Industry Insights

"Stay interviews," a proactive approach to employee retention, can prevent small grievances from snowballing into reasons for departure. By understanding what motivates your employees and addressing potential issues early, you not only retain key staff but also foster a more contented and productive work environment.

Integrity is a non-negotiable trait in accounting, laying a trustworthy foundation for success, enabling expert conflict resolution, fostering sound decision-making, and promoting a positive team culture. Making it a central criterion in your hiring process not only ensures smooth business operations but also safeguards your company's reputation

Conducting effective interviews for accountants and bookkeepers is crucial, and following a structured format with competency-based questioning, thorough note-taking, and panel reviews can ensure an efficient and fair hiring process

Want to see if Accountests will work for your firm? Click on the button for a FREE trial test - use it on a candidate or get one of your staff to g...

Explore the importance of background screening for CPA firms in this insightful article by Chris Cooley from MyHRScreens. Learn how thorough checks can mitigate risks, verify credentials, maintain trust and credibility, create a safe working environment, and prevent corporate fraud, ultimately securing a firm's reputation and client trust.

Discover how AI is set to impact the education of accountants in this thought-provoking blog. With questions raised about the role of technical knowledge and communication skills, the author proposes changes to the educational system to adapt to the rise of AI and suggests that those who embrace these changes will be in high demand

This informative blog provides a practical model for demonstrating the cost of a bad hire in public accounting and offers tips to avoid making one. Drawing on 25 years of experience, the author emphasizes the importance of hiring with a purpose, mastering the art of interviewing, verifying beyond the resume, emphasizing team compatibility, and swift decision-making.

Who’s better – ChatGPT or Jasper? And would they pass a CPA level exam? We thought we’d get Chat GPT and Jasper.ai to take our CPA level Public Accounting Test. This test is used by employers to assess candidates for roles where a CPA licence is usually required. We analysed the questions into categories to try and see where each AI performed. This is not a scientific analysis but here is what we found...

As businesses face a growing demand for experienced and reliable financial guidance, accounting firms are striving to offer more advanced, personalized services such as Virtual CFO and Virtual Controller. Find out how to make sure new and existing hires have the knowledge and experience to offer these services to your clients.

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.

In our continued world of candidate scarcity, I and most of my clients are regularly reviewing selection/vetting processes to ensure they are as effective as possible in screening candidates, which led me to revisit the Transparent Interview. Soft substitute for ‘real’ interviews, or fair and reliable way of consistently measuring a candidate’s performance?