Employee power has never been as obvious and instantly apparent as with the recent debate around working from home in a post-pandemic environment.

Some of the world's largest, most powerful companies are keeping 100% remote or hybrid office models due to employee demands and protests, or even just increased turnover.

For some, those employee demands have been met. In Apple’s case, it's to extend flexible working all year round, and in Google’s case, it's extending remote work to 20% of their workforce, while 60% work flexibly in and out of the office. It seems that for an increasing swathe of the working world, remote and hybrid work schemes are now realistically accessible after 18 months of facing down the pandemic.

However, this very public shifting of expectations in the wake of a global viral outbreak is very much group-oriented and collaborative in approach. One employee demanding a total shift of corporate culture will fall on sympathetic but ultimately deaf ears: thousands of employees, unified in demand, create change.

So how should the modern job seeker - alone, but expectant and desiring of remote work or a hybrid work setup - approach the remote working conversation in an interview?

As with everything revolving around recruitment, it’s best to create a remote work strategy, and that starts with analyzing your needs, understanding your market, effective negotiation, and finding a compromise.

Be a contender, but don’t go for the KO!

• At Benchmark Search, we always advise our candidates to approach the topic of remote work as a lesson in culture matching. Demanding 100% remote or hybrid work structures from companies that value in-office work culture isn’t necessarily right or wrong, but your approach is critical. If you are choosing to not even consider a position that doesn't include some remote flexibility, you might be missing out!
• Employers are more aware than ever that they have to fairly and honestly communicate what they value. If they value (rather than demand) more in-office hours, that has to be qualified to you, and you have the right to know why. But, that doesn’t mean they're not fantastic employers. It just means they, like you, are finding their way into our new normal and are doing it to the best of their ability while, hopefully, respecting what office culture can give a company and an employee.
• Think about it from the basis of onboarding. Onboarding is critically face-to-face. From building new relationships to social time spent away from the grind, facetime is vital. Employers are doing amazing work trying to replace onboarding benefits digitally, but it isn’t the same. Your new employer has an obligation to make onboarding as personal, fun, informative, and stressless as possible - digitizing the process does make it easier, and accessible, but is it as meaningful?

Stand your ground, but think of the big picture

• Prospective employees rightly interview their new employer during the recruitment cycle - the modern candidate market demands it. But candidates have a responsibility to look at the whole picture. By that, we mean that accounting and finance teams have for decades valued tangible relationships with stakeholders and clients. We believe work cultures will continue to shift one way or another over the next couple of years. Don't miss a great opportunity due to your inflexibility and desires.
• Good employees understand how they, and their employers, fit into the industry matrix. Making sure you pepper your interview with questions about the changing face of your new employer’s work demands, and how they see the industry changing unique to them will give you all the information you need to make a qualified request for remote or hybrid work. Listening to the 'why' is often more important and a great gauge of the culture you might be stepping into.

Employees are rightly seeing the changes to remote work as nothing short of revolutionary. The benefits are proven, it’s inclusive nature is better for morale, productivity, work/life balance, and recruitment. But no one company, or employee, is the same. The most important thing to come out of the pandemic in this regard is the stretching of recruitment tolerance.

Long-term corporate decision-making will almost certainly include hybrid work; that is undeniable. But candidates have to understand and have respect companies that take a different approach to a remote team arrangement. Some companies are adapting quickly and then adjusting again months later. Other leaders are waiting until the future is more clear in order to have fewer changes.

**
​
Troy Ashby is the founder and president of Benchmark Search, a Dallas-based firm specializing in direct hire recruiting, executive search, and temporary staffing for accounting and finance professionals. With more than 15 years of professional service experience, including more than a decade with one of the nation’s largest recruiting firms, Ashby established Benchmark Search on the bedrock belief that exceptional people, progressive culture, and an unrelenting devotion to serving clients is the formula for developing deep and transformational relationships. BenchmarkSearchGroup.com.

The “great resignation” is here and there is no time to waste. Employers around the country are scrambling to assess how their legacy recruitment models match the current climate of remote and hybrid working.

Benchmark Search is in the trenches alongside our clients, and we have been spending the last 15 months building strategies to help clients find their way through the mire of changing working expectations.

How employers in the accounting and finance sector approach this debate is unique to our field. Unemployment is low, pent-up turnover is on the rise, and the occupational outlook is very positive. This means our market is an exaggerated candidate market. Prospective employees know they are in demand and, generally, only move jobs when the offer meets and exceeds their expectations. Counteroffers are rife, so your offer has to be gold standard.

