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How To Hire Accounting Staff

How To Hire Accounting Staff
Post Series: How to Hire

Behind every company’s success story are a team of experts working hard to ensure the financial aspects of running a business are accurately and efficiently handled. To hire accounting staff, you need a recruitment strategy that ensures the best accounting talent comes knocking on your door. If the business owner implements a poor hiring strategy, recruitment costs can be high, and the hiring timeframe can be long. The risks of failing to have a skilled and fully staffed accounting department for a medium or small business are significant, ranging from fines for failing to submit tax returns to alienating valuable employees because of payroll errors. 

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However, follow the proper steps, and you can implement a hiring process that will see you recruit the right accounting staff on time and within your budget. Deploy effective recruitment solutions appropriate to your business and industry, and you will find yourself hiring an accountant or accounting staff that will help your company complete all basic tasks and make informed decisions based on expert advice, which is essential for any growing business.

In this accounting staff hiring guide, we lay out the steps to hiring accounting professionals, including:

  • Preparing To Recruit Accounting Staff: Your Employer Brand & Company Careers Page
  • Writing An Accounting Job Description & Job Advert
  • Advertising Your Accounting Department Positions: Referral Schemes, Social Media, & Job Boards
  • Reducing Accountant Hiring Costs And Time: Recruitment Companies & ATS
  • Screening Job Seekers & Conducting Interviews
  • Presenting A Job Offer & Onboarding Accounting Hires

Preparing To Recruit Accounting Staff: Your Employer Brand & Company Careers Page

How To Recruit Accounting Staff

Before you begin to advertise externally for accounting staff, you should review all your existing candidate touchpoints to ensure you are promoting a positive employer brand. You will ultimately only secure the right candidates if you show that you are a highly desirable employer where junior to senior accountants will want to work.

It would help if you considered how you portray your company culture, company values, and your business success, along with other elements such as supporting further training and career development. In our Guide On How To Hire, we explore deeper the topics of Why Should SMEs Build An Employer Brand and What Should Be On A Company Careers Page.

Writing An Accounting Job Description & Job Advert

How To Write A Part Or Full Time Accountant Job Description

You can only write an accurate job description and job advert for your accounting positions if you speak to key decision makers in the hiring process, including the position’s line manager:

Accounting Job Descriptions

Writing a job description for a staff accountant will help your hiring manager speed up the recruitment process. The best practice is to have one on file for all company positions, which can be quickly updated and used to create the job posting whenever recruitment needs arise.

Download Job Advert Template

For Search Engine Optimisation, it is a good practice to integrate keywords and key phrases that potential candidates might search for in a search engine. The job specification should have a clear message to attract the most suitable candidates. It also helps to refrain from using excessive punctuation and too much industry jargon.

When writing a job description for an accountant or accounting staff, consider:

  1. Identifying and outlining typical company-wide requirements
  2. Collating today’s minimum technical skills, qualifications, and accounting software experience
  3. Reviewing what your competitors are saying in their job descriptions
  4. What your new hires should look like
  5. How you want your brand to be perceived

Our Job Description Templates can help you get started; we appreciate writing this content can be a challenge. You can discover the most popular Accounting Job Descriptions here.

Further useful resources include How To Define What People Do In Their Jobs, Preparing Job Descriptions, and Key Roles And Responsibilities In Accounting.

Accounting Job Adverts

Your accounting job descriptions form the basis of your new job ad. There are other things to add to attract the right accountant with appropriate skills, so ensure your job ad includes:

  1. An accurate job title – certified management accountant, senior accountant, certified public accountant, part time accountant, payroll clerk, etc
  2. An opening statement – saying why a junior or senior accountant will want to work for your business or accounting firm
  3. The job’s description
  4. A list of responsibilities – preparing financial statements, presenting financial reports, monitoring cash flow, updating financial records, evaluating the company’s tax situation, determining the tax code of employees, data entry, or administering payroll
  5. Qualifications, personality traits, working knowledge and required hard and soft skills
  6. Job location – office-based or work from home for remote accountants
  7. Salary range and employee benefits – check the average salary here for roles such as senior accountant, certified management accountant, auditor, bookkeeper, and billing specialist
  8. Next steps – potential candidates should email xxx or apply via your careers page

We recommend that large, medium, and small businesses use a job advert template to get down the basics and then fill in more detail on the unique aspects of your company, team, jobs, and ideal candidate.

Download Job Advert Template

How To Hire For Accounting Jobs

HOW TO HIRE AN AUDITOR

To hire an Auditor, your job advert should include important responsibilities, such as identifying opportunities to prevent mistakes, analysing transactions and documents, creating reports, and bringing policies in line with accounting principles and best practices.

