Submit a vacancy
A mind to the future: How to plan your recruitment incentives for 2021
employer advice, recruitment, recruitment strategy...
2020 has been undoubtedly challenging for many, if not all, businesses. The year was ushered in against a backdrop of economic uncertainty due to stalling Brexit negotiations, and then a global pandemic struck, the magnitude of which was previously unseen by most living generations.
Against this, businesses have had to adapt existing forecasts and strategies, including recruitment strategy and growth plans. As we move towards 2021, recruitment strategies must reflect on and incorporate the changing landscape, which includes uncertainty but also an increasingly digital world.
3 steps to building a solid Finance and Accounting recruitment strategy:
Consider your requirements for the year ahead
Uncertainty demands adaptability and agility from businesses, so a key part of any recruitment strategy for 2021 must include diversification of skills within the business, greater technical skills and flexibility when it comes to hiring.
Staff development should be a key area within the business, to maximise skill sets already available within the business but also to increase multi or even cross-departmental skills among employees, where possible. Continual ongoing training and development should be offered, such as mentoring schemes and access to relevant courses, especially those focusing on tech. You may want to consider training in areas outside a specific remit so staff can adapt to changing business needs.
Employees should be happy to receive training in either hard or soft skills not directly within their remit; this will be easiest to achieve if your staff are engaged with your business and happy at work.
Diversification of skills is also key; a trend for recruitment in 2021 is likely to include not simply diversity in terms of race, religion, background and gender but also aiming for a broad spectrum of neurotypical and atypical staff. Diversity in this, as well as the aforementioned characteristics, is not merely a tick-boxing exercise but means diversification of ways of thinking and also perspectives, which can result in greater creativity and the ability to think beyond traditional solutions.
A flexible approach to hiring will be valuable as key business areas and their needs may shift over time, dependent on external factors. Bringing in specialist help on an interim basis is a way of alleviating pressure to fulfil specific roles in a period where the skills required may change over time, again according to factors both within and outside the business.
Consider if flexible working patterns may help both attract staff and also allow flexibility for potentially changing business needs.
Examine your current recruitment resources
Once you have mapped your recruitment strategy consider what you have in place to support your Finance and Accounting recruitment for 2021.
Do you have the right HR support?
Allocated budgets?
IT support?
Seek to address any gaps and gain the support of key functions within the business. Increasing digitisation will be key for all aspects of business, including recruitment, so encourage investment in recruitment technology that will mean less time and money spent on hiring.
If there are gaps in support consider engaging a specialist recruiter who will be able to help, through their market and industry knowledge and access to high quality candidates.
For both existing and onboarding staff a positive company culture is essential; make sure you go in to 2021 as healthy and robustly as possible. A positive culture may include: perks such as bonuses or extra holiday days, flexibility of work style and patterns, team bonding days and so on.
Make adjustments
There are a number of candidates available on the market at the moment, but this doesn’t automatically make for great hires. If you are failing to attract the right candidates for interview stage, consider what you are doing to attract them in the first place.
Often this will mean reassessing your job adverts. Are they too long? Dry? Too short and therefore generic? Are they optimised for the right keywords and titles that candidates search for?
When writing adverts make sure you:
Are concise
Sell the role
Sell the company
Include any perks of your business for potential employees: what makes you different as an employer?
Do not discriminate with unintentional gender or age bias
Use specific titles and keywords for what candidates are searching for – avoid kitschy titles like guru or wizard or even internal titles that may not resonate outside of the company
Again, engaging a specialist recruiter can help you with this.
At Edward Mann we can help you shape an effective and inclusive recruitment strategy and fully utilise social media to its full effect. Through our database and deep networks we are able to source high-calibre temporary, interim or permanent candidates from diverse backgrounds to suit the specific needs of your business and create an inclusive workplace. We also have the expertise to advise you on how best to leverage AI to create an inclusive hiring process.
Find out how we can help