Our managing partner, Donna Grooms, weighs in on trends in the accounting and financial fields, including remote and hybrid work, the Great Resignation, and lessons we have learned through the pandemic.
Q: We have seen how effective remote and hybrid work and flexible schedules can be — and that employees are increasingly seeking these types of arrangements — do you see them becoming a fixture in how people work?
Answer: It is with mixed feelings that my answer is yes. There are definite positive aspects to working from home, and disadvantages.
Positives: It saves money not commuting to and from work daily and is nice to have the flexibility to work from home occasionally. A person can spend more time with their family and have more time for personal interests.
Negatives: An employee misses exposure to leadership and recognition for promotions and higher earning potential. What good is having a good company culture if everyone is working from home? An employee misses the fun part of a team environment and relying on others for support and training.
Q: What do you think are the most important lessons businesses have learned during the pandemic when it comes to hiring?
Answer: Being flexible and selling yourself, the company and opportunity. Of course, the candidate needs to sell themselves, however the hiring party really needs to step up their game to beat out the competition. This means elaborating on what sets your business apart from others: perks, benefits, culture – what has kept you at your employer for so long?
Be inclusive during the onboarding stage:
- Check in with new hires after they resign.
- Get them out to lunch before their start date to see how they’re doing. This helps to lower the chance of them accepting a counteroffer.
- Invite them to a team building event if there is something scheduled before their start date, or get a group of their peers together for happy hour and include them.
- Check in with them on day 1…week 1, day 30, etc.
**Moral of the story: Keep the people on your team happy, in order to keep competitors at bay.
Q: What do you see as the pros and cons of companies hiring outside of their geographical region?
Answer: Pro – Provides a wider range of candidates to select from.
Con is the higher cost to hire (relocation, interview costs, etc).
Q: When it comes to accounting and finance jobs, what are the biggest changes you have seen in hiring?
Answer: Competition is thru the roof, more so than I have seen it in my 30+ years of staffing in Dallas. Compensation is also thru the roof, which makes it challenging to maintain internal equity.
Follow Donna Grooms on LinkedIn.
Meet the rest of our team at Southwest Search and follow us on LinkedIn for future installments of our Q&A series and to discover more unique stories, experiences and perspectives on the latest hiring trends.
