Biltmore Executive Group’s Post

Been a very hot debate on when interviewing, should you make candidate take a test for skill discovery. So what do you all think? should you try to vet the candidate based on what they write on resume and what you can determine with talking and meeting them and verbally testing their knowledge. or do you have them take a working interview test. what does this year look like you ask? well in interviewing for our current Tax positions we send candidates a group of tax returns and ask them to take a look and let us know if they spot any issues. another test we would give is a simple accounting project that will text their ability to create a new QuickBooks file and make some entries and create a set of books. probably would take 45 to 60 minutes to complete them both..... this is not something we would be using for our firm so it's a mock test and the results go into trash bin. meaning we not asking for free labor Many colleagues said you need to pay them for this time. some say it's not needed to compensate them some say the candidate will just pass on test and move to other firms who don't ask so much from the interview process. please share your thoughts on best ways to find and vet talent . #hiring #cpafirm #interviewing

🤔 Are you tired of traditional hiring methods that only scratch the surface? In the world of financial and accounting recruitment, there's a new approach on the rise: Holistic candidate evaluation 🔍 But what exactly does that mean? How can looking beyond the resume lead to finding the perfect fit for your team? 💼 Our latest article delves deep into this progressive concept, exploring how considering a candidate's skills, personality, work ethic, and cultural alignment can revolutionize your hiring process. 💡 Discover the secrets to building a team that not only meets qualifications but also thrives within your company's unique environment. 🚀 Ready to take your hiring strategy to the next level? Click the link below to unlock the full article and embark on a journey toward holistic recruitment success! 👉 https://ow.ly/kBHK50RcHcy

Level Up Your Interviews: Asking employers powerful questions! Gone are the days of simply answering questions and leaving an interview. Here are some key questions to ask employers during your next interview that can help showcase your proactive nature and help you get a clear picture of the role: 1. Unveiling the Day-to-Day: "What does a typical day look like in this position?" - This helps visualize the role and assess what parts of the job description are actually most of your typical day. You may have the opportunity to share successes you've had in those duties more easily using this question. 2. Highlighting Your Strengths: "Where do you see my strengths being best applied within this role?" - This demonstrates your interest in utilizing your skills and contributing to the team, but it also gives you some insight on how challenging the role would be for you and if the time spent in those tasks fits what you are looking for. (Optional) Project Focus: "What are the most pressing projects that require attention?" - This is another opportunity to talk about your resiliency and ability to see the big picture while accomplishing tasks. You may also get a sense of how much of your time is not under your control. Be sure to ask about completion time expectations and if use of additional resources is expected or allowed. Installing SAP in 3 months? Hmmm. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Beyond the Interview: Prepare Your Success Stories! To truly shine, prepare a list of your achievements to jog your memory and avoid leaving an interview wishing you had discussed one of your key strengths. To do this I suggest organizing your successes into 3 or 4 areas that seem to frequently come up in interviews for the type of role you have. For accounting interviews, I suggest these: (you'll have your own as well) Technology- Showcase/share your successes in using technology to optimize your work and to improve processes in your organization. Subject Matter Mastery: Successes in this list highlight your deep understanding of the role's specific technical aspects. Compliance knowledge, inter-company accounting, GAAP/IFRS, M&A, etc. Solo Superstar: Demonstrate impactful results achieved independently and directly attributable to you alone. Use these to show how you accept responsibility and get results without close supervision. Team Player Triumphs: Emphasize your ability to collaborate and contribute to group success. Be sure to have some of these examples ready to discuss how you work with others. By asking insightful questions and showcasing your achievements through well-structured narratives, you'll have more tools to leave a lasting impression and potentially position yourself as a top candidate! accountingsearch.net

Tuesday Tip: Personality is Key It may come as a surprise that personality plays such a crucial role in the effectiveness of your accounting staff across all aspects of their work. The common misperception is that the accounting group works in a silo and is mostly focused on data. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Beyond crunching numbers and balancing spreadsheets, your accounting team often serves as liaisons between vendors, clients, and colleagues. A bright and engaging personality can foster positive relationships and open lines of communication, essential for successful interactions. When dealing with vendors, a personable demeanor can facilitate negotiations and promote trust, leading to smoother transactions and potentially better deals for the company. Along those same lines, when interacting with clients, a warm and engaging personality can enhance client satisfaction, improve retention rates, and even lead to valuable referrals. Alternatively, negative, curt, or dismissive interactions with your vendors, customers, and teammates can lead to problems that could go unseen or unnoticed for a very long time. The Solution? Avoid making the mistake (that many companies do) and hire from a checklist of skills. While skills are important, underlying characteristics like personality, curiosity, and the ability to connect with others may not make it onto the resume. During my interview process, I take the extra time to understand the professional and to make the best match possible. This also includes checking references; and speaking with managers, peers, and direct reports to deeply understand how the candidate operates day-to-day. If you’re searching for talent to join your accounting or finance team, we should talk about how you screen for the things that don’t appear on the resume.

