Hiring Talent Quickly Boosts Performance
March 10, 2023 – It is no secret that the current labor market is challenging for employers. The pandemic, followed by the Great Resignation, led to talent scarcity that remains today. In 2022, resignations by employees in professional services like finance and accounting roles averaged 750,000 per month. This trend has organizations intent on strategies to both attract and retain great candidates, according to a new report from Tatum. “One key strategy is an effective hiring process,” said the study. “Candidates with the right skill-set may choose a particular position because one process moved faster than the others. Organizations that are aware of this trend and work to speed up their own procedures can secure the best talent. This makes working to hire great financial and accounting talent before they’re lost to the competition top-of- mind.”
But Tatum explains that faster hiring can also help your company succeed well into the future, here’s how:
It Helps Your Bottom Line – and Your Brand.
“While the demand for talent remains strong, key indicators point to an inevitable economic slowdown,” Tatum said. “Many organizations are planning for this by cutting costs. Yet failure to invest in talent acquisition may cost you more than you think. For one, strategic financial roles help create efficiencies, reduce expenses, and boost returns. Securing top candidates from the talent pool to fulfill these needs can help your organization weather a potential slowdown.”
Also, Tatum notes that investing in talent now can help you stay productive and maintain your reputation through staff changes. After all, productivity issues such as missed deadlines or rocky mergers can have a negative impact on your brand as a whole, the study notes.
“Burnout is real,” said Wendy Markquart, vice president of the financial projects group at Tatum by Randstad. “If a company is understaffed and current employees are overworked, they’ll make mistakes or simply quit altogether. This in turn can lead to overactive hiring decisions that will cost the company more in the long run.”
It Helps You Plan Ahead
In an ever-increasing digital world, the finance and accounting sector is seeing the rapid automation of low-value tasks to AI and machine learning, according to the Tatum report. “But these changes are hard to make without the right talent in certain value-generating roles,” the report said. “This means that in addition to securing great talent to handle potential market changes and maintain productivity, the time to invest in human capital to support automation is now. With the right candidates, you can adopt savings and efficiencies through automation that are then reinvested into the workforce through skills training.”
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What’s more, over time you can implement long-term strategies with a focus on skills and tech training, says Tatum. The company says that this will help your employees and your organization as a whole stay relevant and growing.
It Helps Attract Top Talent
“With talent scarcity, everyone is competing for the best candidates and job seekers know it,” the Tatum report said. “This means they don’t want to take less than their worth, and the price tag is higher than ever. But while your company may have pay increases in the budget, there’s more to securing top talent.”
“I have never seen a greater emphasis on family over career in today’s talent market,” Ms. Markquart said. “I hear from candidates regularly who simply decline jobs that they would have jumped at just a couple of years ago because it does not allow them the flexibility to focus on family.”
Increasingly, candidates want flexibility, such as remote roles or adjustable hours. This coupled with salary demands may make it hard to find the right person for the job when they’re available. Ms. Markquart sees this every day. “Highly qualified candidates have options in today’s job market. They are acquired by competitors or other companies within a matter of hours,” she said. “Gone are the days where companies drive the offer process and sit on decisions for days or weeks at a time. Our clients typically have about a 24-hour turnaround time to decide on a hire. Accounting for pay increases and a focus on job flexibility can help you find the best candidates. Combined with a faster hiring process, you can avoid losing top talent to the competition.”
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Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; and Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
