furlough.
• Let employees continue to work from home if they are happy to do so, and if they have everything they need to continue to do their work to a high standard.
• You may consider letting employees work different hours to avoid peak travel times or arrange extra car parking, if possible, to allow employees to drive to work.

Another worry for employees is childcare. With schools still shut, non-essential workers who are now being encouraged to return to work will have concerns over their situation. The prime minister has said that lack of childcare is an ‘obvious barrier to get back to work’ and that employers can only expect employees to come back to work if they have provisions for childcare until the schools are reopened.

The key thing to remember is to listen to your employees and then take steps to protect everyone. Communication with all of your team is essential in understanding their concerns; a happy workforce is a productive workforce.

Social Distancing: Physical Changes to Your Office

Another change that managers will have to contend with is the physical changes that you will need to make to the workplace.

The first step you will need to take, as per government guidelines, is to conduct a risk assessment. You will need to consider the following –

• How can you ensure a two-metre gap is maintained between employees at all times?
• Do you need to implement screens in any customer-facing areas?
• Do you need to rearrange desks and seating areas?
• Do you need to implement hand washing or sanitising stations, and if so, where can these go?
• Have you purchased enough hand sanitiser and disposable hand towels/tissues to keep employees safe?
• Do you have a plan of action to deal with an employee who starts showing symptoms?

The government have announced that workplaces will be subject to inspection from environmental officers, so you must meet the criteria. But also, demonstrating to your employees that you are taking every possible step to protect their health will instil confidence in your team and allow them to work stress-free.

Skills Refreshers and Training

Even if your employees have been remote working for the last two months, they will have been doing so in a changed, or reduced capacity. Even with the highest-spec technology, working from home is not the same as working in an office environment, and your team will likely be out of practice in some areas.

Things that might have suffered while your team were remote working can include – a lack of collaboration, a breakdown in communication and possibly attention to detail. It can be easier for things to get missed when people are trying to collaborate over email and video.

With this in mind, your team will benefit from skills refreshers and additional training upon returning.

Ask your team which areas they feel as though they need a refresher on, or any skills they thought they lacked when working from home that they would like training based around? During the lockdown, many people started thinking about their skills and their careers, with a high level of uptake in online courses. If your team feel as though their employer is not supporting them, they might start to look elsewhere for alternative career options.

How to Motivate a Returning Team

Finally, how can you best motivate your team upon their return to the workplace?

The following are my top tips-

• Make your workplace a pleasant place to be. Confront problems and negativity straight away and do not let it fester. Be positive and upbeat – your team are looking to you to set the tone for their new way of working.
• Be supportive. The lockdown and now returning to work will be probably the most unsettling period in your team’s working lives. Continually check that your team have everything they need in the newly-changed workplace.
• Be flexible. Let your team know that you will work together with them to create a new normal that they are comfortable with.
• Share positive feedback. It is more vital than ever that you focus on the positives in your team and their successes.

Many managers have found it more challenging keeping their team motivated and engaged during the lockdown. Use this guide to help steer your team through the next, more positive, recovery period.

What Next?

Coming out of lockdown is something that all organisations will experience differently, with different levels of challenges for each.

If the needs of your organisation have changed recently and you would like a discussion about finding the right talent to help your business thrive, we can help.

Get in touch with our team on 01772 259 121 or contact us here to discuss your recruitment needs.

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.

The COVID-19 outbreak has altered the dynamic in recruitment. While some industries have seen recruitment freezes, others are struggling to locate the employees they need.

With furloughs and some inevitable redundancies in various organisations and sectors, finance and accounting departments remain necessary throughout, which has contributed to a shortage of finance candidates.

With almost half of senior leaders in the financial services sector reporting high competition for finance roles, and now the added challenge of recruiting in the age of coronavirus – finding the right finance candidates is not an easy task.

Companies looking to hire and retain finance employees are struggling to locate the talent they need. Today, I want to discuss why, and what your organisation can do about it.