But with some form of remote working now being one of the primary driving forces of candidates on the job move, clients have to be sensitive to this new working normal. Re-strategizing your hiring model in the wake of COVID-19 should have already happened, but now is the time to establish a remote working approach that fits your business model, your growth plans, and your future.

Let's talk availability

• As mentioned above, most accountants (the very best in class, at least) are gainfully employed. While this article isn’t necessarily discussing how to approach passive candidates, it’s worth noting that your passive network (IE your employer brand and your candidate and industry advocacy) will do much of the heavy lifting for you. If you communicate your hybrid approach to work and ground it with tangible value (IE how your working community, staff, customers and stakeholders all agree and support it) prospective candidates will have no problem deducing if they want to work in your company.

 
Include your team and be proactive

• Your employees will be talking about remote working. Whether they’ve done it already, are chatting openly on Teams or Slack, or doing so on private WhatsApp chats, you’re building attitudes and a new culture of work without knowing it.
• Team advocacy for your remote working plans is, obviously, an absolute must: there have been enough stories about the collective protest against companies unilaterally deciding on a full return to work policy to last a lifetime. So listen to your employee’s stories, learn from them, and adapt accordingly. It’s not just good leadership, it’s an essential part of how you retain talent.

 
Retain Retain Retain

• Recruitment is more competitive than ever, especially in the finance and accounting sectors. Being able to hold onto your best in class is not only good for business, but a sign to your wider employee network that you’re a supportive, flexible employer, and employers are benefiting from being flexible to meet candidate demands.

Don’t just figure it out

• You cannot afford to go with the flow - candidates deserve a remote work (or lack of) value proposition to be well communicated and committed to. This is making sure you’re approaching this debate from a position of deliverables.
• You know what you need from your employees to guarantee smooth business, you’ve discussed the options available, you have community buy-in, and you deliver on it. It may take some hard conversations, and potentially a period of getting it wrong before you get it right, but you need to do it.

Whatever your flexibility means, make a plan to commit to it, and make a plan to meet the demands of the new normal with achievable, long-term changes. Benchmark has had clients retain 90% of their team in the office, others who have started introducing WFH days like sick days or leave days, and others who are completely flexible and happy for employees to make a decision that suits them.

What you need to do is understand what’s right for you, communicate to everyone, and stick to it. 
​
Troy Ashby is the founder and president of Benchmark Search, a Dallas-based firm specializing in direct hire recruiting, executive search, and temporary staffing for accounting and finance professionals. With more than 20 years of professional service experience, including more than a decade with one of the nation’s largest recruiting firms, Ashby established Benchmark Search on the bedrock belief that exceptional people, progressive culture, and an unrelenting devotion to serving clients is the formula for developing deep and transformational relationships. BenchmarkSearchGroup.com.

​Your career shouldn’t wait. The last year has put a lot of job-movement on hold, and as we push into Spring, here at Benchmark we know many talented people are turning a passive job search into an active one. We are here to help.

We urge all candidates to look at their future, and we know last year a lot of you delayed or stopped looking for a new job. If you have delayed moving to a new opportunity, we suggest you reconsider. With professional unemployment below 4%, employers are eagerly looking for top talent.

Resigning from a job is not easy. In the age of remote teams, it is even harder. Resigning from a role seems deeply personal, and it’s nerve-wracking trying to plan and time how and when you’re going to approach your leader to actually resign. Doing it virtually can feel impersonal, unprofessional, and frankly strange.

How you get around this and look ahead with clarity and purpose is to consider the entire process as an exercise in respect. The respect you owe your company for the opportunity they’ve given you, and the respect you deserve giving them your time, effort, and labor.

Doing all of the above remotely, or at least starting the process remotely does not mean you can use the screen to avoid having hard conversations. If anything, making your resignation respectful in a COVID-secure environment means you have to consider more stages to the process.

Gone are the days of stopping by your boss’s office with a handwritten letter in hand and asking for a meeting.

Professionalism is key

• This is the golden rule of resigning and will go a long way to securing a great reference and guaranteeing your notice period is a meaningful one, rather than awkwardly and impatiently waiting for your last day.

 
Start by requesting a formal meeting

• If you don’t have video calls often, a phone call will suffice, but show as much respect, and offer as much (digital) face-to-face time as possible with your manager and HR leader.
• Our recommendation is to start with your immediate supervisor but go through the proper chain of command as established by your company. In this meeting, you will explain that you are resigning, giving two weeks’ notice, and have also prepared a list of projects, workloads or activities, and their current status.

