Speak to any accountancy firm, large or small, and they will all tell you that they can’t find good team members for love nor money. This is why iwoca asked me to write a guest blog for them on ideas on how accountancy firms can recruit new team members by tapping into talent pools that many others miss. The article was originally published here.
How to recruit new team members differently
The traditional way accountants recruit new team members is by going through a recruitment consultant. Or – as I tend to see now – swearing that they will never use a recruitment consultant, but struggling to recruit without external help. So, then, grudgingly use a recruitment consultant. What if there was a different way? What if there was a pool of talent who would love to work for you? The good news is, there is.
1. Use Facebook
Facebook is a great way to recruit new staff. There are a handful of different ways to use Facebook to find new team members. Luckily not all of them will cost you money, or require the services of a digital marketing professional.
Remember that your staff are potentially your best advocates for you and your firm when it comes to recruiting. So why not ask them to post up on their personal Facebook profiles about the vacancies at your firm? Or how about asking them to share a post from your firm’s page about the vacancy?
There are vibrant and highly engaged local community groups all over Facebook, and it’s guaranteed there will be one in your local area too. You just need to do your research to find it. So get searching for your local groups and join it. Once you are in the group ask the group admin by a private message whether it is OK to post up about your job vacancy.
Now, of course, you can always use sponsored posts in Facebook to people in your local area. Our recommendation is that you use the services of a Facebook Advertising specialist to help you with this.
2. Part time workers
We often fall into the trap of thinking that we absolutely need a full time member of staff; and nothing else will do. Very often, we could cover the work with part-time workers or even flexitime workers. Gone are the days where clients expect that their named contact will be at the end of the phone between the hours of 8am and 6pm, Monday to Friday. There is an untapped population who would welcome a part-time role or flexible working. These include:
- Parents of school age children
- People who getting towards the end of their career, but still want to be useful
- People with serious hobbies
- People who need to care for an aged relative or family member
“There is an untapped population who would welcome a part time role or flexible working.”
The great news about this population is that they are often incredibly hard workers, loyal and really appreciate the flexibility you can offer them. Can you run your practice without relying on employees working traditional hours? If so, can you offer early starts, late finishes or the ability to work from home?
3. Advertise in a local community or school newsletter
There are lots of ‘locally’ based newsletters which you can often advertise in very, very cheaply. Every single school or religious organisation or even sports club will have a regular newsletter out to their members. These organisations will often let you advertise for a minimal fee.
Thinking about what is available locally and how you can make your firm known is a great way to ensure potential employees know who you are when it’s time to recruit.
This article was originally published by iwoca here. iwoca are trusted by tens of thousands of small businesses for fast access to working capital loans.