The Skills Shortage

A general shortage of candidates is the first problem organisations must contend with to hire their next Credit Controller or Payroll Assistant.

Before the COVID-19 outbreak, employers were struggling to hire talent due to a skills gap. Data from the Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC) Jobs Outlook Report found that between May and July 2019, 46 per cent of employers of permanent staff expressed concern over finding enough suitable candidates for their vacancies.

The skills shortage in the UK has increased year on year, as employers struggle to locate finance candidates for pivotal roles within their team.

Businesses Competing for the Best Finance Talent

The headlines we have seen recently about COVID-19 potentially damaging the UK job market do not tell the whole picture.

Shortly before the coronavirus hit the UK, chancellor Rishi Sunak boasted of a ‘national jobs miracle’. There was indeed a steady growth of jobs in many sectors, and tying in with the skills shortage, many employers were struggling to locate talented employees.

While the hospitality, retail and travel sectors have been affected, in many areas of the UK economy, there is a steady progression.

The coronavirus outbreak, however, has put an unprecedented strain on many finance departments, due to recent financial activity – let’s take a closer look.

Finance Departments Affected by Coronavirus

Finance departments have had to alter their regular schedules in line with new increased financial activity.

Cashflow forecasting, audits, tax, accounts assistants dealing with debts – all of these roles have been put under increased pressure due to changes caused by COVID-19.

Nearly 300,000 companies applied for CBILs (Coronavirus Business Interruption Loans) last month. Pausing and taking stock of all incomings and outgoings is not something which finance departments had planned to do at the start of the year. For this reason, many businesses are seeking extra help in finance departments right now.

There has also been a sharp increase in credit controller roles as businesses futures look uncertain and as some will inevitably close permanently. A quarter of all UK businesses have temporarily closed due to COVID-19, with half a million companies reporting that they are in ‘significant financial distress’.

For now, and the foreseeable future, recovery and debt collection will be a focus for many finance departments, with an increased need for employees within these roles.

For businesses that remain open, getting their finances in order after the significant changes that coronavirus has had is a difficult task, the scale of which we will not know for weeks to come.

Remote Recruitment

Finally, an additional problem that businesses have had to contend with is the physical difficulty with hiring at the moment.

Social distancing measures have meant that the face-to-face interviews have been halted and recruiting in general in lots of companies has ground to a halt – despite there being empty vital positions.

Many businesses are not equipped to conduct virtual recruiting, and in light of the recent situation, there hasn’t been time to set up a process.

If you are in need of finance candidates for a vacant role, and you haven’t got remote recruiting procedures in place – we can help. Get in touch with us here to find out about how our recruitment service is continuing and how it can help you recruit in lockdown.

How We Can Help

If you currently have a finance vacancy in your organisation and are struggling to navigate the current job market to find appropriate candidates, we can help.

Our team of experts are working remotely to help you find the finance candidates you need to help your organisation through this challenging time. If you have a finance vacancy you would like to discuss, get in touch with our team here today.

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.

In an increasingly competitive employment market, employers must keep up-to-date with the compensation, perks and benefits that the best talent is looking for, or risk losing them to your competitors.

I speak to candidates daily, and I hear the same incentives that are driving candidates away from specific workplaces and into others.

In this blog, I will share what the most talented candidates are looking for in their new employers right now – are you offering these incentives?

Flexible Work Schedules

We have seen a decrease in the typical 9-5 working schedule for some years now, with flexi-time gaining popularity in the ‘90s through to the present day.

But increasingly, employees are looking for even more flexibility from their employers.

Employees today – and especially millennial employees who now make up the majority of workplaces – want schedules that are flexible to their personal needs.

This is different to flexitime, as instead of being able to come into work anytime between 7-10 am and leave between 3-7 pm, they might ask for flexibility at other times. For example, a half-day finish when they have an appointment and be able to make the time up somewhere else or to come in later on days when they have to take their child to playgroup when their partner is busy.