Attaining applications from qualified job seekers is possible by defining required skills such as attention to detail, expertise in financial regulations and law, objectivity, and various technical proficiencies.

Auditor Job Description Example

Post An Auditor Job

HOW TO HIRE AN ACCOUNTANT

To hire an Accountant, your job posting should highlight key duties, including maintaining compliance with company policies and regulations, analysing financial records, collating financial information, and creating reports on tax, expenditure, and profit and losses.

To attract prospective employees, identify your required soft skills and any desired qualification, accounting degree, or certification with organisations such as the AAT, ACA, CIMA, or ACCA.

Accountant Job Description Example

Post An Accountant Job

HOW TO HIRE A BOOKKEEPER

To hire a Bookkeeper, it will help to list the tasks the successful individual will complete. These might include creating balance sheets, preparing invoices, organising tax and payroll, and managing daily banking transactions.

To receive applications from suited individuals, include the personal traits and skills required, such as attention to detail, bookkeeping software proficiency, numeracy, and good communication skills.

Bookkeeper Job Description Example

Post A Bookkeeper Job

HOW TO HIRE A MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTANT

To hire a Management Accountant, your job advertisement should include critical responsibilities, such as overseeing financial strategies, forecasting, and business investments. These professionals may also conduct research, provide senior management advice, and audit projects.

To hire the right person, assess applicants against skills such as accuracy, prioritisation, and multitasking. You might also require a person with a finance or accounting degree.

Management Accountant Job Description Example

Post A Management Accountant Job

Advertising Your Accounting Department Positions: Referral Schemes, Social Media, & Job Boards

Advertising To Attract The Right Accounting Staff

With your job ad in hand, you are ready to find your new employee. Your IT recruitment strategy might include posting your advert:

Internally (Employee Referral Schemes)

A non-incentivised or incentivised employee referral scheme is extremely valuable when you want to hire an accountant or accounting staff. You will turn your current employees into motivated recruiters, sharing that you are hiring a new employees across their social and professional networks (LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter).

Employee referral schemes often bring in promising candidates, with your team’s connections including like-minded professionals and industry contacts. To engage this business hiring strategy, share your job descriptions with your team and reward referrals from employees.

You can discover a few tips on employee referral schemes by reading Introducing An Employee Referral Scheme.

On Social Media

Hiring an accountant through social media is effective, with free and paid advertising options. The best tips for success include ensuring your social media messaging is consistent with your employer brand and conveys a positive image. An active social media channel is helpful if you want to build a community of professionals just waiting for an opportunity to join your business. Recommended activity includes posting news, expert opinions, updates, and industry insights.

Download Job Advert Template

Our tips and advice for implementing a successful social media hiring strategy include:

  • Marketing yourself first
  • Joining industry networks and groups
  • Engaging with respondents and nurturing discussions
  • Using advanced search tools and Recruiter Lite on LinkedIn
  • Using Twitter’s advanced search tool and direct messaging
  • Building activity on your company’s Facebook page and encouraging engagement from existing employees, turning them into business advocates

We explore finding qualified employees through social media further in our articles Social Media Hiring Strategies For SMEs and Job Advertising On Social Media.

On Job Boards

Whether your new hire is your first hire or your hundredth, advertising on job boards is essential if you want to be hiring the right accountants in an acceptable timeframe. You can post accountant and accounting jobs on one job board, or many using an Applicant Tracking System. Job board resellers help you advertise your accounting job across multiple general, niche, and geographical job boards using their integrated ATS software, minimising the hassle and time of developing leads and hiring a good accountant.

Leading General Job Boards:

Niche Accountancy Industry Job Posting Sites:

Aggregator Job Sites:

Geographical Job Sites:

You can advertise your job on these job boards today.

Reducing Accountant Hiring Costs And Time: Recruitment Companies & ATS

Reducing Hiring Costs For SMEs And Accounting Firms

Budgets, deadlines, and administration require careful consideration whenever you instigate the recruitment process. To get the best results, you may decide to work with a recruiting firm with a UK wide focus, a global recruitment partner, or a niche recruitment company.

We discuss agency fees and recruiters in these two articles; How To Avoid High Recruitment Agency Fees and The Pros And Cons Of Having A Recruiter On Retainer.

Fixed Cost Recruitment

Fixed-cost recruitment allows you to hire at a flat fee governed by the level of service and functionality you desire.

The success of fixed-cost recruitment depends on the company offering the service, the methodologies they deploy, and their expertise and knowledge of your industry or business sector. You will need to determine which actions you need assistance with to use flat-fee recruitment successfully.

