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Make Your Business Stand Out To Job Candidates
Three Simple steps to getting your job offers accepted ahead of your competitors.
As the old but accurate saying goes; “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.”
When an accountant contacts your business to enquire about the job vacancy you’re advertising, how will that first impression of your place compare to the dozens of other accounting firms advertising similar jobs with similar pay, similar job-content and similar career prospects?
Towering over your competitors in presenting your firm as a much more attractive place to work even though almost everything about the vacant job is largely the same as every other vacancy is something you can achieve for zero cost with these three simple steps:
1. Personalize the experience
The hiring process is getting ever-more automated through AI screening and interviews, even in smaller firms.
The first impression candidates get of an accounting firm is increasingly an auto response to submitting their resume/CV, followed by another auto response either rejecting their application or directing them to an AI screening interview. They might get to talk to a real life human being on their third interaction and whilst this trend continues to gather pace, the feedback from candidates of all ages is that they do not like it.
Unless you are running large-scale hiring campaigns and simply don’t have the capacity to respond to huge volumes of accountants wanting to work at your firm, why go down the AI hiring route when you could stand head and shoulders above your competitors by simply being human?
Here’s the key people to get onside to make the best first impressions that stick with people when they are weighing up which job offer to accept:
2. Receptionists
How your website looks and how well written your job ad is are of course first impressions, but the first person in your firm a prospective candidate talks to is likely to be the one who takes the inbound calls.
How difficult would it be to ensure your reception staff know about the vacancy you’re advertising and who is handling enquiries about that vacancy?
What if you put a unique contact number in the job advertisement so you’re reception staff know it’s almost certainly a prospective candidate calling? What if you gave your reception staff a brief introduction script so that every call was answered in a way that created a great first impression?
How would that compare you to all the accounting job ads with no contact number and an auto-reply on receipt of an application?
Zero cost – big difference.
3. Who can champion your business?
Imagine your reception staff have just created that fantastic first impression by welcoming a candidate’s call and being aware of your businesses vacancy enough to answer initial questions.
What could you do next to keep that first impression on a high note?
What if you picked a few of your team to act as champions for your firm by being able to talk about not only the job, but what it’s like to work there, including a bit about their personal journey that led to the job they have now?
Picking a few staff is important as it means you can have someone available to cover each day and especially lunchtime breaks when candidates are most likely to call.
Pick people who are doing similar jobs to the vacant role and can talk far more knowledgeably than the non-accountant HR person.
Again, zero cost – big difference.
There you have it. Three simple steps to put you ahead of your competitors at zero cost.
If you’d like to find out more about sharpening up your hiring and onboarding practice, download our comprehensive Hire Fast with Confidence Guide.
Steve Evans | Steve founded Accountests alongside a career using his expertise in candidate testing and assessment to support employers to attract, recruit, and develop talent.
