Recruiting and Retaining an A-Team: Best Practices This article is
M
ost Partners and Directors know that recruitment is one of the most important aspects of building and growing an accounting firm. Delivering high-quality services is next to impossible without a solid team in place— even if you have wonderful clients, efficient internal processes, and a stellar techstack. Unfortunately, recruiting has traditionally always been difficult in the accounting industry, and the situation has worsened since the beginning of the pandemic. In addition to this, many firms are also transitioning from compliance into advisory, so they’re not looking for a “typical accountant”—they’re looking for the much rarer well-rounded, high-performing individual. So how do you build and keep an A-Team? Finding New Talent for Your Firm As a hiring manager, the first thing you need to do is clearly define the role you’re hiring for. Consider the purpose of the role, the KPIs you’ve established for it, and what skills/experience the new hire needs to have.
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Once the role has been clearly defined, there are two ways to kick off the hiring process, each with their own benefits:
@spotlightrep
Thomas White, Territory Manager UK, Spotlight Reporting Thomas has a decade of sales experience including 8 years with the UK’s number 1 job board, reed.co.uk, where he managed a team selling to some of the biggest recruitment firms in the UK. He joined Spotlight Reporting in 2019, and has since supported 500+ accounting firms around the world. As Spotlight Reporting’s UK Territory Manager, Thomas is dedicated to helping accounting firms achieve their advisory goals.
to be an attractive opportunity. If you’re serious about hiring the best of the best, it’s time to examine your work culture. Many candidates now gravitate towards firms who:
1. Hiring Directly—Placing Your Own Job Ad: Hiring directly means you’re in • Have a clear vision and mission full control of the advertising statement process. You’ll also save a large • Positively impact both the placement fee. However, hiring local community and the directly can be incredibly time environment consuming, so you need to • Hold the right values and work consider if adding this to your with the right clients current workload is a • Offer flexible viable option. and remote 2. Using a work options— Hiring the right Recruitment especially postcandidate isn’t Agency: Covid. just about A recruitment • Create running an ad agency can opportunities and hoping for introduce you to for career the best-quality progression. the best. candidates in the market and save you Another key area for massive amounts of time. accounting firms to think Some job postings can receive about is brand awareness. well over 100 applicants, who What do prospective candidates then need to be reviewed, know about your firm, and why? shortlisted, screened, and You can increase your brand interviewed. A recruitment recognition by: agency can handle all of this, and you’ll only have to pay • Having a professional-looking them once the role is filled. website and social media platforms—candidates WILL Attracting the Best research you online! • Promoting awards or accolades Hiring the right candidate isn’t just your firm has won–candidates about running an ad and hoping want to work for top or for the best—your firm needs emerging firms.
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