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.

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.

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.

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.

Every company wants a team that performs well and critically delivers the results the organisation needs. Identifying, hiring, engaging and developing these individuals isn’t as easy as it looks.

Working with different personalities, agendas, and abilities to develop into a single unit devoted towards a specific goal is a task that requires exceptional focus.

So, when you want to build the most productive team for your commercial business, here’s where to start.

1. Decide On The ‘Ingredients’ You Need

In some circles, people call this finding the fit in other words matching roles to requirements. If your department has lots of team members, they will all have specific tasks that they are responsible for. It’s not uncommon that one or two key hires might be missing which leaves a gap in your teams’ capability.

This might seem logical and yet it’s not uncommon for some firms to limp along wondering why everything seems a struggle. When it might be that they need a customer service advisor, or a project manager to ensure everything is working like clockwork.

This needs to be your first start to ensure you have all the right ‘cogs’ in place to enable the engine to work effectively’. Depending on your growth plans you might be able to develop someone from another part of the business or more likely recruit someone into a specific role you create. This is where a recruiter versed in your sector can help.

2. Shared Goals

The goals your team have as an objective need to be clear. If your team doesn’t have a joint mission, then they’re just people working together.

Focused goals connect people as a unit, through passion and understanding. If you have multiple results in mind, then link them to objectives and priorities so that all the members of your team can begin to map their way towards success.

3. Set Clear Expectations

Research suggests that only about half of most teams at work understand clearly what is expected of them. If you want to develop a high-performing team in your organisation, then make your expectations clear from the beginning.

Whether you’re onboarding new hires or bringing internal employees together to work on a specific project, make sure that you highlight clear requirements during your first conversation with each person.

4. Be a Leader and Lead

You’ve heard the term “practice what you preach”, and that phrase fits perfectly into the professional world of business growth. Beyond any high-performing employee, is a confident leader. Think about how you can support your staff and guide them on your joint success journey.

A highly-engaged leader can increase engagement by 39% according to this CIPD report.

Considering this it’s then necessary too:

• Focus on building commitment and trust
• Be solution rather than problem orientated
• Provide opportunities for all team members to achieve
• Be accountable

No matter how skilled and adept your team members might be, there’s always a risk that they’ll run into a challenge or two on the road to success. The difference between most staff and high-performing groups is that the latter know which strategies to use, and which techniques to access to overcome these hurdles.

To reduce your risk of having to deal with constant problems or issues with productivity, set up a few established guidelines for what your people must do if they face a challenge with their work.

5. Provide Coaching and Feedback

The only way for a team member to know whether they’re performing well in their role is to receive consistent coaching and feedback from you, their leader.

Communicating with your employees can help them to understand what they need to do to improve their performance.

If a team is underperforming, it generally boils down to a few key things. It might be the wrong person in the wrong role or more likely an employee that needs coaching guidance and support.

People want to be successful they don’t want to fail. All they need is feedback and guidance. Deploy this strategy, and you will be amazed how quickly your results start to change.

6. Actively Appreciate Your Team

Finally, as human beings, we are happiest when we feel appreciated and recognised at work. The research department at Warwick University conducted a study to validate that happy employees are more productive. No surprises that the answer came out that the two are closely linked.

That being the case how can you appreciate your team? As I write this post, we are gripped by snow across the country. Maybe it’s hot chocolate all round or finishing an hour early.

Alternatively, how about a good old fashioned; ‘thank you, Amanda, I appreciate what you have done for the team this week.’

While creating a high performing team might not be a simple process, it is an incredible way to improve the profitability and potential of your company. If you can unite and empower your staff, then you can achieve anything.

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 building your team or looking for your next career move, we can help. Call us on 01772 259 121 or

If you would like to know even more about building a high performing team this year you can download our latest guide here.