As well as a flexible working arrangement, another popular demand among employees is a compressed working week – let me explain how this works.

Compressed Work Week

A compressed working schedule allows employees to work full time, putting in more of their hours on the days they choose, and allowing them to take time off elsewhere. For example, an employee might want to work four 10 hour days and have Fridays off.

Employees love this perk, as it allows them to have a better work-life balance, and studies show that working non-regular office hours improves productivity. Employees are more focused on their tasks, they have fewer interruptions, and it reduces fatigue which causes productivity and quality of work to slip.

Pension Scheme

We’re all living longer, and with government pensions not as reliable as they once were, employees are looking to their employers to provide them with an excellent pension scheme.

Employees highly value an employer who invests in an excellent pension scheme for them – it shows that they are invested in their future.

Working with a workplace pension provider to ensure that your employees are given a good rate on their pensions and that they can have as much or as little input as they want in the matter is a highly desirable bonus to many employees.

On-Site Amenities

Depending on the type of your workplace, there will be a range of amenities that you can provide for employees.

If your organisation is based somewhere away from shops and other conveniences, can you provide food for employees?

Some larger organisations can provide gyms, which is seen as one of the most sought-after perks; of course, this is not always possible and will depend on your size and budget. A good alternative is a chill-out zone, where employees can take time out to de-stress or have a quiet 5 minutes.

Even something as small as making your workspace bright, with plenty of natural light and indoor plants can make workplaces much more appealing to candidates.

Your goal should be to provide a workspace that your employees look forward to coming to, where they feel that they can thrive and work towards the shared goal of being healthy and happy.

Creating a positive place to work for your employees contributes to their overall wellbeing, which in turn increases productivity – it’s a win-win!

Finally, a great way to boost morale and give employees a little something that everyone enjoys – free social events!

Social Events

The solitary annual Christmas party doesn’t cut it anymore – many workplaces provide events for their employees throughout the year, and this is has become the mark of a great employer.

It doesn’t have to be monthly away-days at outdoor pursuit facilities; something as low-key as a shared team breakfast every few weeks, or making sure you celebrate birthdays in the office, makes team members feel valued.

Not only this, but research shows that employees who spend time together form stronger bonds which enables them to work better as a team when they are at work.

Your Benefits

How many of these benefits do you currently provide, in one form or another, to attract and retain the best employees?

The smartest organisations are always on the lookout for the most talented employees, and so attraction and retention should be something you are actively monitoring.

Hopefully, this article will have given you some inspiration on how you can make changes to transform your organisation into a talent magnet.

If you need further help or advice on how to recruit top employees, we can help. We work with organisations in the North West to help them find the talent they need to drive their business forwards – get in contact with us today to find out more.

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.

How many millennials do you have in your organisation? If you’re not sure as to what constitutes a ‘millennial’ – it is generally accepted that this generation was born between 1981-1996, meaning that their current age is from their early 20s to late 30s.

As a Manager, it is vital to understand the needs of all generations in the workplace, but as of 2020, millennials will make up the most significant section of the UK workforce, so it pays to understand what they’re really looking for from their job.

Managers who understand what millennials want, and who offer them the opportunities that they’re looking for, will reap the benefits in the long run – these employees will stay and grow with your organisation rather than moving on in a year.

So, what exactly is it that millennials are looking for from their job?

Innovative Technology

Millennials have grown up around technology, and figuring out how to make the lives of everyone in the office a little easier is part of their DNA.

You might be thinking ‘, but we’re a small accountancy company, we don’t have any innovative tech’ – but this is not as complicated as it might sound.

Any office with a computer system will have processes in place – the organisation of files, the procedure of dealing with a client, even updating your website; these are all examples of conventional technology which millennials are adept at working with.

If your cloud filing system is a mess (or non-existent), if you have held back on upgrading your website or even your internet speed, these can all put millennials off from wanting to join your company.