Prepare your formal resignation letter

• Once you’ve had your initial conversation, email it directly to the appropriate leader(s). Make sure you’ve understood what your contractual notice period is prior to the call, and reiterate you’ll expect to work it. Make sure it is clear that your objective will be to make the transition as smooth as possible. Remember to keep a copy for your records, perhaps even a bcc to your personal e-mail.
• In some circumstances, you may be asked to delay or extend your notice period, either so management can organize a replacement, or to extend a hand-over period. We urge you to research your rights and understand what constitutes a reasonable extension period, and make sure, if you do, that you’re doing so in good faith and your future employer (and recruiter) understands it, and why you’re doing it.

Explain the reasons for your leaving

• Be brief and concise. We know that not every job is a walk in the park and if there have been any grievances in the past, your boss will know. If there are issues that you haven’t addressed with management, now is not the time to raise them. Make sure you’re empathetic, professional, and focus on what you learned, what you’ll take away from the job, and how you will help the transition.

The counter-offer

•  You will, in almost every case, be offered a sweetener to stay with your company. Our advice is "do not take it". The reasons for leaving a role are myriad and personal and are often in the search for something more. There is plenty of advice online about why counter-offers for better salaries or positions are usually too little too late, we advise you read them!

A final note for employees looking to use moving jobs as a bargaining chip to secure a better position or salary - there are far more effective ways of doing this.

• From market awareness and context to specificity of salary, timing, and learning to not apologize, it’s always best to approach your senior team members and ask them about the opportunity to gain promotion or salary increases, rather than offering to quit out of the blue. Approach the conversation from a position of positivity (wanting to stay and grow) rather than negativity (wanting to quit without discussion).

One of our recruiters would be happy to help you prepare for these conversations to maximize your efforts. At Benchmark Search, we are more than a recruiting firm. We want to be part of the employment journey and our relationships start in a multitude of ways. 

If you’re leaving a job, our advice is to treat your employers how you want to be treated. Look to leave with dignity and handle the process with respect.


***


Troy Ashby is the founder and president of Benchmark Search, a Dallas-based firm specializing in direct hire recruiting, executive search, and temporary staffing for accounting and finance professionals. With more than 15 years of professional service experience, including more than a decade with one of the nation’s largest recruiting firms, Ashby established Benchmark Search on the bedrock belief that exceptional people, progressive culture, and an unrelenting devotion to serving clients is the formula for developing deep and transformational relationships. BenchmarkSearchGroup.com.

Building an accounting career takes a great educational focus, years of experience, networking, and a desire to succeed. It also requires great timing!

At Benchmark Search, we recognize it’s not easy to put your career on hold, and a lot of accounting professionals delayed a career move in 2020 to better see the lay of the land post-pandemic.

We believe that public accounting candidates are better served, and will find better positions, if they look at job seeking through a long-term lens. Where do you want to be after the busy season? How are you going to be ahead of your competitor candidates when an opportunity arises later in the year?

In the accounting industry, we face critical shortages of talent, so as recruiters we have to know when qualified CPAs will be open to a career move, and during the 2020/2021 winter period, we have seen an enormous uptick in public accounting professionals starting their active job search.

Our advice for candidates aiming to jump on the job search is firm - strategize your exit, start interviewing now and, crucially, extend your start date beyond the end of the busy season. This way, you are ahead of your peer competition, while also not letting down your current accounting firm and colleagues. As we’ve said in other articles, good recruitment takes patience, and good employers will wait.

There might be a multitude of reasons to leave your current firm, but encourage you to think twice before leaving during the busiest times of the year.

We genuinely believe in leaving every job on the very best of terms possible. Being able to explain to your current employer and new employer you want to honor your commitments to your teams, clients, or customers during the busy accountancy season will garner respect, trust, and a great reference.

We are looking ahead to this increase in career movement with excitement. If you are looking at making a career move sooner rather than later, we want you to consider the timing: you can get ahead of the recruitment game and still keep all parties happy once you depart!

Wrapping it up:

As I write this article the first week of March, we are currently working with public accounting candidates who are taking these steps and several have already accepted offers with April start dates. We know we can help you navigate an extended onboarding process, encourage communication and make sure all parties are happy.

 ***
​
 Troy Ashby is the founder and president of Benchmark Search, a Dallas-based firm specializing in direct hire recruiting, executive search, and temporary staffing for accounting and finance professionals. With more than 15 years of professional service experience, including more than a decade with one of the nation’s largest recruiting firms, Ashby established Benchmark Search on the bedrock belief that exceptional people, progressive culture, and an unrelenting devotion to serving clients is the formula for developing deep and transformational relationships. BenchmarkSearchGroup.com.

This is the final part of our “Benchmark Search Hiring Forecast” series, studying the essential place of a recruiter network in your career.