A stable workforce means that things run smoothly and without interruption, so when a staff member leaves it can have a big impact on the rest of the business. Valuable skills and job-specific knowledge that has built up over time disappear with a departing staff member, leaving you in a tricky position to bridge the gap. These practical implications of recruitment can have just as heavy a cost to your company as the financial element.

That’s why we’ve put together this guide to help explain what the true cost of recruiting is to your business. From finances to how attrition rates impact your recruitment, we’ve considered some of the things you may not have thought about when it comes to recruiting.

Recruitment costs: facts and figures

To understand the true cost of recruiting, it’s useful to look at the facts and figures and what costs they refer to. When a staff member leaves, your business could find itself paying for everything from recruitment costs to the wages of temporary staff.

Research carried out by Oxford Economics suggests that it costs more than £30,000 to replace a staff member. Two main reasons for this cost are highlighted in the findings:

• Firstly, the logistics of recruiting a new staff member and the associated costs that go along with that. For example, HR activity and the cost to the business of the interview process.
• Secondly, the reduction in productivity while the new staff member gets up to speed. According to the report, it can take between 20 and 32 weeks for a new starter to reach optimum efficiency, depending on the industry.

The financial figures are striking of course, although it’s important not to overlook the bigger picture. Not only does a departing staff member result in a monetary cost to the business there is a range of knock-on effects:

• HR spends considerable time going through leaving and joining processes, completing all the relevant paperwork as well as sourcing a replacement.
• Management has to spend time arranging for the work to be covered, either by distributing it amongst existing staff or appointing temporary cover. There’s also the time spent away from everyday work conducting interviews to take into account.
• The workload of colleagues increases and there is a general reduction in productivity as staff take time to readjust and the new person to settle in.

Not only is this expensive, it’s time-consuming: resources which could be used to retain staff are instead spent on finding a replacement. There’s the commercial element to consider also, as time and energy are put into recruitment which could be put to more effective use by serving clients, refining work processes, and developing new products and services.

Attrition rates and their impact on recruitment costs

Losing a well-established member of staff is undoubtedly a blow to your business, although it’s equally important to consider how attrition rates play into your overall recruitment costs. If you find that you hire someone only for them to leave after a short while, or if staff aren’t sticking with you for the long term, it can have a huge impact on your overall cost of recruitment. What’s more, if staff churn is causing disruption, then it’s unlikely that your workforce is operating at maximum productivity.

There’s a mixed picture on attrition across the board, with turnover rates varying by profession and industry. Research carried out by XpertHR shows that general management and admin staff has one of the lowest turnover rates at 3.1%. The second and third lowest rates were engineers at 4.9% and technology staff at 6.8%. At the other end of the scale, the highest turnover rates are amongst publishing and events staff at 17.7%.

Each individual industry faces its own specific challenges, however it’s important to remember that each departing staff member impacts on your business. So, while the turnover rate for engineers at 4.9% seems low compared to the 17.7% average staff turnover in publishing and events, it doesn’t necessarily lessen the impact. The need to source candidates with specific skills and qualifications can take a long time, which extends the period that you’re without a valuable individual and means that the optimum productivity of your workforce is reduced for longer.

Each individual industry faces its own specific challenges, however it’s important to remember that each departing staff member impacts on your business. So, while the turnover rate for engineers at 4.9% seems low compared to the 17.7% average staff turnover in publishing and events, it doesn’t necessarily lessen the impact. The need to source candidates with specific skills and qualifications can take a long time, which extends the period that you’re without a valuable individual and means that the optimum productivity of your workforce is reduced for longer.

And while positions such as general admin may have a lower skills threshold than engineering, making them easier to fill, staff churn is disruptive. Having a plan in place to attract and retain the best talent is always a good idea, and if you find that your turnover rates are starting to creep up it’s worth revisiting your employer branding. Perhaps something is missing, or not connecting with staff and candidates and a few small changes could reduce turnover. The important thing is to monitor and refine: stick with what works and change what doesn’t.