They are looking for forward-thinking and innovative workspaces; however, it isn’t all about how futuristic your office is, it is more a state of mind – which brings me onto my next point.

Collaboration and Flexibility

The millennial workforce is known for their love of collaborative working, of pushing boundaries and of rejecting the style of work where you basically get your head down, do as the Manager says and don’t ask any questions – this is seen as a ‘baby boomer’ trait, and is now less common in the world of work.

When you harbour and encourage an atmosphere of collaboration and shared knowledge, this is an attractive trait to high-performing millennials. Equal partaking makes millennials (and indeed employees of all generations) feel that they are valued, rather than simply a ‘cog’ in the wheel, and gives them a sense of purpose – let me explain this in more detail.

Purpose

Millennials want to undertake work which gives them a sense of purpose. Whether that’s on updating a mortgage administration process, taking ownership of their bookkeeping role, or doing an excellent job of pulling together contracts for your contracts administrator role.

Older millennials might be old enough to have experienced the world of work before open-plan offices and when being an ‘angry Manager’ was still seen as a reliable leadership quality – not any more.

The workplace is a much more open and forward-thinking place these days, with companies of all sizes and in all sectors striving to show their clients and their employees that they are purpose-led. A recent Forbes article even highlighted that purpose-driven companies evolve faster than others.

So, to attract the best millennial talent, make sure your company not only has a mission and a vision statement but that all employees are committed to the cause. If you are an accountancy firm who has honesty and customer service at the heart of your ethos – highlight this to your millennial candidates; it will make them consider working for your business even more seriously.

To Be Developed

Lastly, I want to talk a little bit about millennials and their long-term career plans. Many employers wrongly believe that this generation of workers are ‘job-hoppers’ and they have gained a reputation for being more likely to leave their jobs than their boomer predecessors.

But how true it this?

In reality, millennials are actually no more likely to leave their job than any other employee of different age.

Yes, it is true that the workforce, in general, changes their jobs more often now than previously, but this is the same across all ages. The average employee now changes their position up to 12 times throughout their career, but this is not because they are flighty. It happens because the idea of a ‘job for life’ is not in practice anymore, because of the unstable economic times of the last ten years in the UK and because there is more choice for employees.

A recent study on millennials in the workplace found that the number one factor that they consider before taking a new job is if they will be trained and developed in their role.

Millennials want to develop and grow with your company – they will be put off any role which does not offer scope for growth, and this is not just for the increase in salary; they want to feel the sense of accomplishment that comes from personal growth and pride in doing their job increasingly well.

Finally

Do you need help locating quality candidates for your finance or accounting vacancies? We work with accounting talent for roles in the North West and have been recruiting in this sector for 30 years – get in contact with our team today to find out more.

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.

Your accountant has a central role within your business, so the notion that they might be about to leave can be an alarming one.

But the reality is that accountants rarely stay in the same place for a long time; they are often recruited onto bigger contracts and higher salaries elsewhere – you probably won’t even know if your accountant is planning on leaving.

However, there are some signs that you can look out for.

As a recruiter, I am used to hearing the reasons that top accountants give when leaving their jobs. Starting a family is a primary example – considering leaving for a higher salary in preparation for an addition to your family, and also planning on a reduction of hours to accommodate new parental responsibilities are both reasons candidates regularly give.

Perhaps they have simply been given a better salary and compensation with a firm they have been on the radar of for a while – this article contains the signs to look out for which might indicate your accountant is about to leave.

1. Their Performance Has Dropped

A drop in performance indicates that your accountant is either less engaged with their role, which often leads to the desire for a new role, or worse still, that they are actively looking for a new job and they have mentally checked-out of your business.

Have they started giving less detail in their financial statements, making careless mistakes or missing deadlines which is out of their normal character?