Who is a recruiter to you?

Recruitment, contrary to popular belief, is not a transaction: it’s a network, and to take full advantage of your recruiter network takes planning, strategy, and patience.

Business owners and hiring managers rely on the recruiters' skills and passion for people to highlight the best talent for their company. Candidates look to recruiters to assess their career and background and channel their energies to finding them a better job and advance their career.

Recruiters are matchmakers: they build relationships, above all else, and relationships are cultivated over time.

Network building in 2021

Placing your business health or career in the hands of a stranger is a terrifying prospect, and recruiters make no small effort to make sure they give you everything you need to trust them to make the right decision for you.

At Benchmark Search, we are experts at recruiting with integrity. We make sure every candidate and client who passes through our doors (digitally or in-person) is treated with complete respect and candor, and we support them throughout the process, even when they’re unsure of how we work or what we do.

Whether you’re looking to your recruiting partners now, or in 6 months, or in a year - does the length of time you’ve known your recruiter make a difference to your job search or talent sourcing?

The answer, unequivocally, is yes.

Why should you build a recruiter network?

For hiring authorities...

• Benchmark Search has made a name for itself servicing a very specific talent market, and candidate shortages are a consistent issue in our neck of the professional woods.
• Having the time and resources to source, vet, and interview these hard-to-find candidates requires incredible resolve and patience. That's where your network steps in, and we are integral to it.
• It goes without saying that the time you invest in building a trusted, effective recruitment network means when you require a certain professional you have the channels primed and recruiters prepared. Proving that your recruiting partner will do the job, however, takes more than a meeting and favorable fee structures. An unproven, fresh relationship is built on mutual values, respect, and time.
• Remember the recruitment mantra: Recruiters are in the relationship business, and much like a marriage, crafting a meaningful relationship takes time. Finding the talent you need isn’t transactional and the modern finance or accounting candidate is not easily swayed. Take your time and find the right professional and cultural mix of talent.
• And, similar to a candidate's search, the time you spend building your relationship with your recruiter, the more chance you have of talent finding you. Recruiters are an extension of your company and your brand, and they have vast access to talent. Let them work for you.

​For candidates...

• Your network will, more than likely, garner your next role, and this is even more likely in the accounting and finance field.
• You are in high demand, and our clients know it. Nurture and maintain your network, versus seeing it as an extension of work. Try and see it as paying it forward. You never know when you will want that support network to help you, and it costs nothing to keep in touch with communities and fellow professionals.
• We know changing jobs in 2021 will come with unique difficulties, such as hybrid in-person/remote working set-ups, and so as recruiters, we will make any transition between jobs a lot smoother by cultivating communication and guaranteeing an efficient, discreet interview process.
• The key thing to remember, much like how we help our clients, is the time spent in building a relationship with a recruiter gives you a much better chance of finding the perfect job. Think of recruiters like a career consultant, overseeing your career with objectivity and focus, extending your reach, and expanding your network.
• Our message here is your network is a deposit system. You must approach it without expecting anything in return, and to give your time to cultivating it freely. If you do this without considering it transactional, you will find a supportive network perfectly placed to help you when you need it most!

​***


Troy Ashby is the founder and president of Benchmark Search, a Dallas-based firm specializing in direct hire recruiting, executive search, and temporary staffing for accounting and finance professionals. With more than 15 years of professional service experience, including more than a decade with one of the nation’s largest recruiting firms, Ashby established Benchmark Search on the bedrock belief that exceptional people, progressive culture, and an unrelenting devotion to serving clients is the formula for developing deep and transformational relationships. BenchmarkSearchGroup.com

This is part 3 of a 4 part “Benchmark Search Hiring Forecast” series, studying the ongoing effects of the pandemic on hiring, interviewing, onboarding and networking.

How many stages should there be in an interview process? How many steps is too many? What constitutes too few? What makes a good interview?

Your interview strategy should be about two things - efficiency, and momentum. Good talent does not hang around, so consider every candidate comes with a shelf life attached. You have a small window of opportunity to successfully hire the perfect candidate, so your interview process needs to be effective, positive, and personal. 

Let’s review: it takes approximately 25 working days to hire someone for a role, from initial contact to start date. That, in both the minds here at Benchmark Search and the minds of most candidates, is too long. 

Why do we interview?  

In the modern age when so much of a worker is digitally accessible, why do we persist in holding interview after interview after interview? Is a face-to-face interview in the age of COVID-19 still required or a preference? 

Job interviews are still the most preferred way to assess standards of professional and cultural suitability for both candidate and client. Besides the obvious errors fermented through conscious and unconscious biases, the interview, be it one stage or many, is still a highly effective way to understand the person beyond the resume.

