Industry Insights

As we move away from the traditional office towards a hybrid and remote workplace, it is important to understand the potential benefits of personality testing in this new environment. Personality tests can be used to assess role suitability, identify work styles, and support career development and hiring. 

What can employers of accountants and bookkeepers do to assess whether a job candidate is likely to thrive or struggle in a role where they may work remotely most of the time, or in the case of international or inter-state hiring, may never meet their employer face-to-face?

A successful public accounting firm needs staff that are engaged, enthusiastic, and passionate about the work they do. To make sure you have the best possible employees, it's important to create an online presence that inspires potential employees and encourages current employees to stay with your firm. Here are a few tips on how to promote your public accounting firm to both staff and prospective employees.

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. 

From developing your team to making your own tough decisions, being a manager naturally comes with a lot of stress. The days when you can sit back and relax are rare. Instead, you may find yourself rushing from one project to the next, sometimes working with employees who are unpleasant, unmotivated, or disengaged. Here’s how you can deal with all the stress and keep your career and your life on track.

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.

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?