Keeping regular reviews and even informal chats every couple of weeks to discuss your accountant’s projects and how they are generally feeling at work can prevent negative emotions from harbouring, and solutions can be worked out for problems before they become serious.

2. They Have Closed Themselves Off

Any good leader will be able to recognise a change in their employee’s behaviour. An unfavourable change in behaviour might mean a few different things – your accountant might be going through personal issues, they might be finding their current work too stressful, or not challenging enough; or it might mean that they have disengaged from your company.

An informal chat with your accountant who appears to have shut down might reveal that they are struggling – and this is something you can help them with. Likewise, if they tell you that everything is fine, but continue to be secretive with phone calls and checking their phone, or missing work without any good reason – more on this next – it could signal that they are about to leave.

3. They Have Begun an Irregular Working Schedule

A sudden irregular working schedule might mean that your accountant has things going on outside of work – it is not up to your employees to tell you every detail of their personal lives, but a sudden or drastic change to their once steady routine could be a sign of imminent disruption.

Working late to reconcile the accounts and coming in late regularly over consecutive weeks are two different things – the latter might mean that your accountant has been attending interviews elsewhere.

4. They’ve Got a Big Life Change Going On

If you share a great relationship with your accountant, there’s a good chance that they will divulge their personal news with you. You will probably be aware of any significant life changes your employee has going on – a house move, planning a wedding, looking after a family a member, etc.

Sometimes the personal circumstances of an employee mean that they are forced to reassess their career. Your accountant might not necessarily want to hand their notice in, but a significant change in their personal life might make it the only option.

Have they been mentioning starting a family recently, have they been decreasing their hours to take care of an elderly parent? Life comes at us all fast, but being mindful of at what stage your accountant is at in their personal life should mean that you are better equipped to predict their career movements.

Unfortunately, however, sometimes when employees leave there have been warning signs, but their employer has failed to notice them.

5. They Have Demonstrated That They are Less Fulfilled

If only every employer listened to their employees! Many times, when a great employee like your star accountant leaves, they have been exhibiting visible warning signs that their employer has overlooked.

Quite often, candidates who we work with tell us that they are planning on leaving because they have been unhappy in their accountancy role and have tried to offer solutions to the company to no avail. A recent accountancy candidate who I placed in a great new role had been vocal about their previous company updating their recording systems for over a year, and nothing was ever implemented to help her out. In the end, she left to work for a more dynamic company and her old employer was surprised to receive her notice – he simply hadn’t been paying attention to the needs of his staff!

Finally

Actively listening to your key employees can prevent a surprising notice on your desk, but unfortunately, sometimes your accountant will leave for a career move, and there is little that can be done to avoid this.

If you need help in locating talented accountants or building your talent pipeline so that you have a great candidate in mind for the future of your business, get in touch with us to discuss our recruitment solutions.

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.

A recent survey by the accounting resource company Karbon found that 95% of accounting firm partners said that they had experienced challenges when attempting to recruit Accountants.

What’s even more shocking is that only 22% said that they are confident that their recruiting strategy is reaching the very best applicants.

It’s that word – ‘reaching’ where the importance of a good recruiter comes in. You might think your recruitment process is as slick as possible, with excellent salary and remuneration packages and your company culture is on point, so why aren’t you getting any takers?

The truth is that in the current tight employment market, the best candidates are not few and far between – they’re not even looking.

The ‘war for talent’ is much documented at the moment across many sectors, including finance, as the number of vacancies advertised continue to grow as firms ramp up hiring activity after a tumultuous 12-18 months. And, according to statistics from Broadbean, despite a 20 per cent rise in vacancies advertised in Q1 2021 compared to the last three months of 2020, applications to those roles rose by only 4% in the same period.

Businesses are one again competing for the same, sometimes scarce, pool of talent; some of whom are reluctant to move roles against the backdrop of a pandemic and perceived market uncertainty, and those that do have the confidence, have a whole host of options available to them.