However you plan your interview strategy, we offer simple advice: avoid complexity, focus on efficiency and use your interview process to build momentum.

Good Interviews vs Bad Interviews 

Interviews are an essential and effective part of bringing new people into your company. For many employers, it is the final piece of the puzzle to finding the right talent. 

Of course, what constitutes a “‘good” interview is in the eye of the beholder and there has been a vital cultural change to job interviews over the last decade. 

Gone are the days of clients being in the driver's seat and the interview being one-directional. Now, especially for college graduates over the age of 25 and in industries with candidate shortages, interview equality has been met. Candidates are making a judgment call on your company, on your culture, on your processes, and your offer of a career path. 

Interview Stages - how many is too many? 

Each employer has its requirements, and we want to help support their unique processes. At Benchmark Search, we’ve made it our job to know when this style of recruitment steps into the realm of ineffective, and we make sure each client we work with is provided with a personalized interview strategy that reflects their needs and company culture. 

When speed is of the essence, our tacit advice is - consider momentum. 

Why momentum? 

Momentum differs from simple speedy recruitment. 

• Fast recruitment runs the risk of shoehorning a candidate into a role based on instant availability, no matter the cost.
• Momentum, on the other hand, is driven by interest and desire for the role, and for the candidate, which creates a much more involved, agile recruitment process.

Candidate shortages in niche financial and accounting roles mean good talent is already gainfully employed, the most actively available of those are going to want a discreet, efficient, agile recruitment service to fit their schedule. 

You can catch a candidate’s eye with fantastic branding, a chance to move up the ladder, growth opportunities, a fancy title, and even more competitive pay...but in most cases, you will not keep hold of them by waiting for weeks to shore up more candidates to compare. They will not wait, or someone else will pluck them off first. 

We include assessments in our interview process - should we continue using them? 

You can absolutely keep them. That said, make them relevant and be flexible - potential candidates need to know they are supported and understood. Any assessments done digitally may have to be before or after hours, and if you do need assessments to be done as part of an interview day/on-site interview and assessment, be empathetic to them having to organize time away from their role to come to you. 

It is also important that you do not ask for the assessment to be done too early in the process, because you may not have garnered enough momentum to have them prioritize your opportunity over others (or over their current employer obligations). Assessments serve as a very valuable tool, but don’t let them inadvertently become a roadblock. 

What does an interview mean to a candidate? 

Interviews are a two-way street and must sit at the top of the hiring pyramid. You have sourced, vetted, and maybe even pre-interviewed this candidate. The interview is where you make the final call. 

This is doubly relevant for candidates. Candidates are assessing you for your leadership, business security, and (in the age of COVID-19) company safety. They need to make a professional and emotional connection with your company. Regardless of whether your interview is in-person or virtual, make it count. 

Interview strategy tips: 

Consolidate

• Review your interview practice - there is nothing wrong with multiple members of your team wanting to meet a new hire, but if your interview process is 4 or 5 meetings, conversations, zoom calls...it is assuredly too long. Your peak interview number should be 2, or 3 including any testing or assessments.
• If you would like to involve more team members, we suggest panel interviews or back-to-back meetings (counted as one step). 

Communicate 

• Your candidates are your future, but they are in high demand. If your interview process has stages, keep them well informed of progress and provide ample feedback. There is no such thing as over-communication during an interview process. 

Feedback 

• Make interview and assessment feedback relevant! We cannot urge this enough. Provide feedback, make it tangible, and let the candidate understand how they contribute to your company.

In our next article, we discuss networking in our ongoing “Benchmark Search Hiring Forecast” series.

​***

Troy Ashby is the founder and president of Benchmark Search, a Dallas-based firm specializing in direct hire recruiting, executive search, and temporary staffing for accounting and finance professionals. With more than 15 years of professional service experience, including more than a decade with one of the nation’s largest recruiting firms, Ashby established Benchmark Search on the bedrock belief that exceptional people, progressive culture, and an unrelenting devotion to serving clients is the formula for developing deep and transformational relationships. BenchmarkSearchGroup.com

This is part 2 of a 4 part “Benchmark Search Hiring Forecast” series, studying the ongoing effects of the pandemic on hiring, interviewing, onboarding and networking.

Onboarding is an art: it is an integral element of effective recruitment and the final, most personal part of talent sourcing.

Onboarding builds trust, community and sets the roots of a burgeoning relationship between the company, co-workers, and your new employee, and onboarding matters: it cultivates a sense of place and worth within your company while driving productivity, encouraging trust and improving retention in your team.