Why businesses benefit from using a recruitment agency

Knowing what will attract candidates, what will drive them away and what will help to keep employees is invaluable. And especially when it comes to attracting candidates in a specialist field, having the experience and know-how of a recruitment agency on your side can make a big difference.

Of course, using a recruitment agency rather than recruiting in-house incurs a cost. However, by making use of a partner with specialist skills, your staff are free to do what they do best, meaning that you save time and money in the long term. Placing the right candidate with your firm will also reduce attrition rates, meaning you spend less on recruitment than you otherwise would have done.

A recruitment agency will be able to personalise their service to the needs of your business, so you can choose exactly the level of involvement that suits you. What’s more, an extensive network of candidates will mean that your agent can think outside of the box and help you to consider candidates that you might not otherwise have done, giving you more choice.

If the true cost of recruitment is proving to be an issue for your business, perhaps we can help? Even if staff retention is something that your company has been struggling with why not give us a call on 01772 259 121? We’ve over thirty years’ recruitment experience and would be pleased to help.

You may also find out recent blog ‘Staff retention – worth the effort?’, of interest if you’re looking for some new ideas on how to retain your staff.

And please feel free to register your vacancy online, if you’re looking to recruit at the moment.

Highly skilled employees set your business apart and finding individuals with the right talent takes time and resources. This is why companies need to consider the importance of retention, rather than just focusing on recruitment.

Resignation rates are at 15.5% according to XpertHR. That figure is a five-year high, the need to improve retention is evident. Reducing turnover of staff isn’t just a cost-saving exercise. Staff that stay with you, are highly skilled and happy in their job make for a more profitable business that runs with fewer disruptions.

Cost of recruitment

Recruiting new employees is a cost to your business. According to research published by Glassdoor, the average time it takes to hire a new recruit in the U.K. is 27.5 days. This means one-twelfth of a year is spent on reviewing CVs, carrying out preliminary interviews, secondary interviews, communicating with recruiters and checking references. Factor in multiple hires, and that figure increases significantly.

Considering the amount of resource, time, money and effort hiring takes, it’s evident that concentrating efforts on retention becomes far more beneficial.

It’s never too early to think about retention

Onboarding is the first step towards retaining talent. Yes, of course, it’s more effective to retain existing talent than recruit new talent, but sometimes a new hire is what your business needs. Even before they start, a new employee needs to feel looked after – keeping in touch regularly and sending a welcome pack that explains benefits and expectations makes the perks of working with you clear and maintains their interest levels.

Brexit might be a source of uncertainty for many industries, but it seems to have sharpened the mind on one thing – ensuring your staff feel valued. CIPD found that 26% of organisations ‘report a greater emphasis on developing existing staff’. The report also highlighted that more organisations are involving employees with their business strategies and encouraging them to contribute their own ideas.

Management is your best defence against staff leaving

When staff feel secure and supported at work they are less likely to look elsewhere. Management must demonstrate excellent leadership skills, this isn’t just managing the workload or a team with exacting standards, it means having good soft skills too.

If you want to keep hold of your best employees, then you must also encourage them to manage themselves and be invested in their careers. Maintain regular contact with them through formal appraisals, informal and open discussions and put the ball in their court. If they feel that they have a say in their own work and career they’ll be more engaged and more likely to stick around.

Training and Development

These two words are the most important words in your vocabulary if you’re going to successfully retain staff. If your employees don’t have what they need to do the job then their focus and energy will be put towards finding a new position elsewhere. The Distance Learning College found that 69% of employees are ‘open to better opportunities’ and a huge 40% of staff leave within a year if they have received poor training.

A strong training plan for new starters will equip them with the knowledge they need to feel confident on the job. Encourage staff to think about their own development, support their plans and listen to them. Investing in your people shows that you’re dedicated to them and will increase their commitment to you.

