The central bank has forecast the unemployment rate to drop to 4.9% in 2019 and multinational job search company, indeed.com, recently published the job title ‘Accountant’ is one of the top three vacancies on its Irish site. This means companies looking to hire candidates into accounting roles must compete aggressively to attract the right talent. How can an employer position themselves best?
1. Own your social media identity and ensure alignment with company values
A Huffington Post article mentions the importance of using social media interfaces to clearly communicate a corporate brand. “While social media is obviously a great avenue for finding the top talent you need, it is also an equally useful means for establishing, maintaining, and promoting a company's brand identity" These obvious benefits cannot be overlooked. Most candidates look online as their initial research. Ensure your website and social media presence is aligned, up-to-date and represents the company values. Establish a presence on Glassdoor.ie, manage the responses to comments made and have a process for investigating and acting on feedback.
2. Network – meet your target candidates where they are
Beyond social presence, where are the candidates you are targeting physically? What events do they go to, what associations are they part of? Ensuring you have an internal recruiter in attendance to network with potential candidates and have an informal conversation, is both efficient and effective – giving you a sense of them and a chance to promote the company in-person, puts a face to the brand.
3. Variety of work
When advertising a role think beyond the work that needs to be done, what other options exist within the organisation that might be attractive to candidates? A recent survey of more than 14,000 students from gradireland.com showed that companies offering chances to work, and travel abroad are attractive to graduates, along with graduate recruitment programmes that offer rotational placements (which allows candidates to get a taste of different divisions within the firm).
4. Partner with specialised recruiters
For smaller organisations that do not have a recruitment team, outsource the work of attracting the right talent to a company that does this all the time. Building a relationship with a recruiter who is specialised in the financial services/ accounting space will give you direct access to a database of candidates like ones you are looking for and once you have briefed them on the company values/ fit, they can sell and promote your company to the target market. This approach saves time and has improved outcomes for organisations that do not have the resources to hire directly.