The rise of COVID-19 has put pressure on cost-effectiveness and processes countrywide, so understanding the tangible effect of good onboarding practice mid-pandemic is integral to keeping your talent engaged, motivated, and happy!

Like a lot of great recruitment practices, the art of onboarding has changed to meet the challenge of the new normal, and revamping your onboarding strategy is necessary, as all employers look to protect their workforces and candidate expectations change.

How to perfect your onboarding best practice

Pre-hiring

• Onboarding starts the second you, or your recruitment partner, make the first contact with a candidate.
• Never forget the basics: onboarding is the process of integrating employees into your company, culture, and business plans. Your recruitment culture should align with your company culture!

 
First Day

• Planning the first day for a new employee is always an exciting part of onboarding. With the added pressure of COVID-19, orientation now has a caveat - do you try to move the whole process online, or keep some element of hybrid first day/week in person.
• If you can manage it, we advise companies to keep your employee's first day in the “office”. Even if you can’t seal a welcome with a handshake, you can make a much stronger, personal introduction to your company.
• You can introduce your new employee to mentors, other new recruits, and management, not to mention give them a fuller more tangible understanding of the company and its place in its community.
• You can also cover all the basics, such as compliance, work portals, and paperwork, and make sure your new staff member has all they need if they will be working from home, such as company tech and assets.
• If your company cannot operate remotely, the first day is vitally important to introduce your new team member to your health and safety protocol.

Welcome packs

• Dependent on the role and service you offer, taking a little bit of time to welcome your new hire with more than a coffee and employment agreement will make a huge impression.
• If your entire onboarding process is done online, it no longer means new team members miss out. Companies such as Caroo and Swag.com offer a range of personalized and fun gifts for the new staff (as well as ongoing efforts).
• It goes without saying that mid-pandemic the opportunity to excite your new employee, let them know they are valued and connected to the company, even remotely, sets the right tone.

​After the first day

• As a team leader or business owner, remember to check-in. Even if it’s only 5 minutes, give your new staff some face time.
• Digitally, this counts more than ever, especially with remote teams. New staff may feel lonely, or insecure and having a consistent presence, be it yourself or a mentor (or ideally both) makes a huge difference.

Training

• By training, we mean two things: any compliance or service particulars such as learning how to use programs, database training or software alongside wider business introductions and best practice.
• Alignment is key. Do not prioritize one or the other, treat teaching new staff about your firm’s history and goals as of equal value to skills training. 
• Training should also follow some key rules; it needs to be relevant, self-driven, goal and practice-orientated, measurable, and full of feedback - if this is to be done remotely, make sure your feedback is effective and personal and remember to keep checking in to get updates on any ongoing training.

Mentoring

•  Assigning mentors is nothing new - it gives your new hire a cultural anchor in your company.
• In the age of COVID-19 it gives that hire something more. It shows a more personal commitment to teaching and investment in them, and most importantly it gives your employee the chance to get to know the team.
• We have had extensive discussions with clients about how to improve this in remote teams. Being able to link names with faces is more than a memory test: it is vital in building team trust and relationships.
• It’s also a staple of maintaining good workplace mental health - having more than an email relationship with co-workers, even on different teams, builds that sense of belonging and purpose.

Communication and Expectations

• Like so many other elements of effective recruitment, the way you communicate and set the right expectations during the onboarding period underpins your employee’s first impressions of your company.
• Establishing clear lines of communications and setting accurate expectations - from training deliverables to workloads, should be considered the basics of good onboarding. Doing so during a pandemic is absolutely vital. Remember, good communications squashes doubt!

In our next article, we analyze interview strategy in the wake of COVID-19 in our ongoing Benchmark Search Hiring Forecast series.

***

Troy Ashby is the founder and president of Benchmark Search, a Dallas-based firm specializing in direct hire recruiting, executive search, and temporary staffing for accounting and finance professionals. With more than 15 years of professional service experience, including more than a decade with one of the nation’s largest recruiting firms, Ashby established Benchmark Search on the bedrock belief that exceptional people, progressive culture, and an unrelenting devotion to serving clients is the formula for developing deep and transformational relationships. BenchmarkSearchGroup.com
​

This is part 1 of a 4 part “Benchmark Search Hiring Forecast” series, studying the ongoing effects of the pandemic on hiring, interviewing, onboarding and networking.

Think back to this time last year: the heady days of January 2020 were full of anticipation, growth was trending upward, employment was high and with the new year came new opportunities.

Skip forward to January 2021 we find a global economy, and our workplaces, in flux; but in our sector of the accounting and finance fields, hiring has bucked the trend and we are seeing clients clamoring for talent.