When I need to file my company accounts, I wouldn't go to 3 Accountants and tell them I'll pay the first one to send back the completed documents. (I've used this analogy before and I'll use it again..!) So why should recruitment be any different? It would mean that... ❌ Two people are not getting paid for the work they do ❌ It's about the result and how quickly you can do it ❌ The focus isn't on quality ❌ It's brand-damaging because it ends up being a rat race. So, does the client end up getting a sub-par service from the agency? Probably, yes. ❌ They don't get the best candidates. ❌ They don't get Mrs Right, they get Mrs Right now (whoever is actively on the market). ❌ They don't fully qualified candidates, because they don't have the time. ❌ Things become slap-dash ❌ Their dedicated time is spent with clients who give them dedicated time. ❌ CV:Job Fill ratios are higher ❌ Candidates end up with a bad experience. The Best Service... Dedicated Time... Quality... Respect... Better Results... Less of Your Time Involvement... If you want all of these then work with one recruiter whom you trust, specialises in your market and comes highly recommended. Sometimes it's about taking a step back and looking at the bigger picture. #RecruitmentDoneRight #Recruitment

A busy period is approaching for those who align their financials with the Tax year-end. We've said it before and we'll say it until the end of time... We're just at the other end of the phone or email if you need some support. 🫶 This time of year can be super stressful and nobody needs to add additional stress to their life. Support usually comes in the form of an additional pair of hands... or three. Drop us an email and we'll start the process by pulling together a list of our best people for the job. Then, we can go from there. 😊 Here’s some reassurance for those sceptics out there. It’s very common for temporary hires to perform and settle into the team so well during their assignments they are offered the permanent position they are covering for. The old two birds, one stone! 🐤🐤🪨 Our temp / interim specialists are both down-to-earth, understanding and more than willing to help - Zoe Jones & Gareth Jenkins 💬 Working interview details: https://lnkd.in/eHsvM5NE #yearend #accountancy #finance #support

Many Accounting & Finance candidates I partner with get nervous and intimidated by possible behavioral based questions they may be asked during an interview. The secret to behavioral based questions is to prepare talking points around 5 to 8 detailed projects or accomplishments ahead of the interview. These are examples where you share specific facts and figures instead of just making general statements. People are impressed and respond more favorably when specific numbers are shared. Using numbers and percentages in your answers makes your accomplishments more relatable and tangible. GENERAL – I was able to reduce G&A expenses year over year. SPECIFIC - I was able to help the company cut G&A expenses 18% from the previous year by putting our insurances out for bid, consolidating our legal expenses from three firms to one, and outsourcing payroll instead of having two full time people dedicated to it. The best preparation technique for preparing for behavioral questions is to use the STAR Method SITUATION/TASK - Describe the situation or problem you were involved with solving. ACTION – What did you specifically do to address the situation and solve the problem. In a group situation, you want to focus your answer on what you did specifically NOT what others in the group did. RESULT – Quantify the results of your actions. What did you achieve and how did it benefit your company? When candidates prepare 5 to 8 examples ahead of an interview, they find they can apply these answers to a variety of different questions that may be asked. Here is a list of some common behavioral based questions: 1. Talk about a time when you had to work closely with someone whose personality was very different from yours. 2. Give me an example of a time you faced a conflict while working on a team. How did you handle that? 3. Tell me about a time you were under a lot of pressure. What was going on, and how did you get through it? 4. Describe a time when your team or company was undergoing some change. How did that impact you, and how did you adapt? 5. Tell me about a time you failed. How did you deal with the situation? Sometimes it’s just not possible to get everything on your to-do list done. 6. Tell me about a time your responsibilities got a little overwhelming. What did you do? 7. Tell me about a time you set a goal for yourself. How did you go about ensuring that you would meet your objective? 8. Tell me about your proudest professional accomplishment. #CarolinaPRG #Hiring #Jobsearch #Accounting #Recruitment #CharlotteJobSearch #Interviews #BehavioralInterview #Big4

𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐡 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐬 - 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐣𝐨𝐛 𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 (𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐚 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐭-𝐨𝐮𝐭)! 🔫 🔫 The once-peaceful town of the Perth accounting recruitment market is showing signs of becoming the wild-west. Although competitive, the process from Perth's various recruitment consultancies over recent years has been targeted, organised and professional. Lately, though, a few accounting firms seem to be getting the same candidates from multiple recruiters. 𝐀𝐬 𝐚 𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞, 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐰𝐨 𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬; 🤠 It creates confusion regarding representation which can lead to the organisation deciding not to progress with your application (to avoid the hassle) 🤠 It suggests you have a lack of control over your job search 🤠 It can make a recruiter who is representing you the "right way" start to having concerns over approaching other clients in case you've already been presented 𝐈𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐡𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐯𝐨𝐢𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐲 𝐛𝐲 𝐞𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫; 🤠 Partnering with only one trusted recruitment consultant 🤠 Or if working with multiple - Request full transparency about where they're sending your CV (ideally confirmation over email) - If then you find out your CV has been sent somewhere without permission; ▪ Stop working with that recruiter ▪ Refuse representation to that firm/role 𝐁𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐟𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐜𝐡; -You maintain control over your job search -You know exactly which firms have your CV -Your job search becomes more effective So, there you go, take control, avoid the shoot-out, and ultimately increase your chances of finding the best role for you!

FREE WEBINAR - April 19th, 2024 10-11:30am PDT So You Want to Be the Boss…Hiring your first employee. It's a major milestone, an investment and a risk all wrapped up in one! The key to a successful, snag-free hiring process requires understanding of the legalities, as well as a tried-and-true action plan. In this workshop, SCORE and ComplyRight provide step-by-step guidance on: -What to consider before you hire -How to develop an efficient hiring process -The do's and don’ts of recruiting -Tips on screening and interviewing -Mandatory record keeping and tax reporting with new hires Presenter: Polina Kremsl Sign Up Here: https://lnkd.in/gpdcuDdY

Almost all finance and accounting recruitment firms make some claim to being able to find the “right fit” for their clients. However, as much as every placement agency advertises their mystical ability to find the “right fit” for their clients, what they don’t advertise is that their business models often preclude them from utilizing the single biggest determinant in finding the right fit. Contingency fee recruiters are incented to place the people they currently know and although they will usually make some effort to source additional candidates, their business model favours expediency over thoroughness. Experience, market knowledge, technical expertise, proper interviewing technique and all the rest certainly play a role in determining the best fit CFO. However, before any of those factors come into play, the single biggest factor in finding the “right fit” for one’s clients is having enough good fits to choose from. I’ve found in my thirty years of recruiting experience that one in six gainfully employed CFOs are willing to seriously consider another opportunity. In order to get a decent number of candidates to interview I need to contact at least 100 CFOs who I think fit my client’s preferred candidate profile. So, after I contact those 100 potential candidates, I’ll end up with about 15 people who’ll be interested in talking about making a career change. Right off the hop, I’ll rule out five of those people for various reasons – location, spotty resume, personality not a fit etc. Then we’ll do a first pass interview with the 10 remaining potential candidates where we screen for technical expertise, relevant industry experience, management style and so forth. Out of those 10 interviews, we’ll probably decide that six candidates are generally a good fit and should be interviewed again. This time we’re mapping back specifically for all the points on the client’s preferred candidate profile. If we’re lucky, we’ll find that four of the six are a very good fit and that will comprise our short list. And the only reason we have four candidates that are a good fit is that we started with a long list of 100 potential candidates. Everyone recruiter pays homage to the notion of the “right fit”, but in practice, most placement agencies settle for the “good enough” fit or the “this is what I’ve got” fit. Since they work on a contingency fee model, it just doesn’t make economic sense for them to invest the time and effort to generate enough good fits so their client can hire the right fit. If you’re really serious about finding the right fit, make sure that you’re working with a firm that has a business model that incents them to do the legwork and work the numbers that will actually produce the right fit. And generally speaking, no firm that works on a contingency fee basis has the incentive to go that extra mile. #business #CFO #recruitment