You have meticulously gone over your budget and calculated the costs of a new employee. The time is right, and you are ready to bring a new CPA aboard. This is an important step that should be taken seriously as the consequences of hiring the wrongemployee can be devastating to your business. Formulating a clear and concise plan throughout the hiring process can potentially save you thousands not to mention the headaches that come with replacing a bad hire. So what are some steps to consider when hiring a new employee?
Make the Job Description Clear
Although it sounds like common sense, it is important to have a clearly defined job description that lays out exactly the spot you are trying to fill in your business. Try to avoid generic terms like “management”, “accountant” or “bookkeeper”. Instead try to be as specific as possible and sit down and actually write out a job description for the position. List the tasks and duties which they will be for responsible for, as well as who they will report to or be in charge of. If this is not clear, it can create problems down the road when employees make assumptions of their job duties and are not given clear details.
Clear Plans for the Future
Sit down and write out how the new position is going to affect your business not only now but in the future. Does this person align with your business goals moving forward? It is important that the new hire be clearly informed of how they fit into your workplace environment and how they will benefit the company in the future. This shows a sense of commitment to the new hire as well as defining a clear path for them to take for future growth within your company.
Find the Right Person
How do you find the right person? At Fusion CXO and Fusion CPA we start out by having each applicant fill out a Candidate Assessment. Our CPA candidates also take our proprietary Tax Aptitude Test. This gives us an idea of the applicant’s career goals that cannot always be captured in a traditional resume, as well as how they would respond to a real work scenario. We have found that if a candidate for a position does not have time or simply does not fill out the assessment, they are not committed to a career move and it is a waste of time for everyone involved. I would say that this generally weeds out about 40% of the applicants we interview. Think about it—if you can’t trust this person to fill out an assessment about themselves, how can you trust them to help your business grow or with sensitive client information?
Next, and this is an important step, you will want to reference check all of the applicants that meet your screening criteria. Contact these references by phone and ask them in detail about the applicant. This is simply another step in vetting the candidate and you will be able to easily tell based on their past performance if this is the right hire.
The last step is bring the candidate in for an interview. Prior to this step, the ball has been in the applicant’s court as they have done most of the work for you and the weeding out process has made significant progress. During the interview process be proactive and ask very detailed questions to find out more about your applicants. It is usually helpful to have the applicant meet some of your team to make sure all of the personalities will mesh on a day to day basis. Also, be sure to avoid interview questions that could potentially cause a legal nightmare. Once you have had your interviews, it is time to hire a new employee and begin the Offer Negotiation, which we will discuss in a future blog.
Hiring a new employee is very important for your business. This is a big decision that will have an impact on your future plans and goals for the business. It does not need to be overwhelming. If you stick to our plan as detailed above, you should see your hiring success rate soar and your turnover rate plummet. Please Contact Us with any questions.
We would to hear your hiring stories or other helpful ideas you have come across in your hiring process. Please leave us a comment below.
Patrick O’Halloran is the Director of Recruiting at Fusion CXO. Please contact him at po@fusioncxo or 404-477-3799 with any questions or comments.