At Benchmark Search we are more than prepared to help them find the best in class and our critical challenge has been meeting this rise in demand amid a candidate shortage.

It's wise to remember that the pandemic’s effects on employment have by no means been equitable. Many sectors such as hospitality, leisure and tourism sectors, which employ millions, have been seriously disrupted, but some sectors have seen incredible growth; professional services, healthcare, tech, insurance, supply chain, finance, and accounting sectors have seen demand skyrocket.

​Equitability of opportunity in the new normal
The pressure on employers around the country to find appropriate talent to meet the changes wrought by COVID-19 are compounded by this disruption - but has the process of hiring changed alongside the changes to workplace culture?

When (almost) the entire process of sourcing, vetting, interviewing, and hiring has been digitized and physical contact is discouraged, how can companies remain attractive to talent on the move, and how does a company hire with purpose in 2021?

Here at Benchmark Search, we wanted to share some of our findings from hiring during a pandemic: some of the biggest changes to recruitment methodology we’ve seen and what processes have remained consistent throughout.

​New year, new me?

• 2020 was not a typical year for candidate churn - many employees stayed at jobs they would have left, many employees had their hand forced: 2021 is tracking to be a busy year for delayed staff turnover and employees looking for greener pastures.
• It is vital hiring managers remember that happy staff make productive companies - a lot of pent-up recruitment energy will be unleashed this year - business leaders then need to make sure they are aware of forces driving turnover.

​Discretion and your hidden job market

• The golden rule of recruitment is good talent is already gainfully employed: this is your hidden candidate market, and they are more active and more approachable than ever.
• The digital realm offers discretion as we have never seen before. Recruiting employers can have conversations with potential candidates while in a virtual work environment, allowing them to interview with more ease than before. Additionally, if you find yourself needing to confidentially replace a low performing employee or desire to upgrade talent, you can also accomplish this with more discretion.
• Acknowledging this hidden market is vital in bringing talent to you: be aware of their needs, and aware of how COVID-19 affected their career over the last 12 months; highlight your unique talent stream, and you will find the best in class coming to you.

No one size fits

• Great recruitment has always been detail-oriented: the rapport and relationship, the focus on trust above KPI’s, and quality over quantity. The pandemic has by no means put a stop on this, but it has changed recruitment strategy.
• This is where empathy and expectations matter. Every business has ridden the wave of COVID-19 in very different ways, and effective recruitment must make sure their service is fit for purpose. We help set the right working expectations for your candidate, from the first moment of contact through to onboarding and beyond.

​​Expectation management

• More than anything, the pandemic has changed how everyone deals with futureproofing, career mapping, and understanding market movements: business health is only guaranteed with the right people delivering your company vision, and for that to happen you need to make sure your staff knows what to expect.
• From changes to compensation to benefits, furlough schemes, and supply chain issues, changing expectations have put added stresses on recruiters and hiring managers to communicate their culture and be clear in their demands of new staff.
• Our advice is to simply commit to telling employees and new talent about how you’re investing in your company; the resources you have to protect staff; the new technology you’re bringing in to make it safer and more efficient, and the refocus on your company mission to drive positive work culture.  
  

Communication and empathy

• You can only deliver on the above points with clear communication channels and an empathetic management style. The last thing you want to do now is to be aloof or alienate your team by stubbornly sticking resolutely to traditional management platitudes.
• Communication is also the ultimate soft skill for candidates looking for work and repeatedly touted as the number one most valued personality trait in staff; strong, efficient, and effective communication is now essential in maintaining a clear channel to prospective talent, and if you want your team to be communicative, you have to lead from the front.

The Benchmark Way
Now more than ever we have a chance to change how we communicate and build relationships with new recruits and build a better, more inclusive, form of hiring.
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In our next article, we discuss the art of onboarding in our ongoing Benchmark Search Hiring Forecast series.


Troy Ashby is the founder and president of Benchmark Search, a Dallas-based firm specializing in direct hire recruiting, executive search, and temporary staffing for accounting and finance professionals. With more than 15 years of professional service experience, including more than a decade with one of the nation’s largest recruiting firms, Ashby established Benchmark Search on the bedrock belief that exceptional people, progressive culture, and an unrelenting devotion to serving clients is the formula for developing deep and transformational relationships. Benchmarksearchgroup.com.

As I sit here in my makeshift "home office" with my loving wife, barking dog, and home schooled children, I am having conversation after conversation with people that I have known for months, years, even decades. I'm talking to long-time friends, long-lost friends, clients, candidates, and referral partners alike. We are talking about job loss, financial security, health concerns, family, and the job market. I KNOW that I am positioned exactly where I am intended and was reminded about this article that I wrote 9 months ago and it cannot be more true today!

