How to attract accounting talent

In accounting and finance, high-calibre talent is essential. The accounting and finance departments within organisations provide a valuable service to shareholders, decision-makers, and other employees, and they must be ready to take on new responsibilities when the need arises.

Meanwhile, today’s employers face one of the most competitive labour markets in recent memory. Accounting and finance professionals know their skills are in high demand, and they’re more selective than ever when evaluating job opportunities. Given these high stakes, let’s examine how your company can attract accounting and finance talent.

Review your company's employer branding

Does your company have an Employer Value Proposition (EVP)? The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) defines an EVP as a “strategic statement [that] defines how a company wants to be perceived by its employees. It embodies the company’s values and ideals and is a fundamental step in defining an employer brand strategy for talent acquisition.”

In other words, it’s a way to make your company the employer of choice and trigger a candidate’s interest by differentiating your company from the competition. Gartner has identified five main components of an EVP:

1. Opportunity. Organisational growth, career and personal development opportunities.

2. People. Quality of management, co-workers and leadership.

3. Organisation. Market position, quality of products and services, social responsibility.

4. Work. Alignment between interests and the job, work/life balance.

5. Rewards. Compensation and benefits.

If your recruiting strategy has primarily focused on offering big pay checks and a great list of benefits, take some time to flesh out the other areas of your employer value proposition.

Get to the talent early

With a clearly defined EVP, your company needs a strategy for sharing it with candidates, and the earlier you reach them, the better.

One consideration is to look at engaging with future talent before they enter the job market, consider engaging with schools, colleges and universities:

• Establish internships, work experience and cooperative education programs.
• Recruit throughout the academic year, rather than just once during the summer

• Sponsoring educational events to gain exposure to potential candidates
  
  

Improve the candidate experience

Highly qualified candidates can be picky, rejecting potential employers for the slightest discretion during the recruiting process. Below are some suggestions to enhance the candidate experience, including:

• Improve communications
  Ensure you present a well-designed career page on your company’s website, which is mobile friendly. Reduce communication timelines so that candidates are kept updated throughout the process and they are not left waiting between interactions – someone else will likely snap them up in that time.
• Strategy
  Keep candidates engaged with transparent benefits packages, emphasise workplace wellness, ED&I initiatives and the learning and development opportunities – they need to see that your organisation offers them more than just a job.  Use social media to provide realistic insight into the job role, organisational culture and on-boarding process. Consider re-engaging past candidates to build a talent pool.  
• Technology
  Embrace technology to increase the efficiency of your recruitment process. This could include showcasing the organisation through video and social media, conducting online interviews and creating online campaigns to target passive candidates who hold the necessary skills but might typically overlook, or not know of your organisation.

Open up to flexible and remote working arrangements

Technology today affords accounting and finance professionals the ability to connect with co-workers and clients and get the job done, no matter where they are.

Flexible and remote working arrangements are appealing to employees. In fact, 56% of employees prefer flexible working and a survey from FlexJobs found that working parents rank flexibility ahead of salary. In fact, 84% of working parents said flexible work is the number one most important factor in a job.

This is a win/win for candidates and employers. Investing in technology that enables remote work environments doesn’t just make your company more appealing to job candidates. It also allows your company to broaden its candidate search, opening your talent pool to job seekers beyond your geographic area.

Bottom line

Are you struggling to recruit accounting and finance talent at your company? You might be looking in the wrong places and at the wrong people. Incorporate the tips mentioned above and reach out to LHH Recruitment Solutions.

We can help you expand your search beyond the candidates who are actively looking for a job and tap into passive candidates – those who aren’t necessarily searching out new job opportunities but would be open to a new position if the right one came along.