How To Keep Top Accounting And Finance Staff

Recruitment in the accounting and finance world right now is manic.

The demand for top talent is ever-increasing and this is causing disruption in the market.

83% of the 9,500 people surveyed in our latest What The Buck: Again?! survey said they would move jobs if the right opportunity arose.  Additionally, 33% of professionals will change roles this year.

SO WHAT’S DRIVING ALL THIS ACTIVITY?

Well, it’s actually good news. The economy is strong and the demand for top accounting and finance people is high. No employer ever came to us asking for an average person – so the demand for great staff is high and the best talent is basking in the employment sunshine.The best people are aspirational and many are looking to develop their career. Aspirational candidates also mean confident candidates! They’re getting savvy with their job search and have the confidence to move on because they have good reason to do so – career progression as well as better pay and benefits.

HOW WILL THIS AFFECT ME IF I’M AN EMPLOYER?

There is, of course, increased potential of losing good staff. But don’t fret – we’ll cover that in a sec!

It’s challenging replacing good people if you lose a top performer, not to mention time-consuming and an added stress that you just don’t need. *Sigh*

This is what you can do about it:

• Review salaries and potential benefits for your current staff.
  
• Is there anything more you can offer here that will benefit the people working for you? (flexible hours, office dogs, time bank, 5 weeks holiday are HOT right now!)
  
• Communicate with your people and identify what their pain points may be (long commute, high childcare costs, hours etc) -what can you do to eliminate these?
  
• Speak with your HR team (or a cool HR advisor) to see if there is anything more you can do.  Things like working flexibility (allowing earlier or later start/finish times to avoid traffic, working from home one day a week needn’t cost much; but they’ll make a real difference to happiness (and retention).
  
• Move with the times!  Last week I spoke with a senior FC for a very large organisation who was annoyed because her organisation didn’t pay for her Chartered Accountants fees (of course she can afford it herself, but that’s not the point – paying for things like this is a really simple way of keeping people happy).
  
• Review your training and development calendar.  Typically as a manager, we spend all our time on the “problem children” – we need to move this time to the exceptional people and the focus on developing them also.  The best people won’t want the same job for the next 10 years, so make sure you are developing them or they will move.

Want more juicy goss about the Auckland accounting and finance job market? If you’re a hiring manager and haven’t requested your copy of What The Buck: Again?! – do it now!