Industry Insights

Last summer I listened to a podcast on the AFO Wealth Management series where Amber Setter was interviewed. Amber is the Chief Enlightenment Officer for Conscious Public Accountants - a professional coaching firm that teaches accountants how to grow their careers without losing their souls. The team was carefully curated with the accounting profession in mind. 

Giles Pearson, Director here at Accountests, explains how important it is to get the hiring process right the first time, and introduces the new Bad Hire Calculator tool, available now on our website. Use the calculator to work out exactly how costly it can be to your business to fix the issue of hiring the wrong candidate.

How’s that personal development plan for your bright young star going? Tough isn’t it? What about the one for the team member who thinks they should be promoted faster than is justified by their performance. Ouch! How about an accountants specific personality profile that comes complete with a personal development plan roadmap? Sound good?

The knock-on effects of unfilled vacancies on existing staff were largely expected by employers, but in reality are alarming. Shorten the time to hire new staff to avoid losing candidates to competing job offers and increase the wellbeing services offered to staff. Accountests can assist in shortening the time to hire new staff with our ‘fast & thorough’ techniques for getting you ahead of candidates competing jobs offers.

A recent UK survey of senior HR people revealed that whilst 53% of them ranked talent shortages as the biggest threat to their businesses continuity, only 19% felt they were ready to face the challenges of acute staff turnover and candidate scarcity. 

Ryan concludes that accounting firms should treat new hires like any other investment decision – what is the ROI, especially in terms of the tasks this new person will be able to take off the firm owner.  This will likely sway decision making more towards hiring senior rather junior than might otherwise have been the case. Taking the strategic view might result in a different decision than initially considered.

When used effectively, phone-interviews bring all the benefits of identifying the best candidate for the role, without the current risks and expense of bringing candidates in from all over and organizing the resources to accommodate interviews and candidates.  However, they also bring the considerable risk of missing out on great candidates when run ineffectively.

International recruitment consultancy Robert Half reported that 46% of the businesses surveyed to develop a recently released report had made a bad hire in the past 12 months, with small businesses feeling the greatest impact.

A good education and an outstanding performance during interview does not equate to a high performing individual. In order to gauge a candidate’s abilities, you need meaningful data. The following three tips will help to keep your recruitment process focused on the data that matters, reduce the effects of bias, and uncover each candidate’s true capabilities.

We’ve recently been hearing more and more about the topic of “candidate commitment” from clients who are dealing with candidates pulling out of final-stage selection processes. You know who I mean; the candidates that seem really interested in a role, say all of the right things and then at the last moment, when you offer them the job, they decide they’re not interested. 

Check out this quick read to get real time tips for conduction stay interviews. You’ll also learn the best questions to ask to get to the core of what motivates your staff at work, how to encourage loyalty, and foster an attractive workplace culture

A New Zealand company has developed a test for prospective accountants that can identify whether they are “backroom number-crunchers or strategic business advisers”.