I want to use this article to tell you about the issues facing hiring managers who are looking to recruit Accountants and how managers and recruiters across the country are attempting to remedy the problem.

Changes in Recruiting for Accountants

If you have faced challenges in your search for accomplished and suitable accountancy candidates – you’re not alone. Companies across the board are struggling to attract great accounting talent and are being forced to think outside the box, which has resulted in some unusual candidate attracting methods such as this archived LinkedIn accountancy job advert.

The job vacancy has long since gone, but LinkedIn has kept the advert up as an example of extreme advertising – the specification uses words such as ‘kick-ass’ and ‘misfits’ to describe their ideal candidate – a real deviation from the accountancy job descriptions from the past!

Many other accountancy firms who recruit in-house, as well as accounting recruiters across the board, have overhauled their recruiting process, and it is now the norm to ask prospective accountancy candidates to apply initially via video rather than the standard CV and cover letter – even more so over the past 12 months as video technology utilised in recruitment processes has accelerated.

Gone are the days of simple processes for hiring Accountants – hiring managers and recruiters are having to change their processes dramatically to have a chance of attracting the best Accountants.

Changes in the Industry

Not only are hiring managers struggling to find the number of candidates to provide a comprehensive interview process, huge changes in the accounting industry have left some managers wondering what kind of candidates they should be searching for.

The advent of cloud computing, automation and the millennial-age workforce has meant that the industry is unrecognisable to what it was just a few years ago.

This younger generation of Accountants has changed what it means to be a stand-out accountant. Alongside the quintessential traits such as excellent organisational skills, a true passion for numbers and an obsession with detail; millennial Accountants are active problems solvers, they are creative, and they are not afraid to ask difficult questions.

If your company is seeking to replace a boomer-aged accountant who was methodical, steady and old-school, it can be worrisome when every accounting candidate that you encounter seems completely different.

What companies must remember is not only that change is necessary; it is a good thing. The accountancy candidates that we are seeing coming through the ranks are a new breed – and this can seem scary – but they will bring skills to the accounting role that you didn’t know were missing!

Why Recruiters Are Needed to Find Accounting Talent

As you can see, there is a perfect storm of problems affecting the accounting world currently, with multiple reasons culminating in the inability for companies to find the accounting candidates they are looking for – with financial analysts and reporters, as well as mid-management candidates in highest demand.

How can recruiters help? A general recruiter might not have the network in place to know where the best veteran and upcoming accounting talent is – but a dedicated accountancy recruiter will – it is in this network of passive candidates that the best talent lies.

Not only this, but as accounting recruiters know which kind of candidates have worked, and not worked previously in different firms, we can source talent that a hiring manager alone might not have considered.

If you need help in finding accounting talent for your business, talk to a dedicated accounting recruiter today to discuss your options.

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.

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.

A high-performing team is what any employer would want. A high-performing team of efficient business professionals, that drives profits and gets results might not be as far off as you think. Building an attractive employer brand takes work; writing compelling job descriptions and creating an excellent culture is only the beginning.

Even before your new recruits join the company, high-performing teams require excellent leadership, support in their development and constant engagement. Our guide to high-performing teams tells you everything that you need to build one successfully.

Successfully onboard new team members

Building a high-performing team requires careful onboarding. There are two stages to this process:

1. Establish what you want to achieve. You need to decide when onboarding will begin, what impression you would like to give to new staff, the tools that will help them do the job and goals you’d like them to meet. The most important thing to think about is how you will measure success and get feedback on the process. If you don’t have the information to work with it’s hard to make future adjustments.
2. Put systems in place to achieve what you want. Prepare the essentials like security cards, work emails and computer equipment in advance. Providing information around basic housekeeping points such as where the loos are, tea and coffee facilities as well as who to approach with questions will help put the new recruit’s mind at rest. And don’t forget that a warm welcome will ease nerves. Let the rest of the team know that a new colleague is joining and to welcome them to the group.

