Attracting, Recruiting and Retaining High-Performing Workers

“The Great Resignation” is a hot term right now and we are all feeling its heat. American business owners, including accountants, bookkeepers and tax preparers, are dealing with an unprecedented shortage of workers. This shortage has business owners re-evaluating how they service their customers or making painful decisions to close their doors.

Since the spring of 2021, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports nearly 47 million Americans have quit their job. The Bureau of Labor Statistics also reported on February 1, 2022, that in November 2021 alone, a record 4.5 million workers voluntarily left the workforce.

These unprecedented changes in staffing are leaving accountants and bookkeepers feeling overworked, understaffed, and worried about losing existing employees. Not to mention, as advisors to their small business clients, accounting professionals may be stressed about how to coach their clients through “the Great Resignation.”

What can be done to combat the shortage of employees? Here at Woodard, we hear your concerns about attracting, recruiting and retaining high-performing workers and we've put together competitive strategies for you (and that can be shared with your clients) that will help you.

In this article, we provide an overview of some of the best methods to:

Locate and recruit high-quality workers
Develop virtualization models that widen your recruitment pool and foster employee retention
Build a culture that empowers teams and reduces employee turnover.

In addition, Joe Woodard will be presenting a new, online training event that focuses on “Battling the Staffing Crisis: Attracting, Recruiting and Retaining High Performing Workers” on March 15th and 17th. During this hour-long training event, Joe will delve deep into the staffing crisis we all face as well as strategies the strategies above and much more. At Woodard, we want to help guide you through this uncharted territory with a solid plan of action. You can register for this free training event here.

How to locate and recruit high-quality workers

When it comes to recruiting high-quality workers, employers must make sure they are offering what workers want and communicating that during recruitment.

In a recent article by Roy Maurer, employees want more from their employers than ever before. In addition to competitive pay and benefits, employees are looking for flexibility and work-life balance.

The shutdowns we experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic allowed people to reset and re-evaluate what really matters to them. Workers who experienced toxic work environments simply decided they no longer wanted to continue in that environment and instead re-entered the job market.

As an employer, are you using best practices for team building? Are you creating a work environment that invites employees to join you and stay with you for the long run?

One of the best ways to locate and recruit high-quality workers is to widen your recruitment pool. Offering virtual (remote) work options allows you to recruit the best of the best regardless of their location.

How to develop virtualization models

Virtualization gives employees the freedom to balance work and life without being tied down to a physical office. At Woodard, we made the decision to go completely virtual initially as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As a result of being completely virtual, my family was able to decide to uproot our life in Georgia and relocate to Montana without any worries about how the bills would get paid. I was able to keep meetings during the move and keep up with my desk without any issues. As a wife and a working mom, the ability to take my laptop with me to wrestling events or geography bees allows me to be present for my son, but also stay on top of my desk. In a lot of ways, virtualization allows me to work harder but still be there for my family.

The most important step in creating a virtual workplace is to move fully to the cloud. Adoption of the Microsoft 365 suite of products means that Woodard is 100% cloud-based. We have cloud-based tools for collaboration, file storage, telephony and easy access anytime from our computers or mobile devices.

Having a fully cloud-based practice means that all information and data is accessible by your full team. If you think you've checked this box, find out for sure by using this method to assess your practice.

The next step for a virtual workplace is to have full visibility into your team's workload. At Woodard, we use tools like HubSpot and Teamwork to manage tasks and projects. For example, as the Conference Producer for our annual Scaling New Heights conference, I can log in from anywhere to Teamwork to see the progress made on conference production by our entire team.

These tools could work for you or you may opt to use a practice management solution. If you have not yet adopted one, here are tips on evaluating practice management software.

How to build a culture that empowers teams and reduces employee turnover.

Building a strong company culture is vital in retaining employees. How do you define and create company culture? The first step is simply to ask your team what matters to them. A Kellogg MBA professor says that "people analytics" allows employers to intentionally measure employee empowerment and engagement to deliver the workplaces, cultures, benefits, and procedures their employees want.

Building the desired company culture for remote teams can be more difficult. At Woodard, we have daily meetings to check in with each other and collaborate on what we are doing for the day. These meetings allow us to come together, build team comradery, and know what each other has planned for the day.

As a company that loves Microsoft, we use Teams as our collaboration hub and keep a channel dedicated to the “water cooler” where we can share non-work things with each other. Since we are not in an office together, it is a way for us to know each other on a more personal level.

During our move, I would post pictures of my family as we stopped at various locations along the way. Our “water cooler” has seen everything from road trip pictures to baby announcements and trophy and medal pictures (and the occasional funny meme). Just because the memories and stories cannot be shared face to face, doesn’t mean they still cannot be shared across the entire team.

Will the struggle to find and retain high-performing workers end?

While it is thought that “the Great Resignation” will begin to lose its steam later this year, finding and retaining high-performing workers is something that employers will be battling for years to come. Whether you are looking to make your first hire, continuing to build a team or coaching a client through their staffing decisions, make sure you and your clients are ready to tackle the staffing crisis head-on by implementing ways to attract, hire and retain high performing workers.

For more ways strategies, join Joe Woodard as he presents the new, online training event that focuses on “Battling the Staffing Crisis: Attracting, Recruiting and Retaining High Performing Workers.” The training event will be held on March 15th and 17th at 1 pm Eastern.