One excerpt said, "For the last 14 years, I often lay awake at night thinking about who needs help and how I can best serve them, I wake up early in the morning with a passion to make a difference, and sometimes have very challenging conversations with those in transition with the purpose of motivating them to be their best self in the midst of self-doubt."

These are challenging times for many due to uncertainty, doubt, pain, fear, and constantly evolving pandemic. I may not know when this will end or where these relationships will be in the coming days, weeks, months...but I'm listening, I'm encouraging, and I'm present!
I STILL LOVE MY RECRUITING CAREER!

P.S. Thanks to those who have forgiven my COVID-19 beard growth during video calls!

Troy Ashby is founder and president of Benchmark Search, a Dallas-based firm specializing in direct hire recruiting, executive search, and temporary staffing for accounting and finance professionals. With more than 15 years of professional service experience, including more than a decade with one of the nation’s largest recruiting firms, Ashby established Benchmark Search on the bedrock belief that exceptional people, progressive culture, and an unrelenting devotion to serving clients is the formula for developing deep and transformational relationships. Benchmarksearch.com.

Two weeks ago I discussed how clients can Create Hiring Advantages Through Videoconferencing. Now that video interviews have become the norm for companies, I want to make sure you as a candidate also feels prepared. If you are wondering what to expect or what is expected, here are a few pointers to make it successful!

• Research the company.
• Review the job description and create a list of how your qualifications match the job requirements. Memorize the list, but also have it close in case you need to look.  Tape it to the wall if you are afraid of forgetting something.
• Prepare and practice answers to common interview questions.
• Create a list of questions to ask.
• Print your resume and have it in front of you. Keep your resume in clear view so it's at your fingertips if the interviewer asks a specific question (Can you provide more detail about bullet #3?)
• Have a pad of paper and pen ready to take notes.

Now, let’s get ready for the video interview itself:

1.      Know your videoconferencing tool. Download the app for your ipad/phone, install the software on your computer, or practice the web application. Practice logging in, setting up, see how long it takes to get started. It is also important to test your video and audio, but be prepared for the inevitable technology glitch and be flexible to transitioning to a phone interview if this happens. If you do not have the direct line for the interviewer, I’d suggest requesting that from your recruiter or via e-mail the day before the video interview. If you are unable to get it before, ask in the first few minutes of the video conference (“In case we get disconnected, what is a good phone number for me to reach you on?”). Interviews are stressful, but this can prevent some unnecessary stress. It also demonstrates your leadership ability and that you are not only taking it seriously, but that you are thinking ahead.

2.      Dress to impress. This is an interview. You should wear the same attire that you would for an in-person interview. Choose conservative clothing (black, navy, charcoal) and minimize patterns. While the camera angle should only show you from the waist up, avoid the temptation to dress casually or mismatch out of the camera view - you never know when something might come up that will require you to stand up.

3.      Know where you should look. Your camera should be positioned at eye level and not too close and not too far away. You should not be holding your phone or device. When you are talking, you should primarily look at the camera. When you are listening, you should primarily watch the candidate/screen. I say primarily, because to get a balance, you should consciously look at both the camera and the candidate. If you only look at the screen while you are talking, the candidate loses important eye contact. If you only look at the camera, then you miss important non-verbal cues from the candidate. Speaking of non-verbal communication, don’t forget yours…smile (a lot), nod in agreement, take notes, etc. 

4.      Have a professional background. Whether you are conducting this interview from a home office, kitchen table, or make sure the background is clean and as minimal as possible. Try to mimic an actual interview with a conference room vibe. You do not want the hiring manager to distracted during the interview by looking at a shelf of knick-knacks, posters, or anything moving. I’d also recommend a room where you can control the lighting. If you are in a room with windows, the lighting during different parts of the day could be an added variable. I advise a desk/table, a chair, and a blank wall or perhaps a simple bookshelf…and don’t forget to have a tablet for taking notes. Given those pointers, it is probably obvious, but I do not recommend conducting a phone interview in your vehicle. If that is the only option, notify the interviewer in advance. 

5.      Minimize Distractions. Notify the family and corral the pets to prevent the unexpected interruption. Remove all clutter from view. Turn off all alerts, notifications, and reminders. The last thing you want to do is be distracted by an incoming message on your device. For those of you with smart watches, we advise you to remove those during video (and other) interviews.
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6.      Send a thank-you note. Stand out from the crowd. Did you know that only 10% of applicants send a thank you note? If you do not have their e-mail addresses, ask before the interview is over.