High-performing teams need a high-performing leader

According to the Adair International Institute, a three-pronged approach to leadership underpins successful teams. Leaders need to manage the task, the team and the individual in order to get the best results.

The task needs to be clearly set out and defined aims must be communicated to the group. Research by EY into high-performing teams indicates that 44% of team members believe that clear, achievable goals are the most important factor in what makes a successful team. The group needs to understand the task to perform it well and leaders must ensure this happens. Providing resources, establishing responsibilities and offering feedback are critical at this stage.

The team needs support to achieve its goal and leaders can do this effectively by: equipping team members to deal with conflict, ensuring morale is high, establish standards of work, and develop leadership in team members. At an individual level, leaders must know all members of a high-performing team well. Awareness of strengths and weaknesses means leaders can effectively delegate and improve management of the high-performing team. This links closely to another key element of high-performing teams: how to manage support and training.

Support high-performing individuals, benefit the team

Awareness of individual weaknesses means that a leader can put in place measures to help them contribute to the team. Praise and recognition at the right time are beneficial in maintaining motivation.

Training is key to keeping the overall team on track. Seeing that an individual needs help in a certain area means training can be given to bring them up to speed. Managing the individual carefully benefits the team because each person has the skills to achieve the overall task aim. When new people come into the team, working with them to establish a plan for their development means you can cover all bases and fill in any gaps that might cause the team to fall short. And by improving the individual’s performance, you’ll get the very best from your employees.

Get the best from your employees

High-performing teams don’t happen by accident. Strong leadership from the top down keeps the team unified behind a common goal. Demonstrating integrity, inspiring others and problem-solving are among the top traits of an effective leader according to the Harvard Business Review.

There are three stages to getting the best from your employees:

1. Clear expectations: Set out what you expect from the start. Provide definitive goals and milestones to keep the team on track. Decide how the goal will be measured and build deadlines into the process that break the goal down into smaller, manageable chunks.
2. Consistent feedback: Feedback allows your team to keep adjusting and making continual improvements. Explain what you need from your team as the task progresses and encourage peer feedback, carried out in a constructive way.
3. Motivation and empowerment: Show that you value your staff and their effort. Offer praise, reward and an all-important ‘thank you’ when targets are reached to keep employees motivated and focused on the task.

Employee engagement

Building a team of talented professionals means constantly engaging employees. Culture, employer branding, and effectively leading your high-performing team are all important. The crucial element is managing performance at an individual level.

This is where deep knowledge of the individuals that make up your high-performing team pays dividends. As soon as a new staff member joins your team it’s essential to understand their objectives. Engaging them with the work, the team and the task integrates them firmly into the group. You can increase engagement through an ongoing system of performance management:

1. Individual fit with the team: Know what you want to achieve and communicate it to everyone. Make sure all team members are aware of how the goal relates to their role.
2. Conversations are powerful: Communication builds trust and relationships which are both vital to high-performing teams. Engage staff in conversation about your vision, their development and keep coming back to the subject. That way you’ll not only engage employees you’ll join up their development with the rest of the team and business, which will strengthen the team.
3. Agree S.M.A.R.T objectives: Unite team members who share a similar role behind a common goal. Make the goal ‘S.M.A.R.T’ – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Timebound. By making use of their knowledge and experience on the job you can create something meaningful which engages individuals and enhances team performance.

High-performing teams take time to build and need a clear plan for success. Your efforts will be rewarded with a group of individuals that work in sync with efficiency and precision. Constant feedback, conversation, motivation and inspiring leadership ensure that your team move forward as one, performing highly along the way.

Interested in turning your staff into a high-performing team? Our ‘Ultimate Guide to a High-Performing Team’ has more and will explain in detail how to create a formidable workforce. Download your complimentary copy or call us on 01772 259121.

If you found this guide useful, please do take a look at our other blogs and guides and don’t forget you can register your vacancy online.