Recruitment costs vs. benefits

Recruitment takes time, effort and resources. There’s no denying that the right hire at the right time can make a huge difference to the business, yet a revolving door of talent increases the cost of recruitment exponentially. Retention starts to look a lot more appealing if you weigh the cost of recruitment against the benefits of retaining staff. Time spent training and looking after your best talent will pay you back dividends, with happier staff, you’ll have happier clients, and your business will be all the more competitive.

If you enjoyed reading this blog you might like our other post: Talent drought: How to attract the best against the odds.

And if you’re recruiting now, you can talk to one of the team on 01772 259 121, or you can register your vacancy online.

You have interviewed the perfect match and you want to be sure that the offer you put in front of the candidate is tempting enough for them to bite the first time. How can you be sure that they’re as enthusiastic as you are? When you’ve worked so hard to recruit the ideal candidate you want to get them into the role without delay.

This guide gives you the lowdown on putting the right offer together handling the offer stage efficiently, effectively, ending with you employing the very best talent for your business.

Communication

According to research carried out by CareerArc, 60% of candidates think that better employer communication would improve their experience. Don’t leave your candidates guessing what might happen: explain the next steps at the interview stage, manage their expectations and ensure that if you say you will follow up by a certain date, you do – even if it’s just to say that there’s no decision yet.

When you’re ready to make an offer, a phone call will give you another chance to speak with the candidate and gauge their interest level. If they seem pleased and verbally accept an offer of employment, you can feel reassured that it’s the right time to make a written offer.

Speed

As with communication, the speed with which an offer is made affects the employee experience. And even if you decide not to make an offer, let the candidates who interviewed know. CareerArc also found that those who never heard about a job were three and a half times less likely to apply to that business again. A week allows time to consider your options, two weeks might see the candidate starting to lose interest.

It’s also a good idea to stipulate how long the offer of employment stands for. Seven days is usual, although you may wish to adjust this as per your company’s circumstances. If a candidate hasn’t accepted within a week, it could well signal that they weren’t quite as bought in as you’d hoped.

Use employer branding to your advantage

Treat your employees – and potential employees – as you would your clients. Demonstrate why it’s so good to work with you and what other employees have gained, both professionally and personally, from working for your business. Not only will a strong employer brand attract candidates to you, it’ll encourage them to accept your offer, and it will also help to retain them once they come on board. Check out our extensive guide for more on employer branding and why it’s so important.

Avoid the minefield of counter offers

You’ve found an outstanding candidate, made an offer and are eagerly awaiting them to return their signed contract. What you get in return is a counter offer. Maybe the candidate has had more money offered by their current employer or a competitor. Maybe they’re requesting a more extensive benefits package. Counter offers aren’t the end of the world and can be very revealing about what motivates the candidate you’re interested in.

But don’t get drawn into a bidding war. You may win the battle, although candidate indecision raises a red flag, and if they are playing off two parties for their own gain it begs the question as to whether they’re the kind of team player you want in your business. A trusted recruitment partner will be able to screen candidates for motive initially, which will help to avoid a counter-offer situation and make a first initial successful offer considering all motivations.

Non-starters

It’s frustrating, although keep it in perspective and remember that life happens. Give the benefit of the doubt to the candidate and – maddening though it may be – resist the urge to go in guns blazing if someone doesn’t show as there may be a simple explanation. And keep your employer brand in mind: if the candidate has a bad experience they’ll tell their network and that might make recruitment difficult in future.

The best offer

All stages of the recruitment process require careful thought and planning, and none more so than the offers stage. This crucial final hurdle to placing the right candidate decides the success of the whole operation.

If you’re in need of some support in navigating this – or any – stage of your recruitment process why not contact Clayton Recruitment, either online using our call scheduling service or contact form.

Alternatively, you can phone us on 01772 259 121 – we’d be happy to help you seal the deal with promising candidates.

And if you do find yourself in the position of having to deal with a counter offer, you may find our blog ‘How to handle a counter offer situation’ helpful.

You may also like to download our latest report on trends in recruitment: The 7 critical recruitment trends for businesses that will impact your talent pipeline in 2019.