Four steps to leveraging fixed cost recruitment to hire an accountant:

  1. Place ads across leading job boards
  2. Search CV databases and social media channels
  3. Headhunt and shortlist new employee candidates
  4. Receive interviewed and qualified candidates

Useful resources:

Applicant Tracking Systems

Automatic Tracking Systems can significantly reduce the costs of hiring an accounting professional by creating efficiency. Candidate, vacancy, and advert management fall within the software’s parameters.

Team access creates a unified place to work, helping you build a seamless hiring process and candidate experience.

Five steps to centralising recruitment with ATS:

  1. Find accountants and accountancy staff online
  2. Review candidate scores
  3. Distribute personalised messages to a large candidate pool
  4. Automate responses
  5. Direct candidates to application forms

To explore all the features and benefits of Automatic Tracking Systems, read Centralising Recruitment With ATS.

Screening Job Seekers & Conducting Interviews

Screening And Interviewing A Junior Or Senior Accountant

Before your interview process commences, you need to shortlist applicants by reviewing their CVs or resumes. Indications that you have an accountant candidates worth interviewing include:

  • Quantifiable evidence of past achievements and skills
  • The individual has steady career progression
  • The candidate is not job-hopping
  • The CV is free from spelling and grammatical errors
  • The candidate has the relevant business experience, knowledge of accounting principles, and skills to meet the job requirements

Decision-makers and hiring managers need to be prepared to deliver a consistent interview experience. It helps to ask the same interview questions to each prospect, to aid candidate scoring. Ensure anyone who has candidate contact is on the same page and understands the brand’s vision, values and opportunities. Interviews should be challenging, supportive, positive, and engaging.

Video interviews are an increasingly popular recruitment solution, saving on resources and speeding up the recruitment process. Video sharing, shortlisting, and feedback from hiring and line managers ultimately generate more successful outcomes. If your firm has not conducted a video interview before, read How To Conduct A Remote Interview.

Our article Defining Your Interview Process, discusses interview questions, avoiding unconscious bias, and interviewing tips.

Presenting A Job Offer & Onboarding Accounting Hires

Presenting A Job Offer And Hiring The Right Accountant

When you have finished interviewing candidates and believe you have the right person for your accounting role, you will need to present a job offer and onboard the part or full time employee:

Making A Job Offer

The process of presenting the offer to accountants or financial professionals varies depending on what has occurred before. If you don’t already understand the individual’s current earnings, expectations are better managed over the phone. Phone offers should be confident but be prepared to make changes if the individual’s circumstances have changed. Reaffirm that the candidate is happy with the offer, clarify their acceptance, and proceed to a formal written offer, in the same way you would for any business employee.

A formal offer letter from your firm can be conditional (dependent on a background check, etc) or unconditional and should include:

  • Job title
  • Candidate name
  • Your conditions – i.e., this offer is made subject to…
  • Official start date, time, and location
  • Probationary period
  • Offer terms
  • Candidate actions and acceptance instructions – i.e., signed copy of job offer
  • Terms and conditions of employment (issued within two months of the start date)

You can read further on Presenting A Job Offer here.

Onboarding Accountants And Accounting Staff

The onboarding process should support the employee as they become part of your team.

Actions for onboarding accounting staff might include:

  • Creating an employee identification number
  • Presenting the individual with an employee handbook
  • An office tour, introducing the person to their manager, team, and senior executives
  • Informing the person of the communication methods and exactly what type of software to use in the new role
  • Presenting clear responsibilities and duties
  • Defining new role expectations, standards, and performance indicators
  • Gathering feedback from new hires

How To Hire Accountants And Accounting Staff FAQs

Here we answer your accounting and accountant hiring questions.

What are the job titles of accounting staff?

Job titles for staff handling business finances include:

1. Auditor
2. Bookkeeper
3. Management Accountant
4. Senior Accountant
5. Payroll Specialist
6. General Ledger Accountant
7. Tax Specialist
8. Accounts Payable
9. Property Accountants
10. Billing Analyst

What are the accounting tasks and accounting services?

Accountants tasks and services include:

1. Preparing tax submissions during tax season
2. Creating business and financial statements
3. Managing budgets, cash flow, and expenditure
4. Maintaining financial and reporting compliance
5. Detailing profit and loss

What accounting software proficiency should I seek?

To ensure you are hiring the right accountants or accountancy staff, seek individuals with skills and experience using:

1. QuickBooks
2. Sage
3. Wave
4. FreshBooks
5. ClearBooks
6. FreeAgent
7. GnuCash
8. Xero

How To Hire Staff In Different Sectors

Find our recruitment guides for different sectors below:

All Accounting Job Descriptions

Post All Administration Jobs

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