In today’s world, loyalty seems to be an outdated concept. Decades ago, people considered it a good idea to build a career with one employer. But times have changed, and many employees, especially those in their 20s and 30s, don’t think that way. They consider loyalty to an employer to be a liability.

Loyal employees are usually satisfied, productive employees. And loyalty reduces turnover rates while building a culture of stability. If you want to encourage loyalty, the bottom line is, it’s all about you. Here’s what you can do to create a loyal staff:

• Prove you have what it takes to get the job done.
  If your staff sees you demonstrating a high level of competence on the job, they’ll respect you—a major step toward building loyalty.
• Demonstrate integrity in your actions and beliefs.
  You have to be honest and trustworthy, especially in difficult situations where it would be easier to blame someone else or deny involvement. When false blame or denial occurs, employees quickly lose respect for their leader, and loyalty decreases.
• Behave consistently with your staff.
  Show them that you’re reliable and predictable, and that you use good judgment. Your employees need to know they can rely on you and your judgment.
• Be as open with your employees as possible.
  Do you share information and ideas with your employees? Or do you withhold key data? Clearly, there is some information that needs to be withheld due to its sensitive nature. But the manager who openly shares appropriate information that enables their employees to work productively and efficiently will build loyalty.
• Listen to staff concerns
  —about working conditions, working hours, deadlines and other matters. You may not be able to resolve them all, but you still need to listen to what they are telling you, and then follow up. They will be more loyal if they think they’re being heard.
• Be committed to staff development.
  Your employees need training to maintain their skills. Make sure your staff receives regular training — and when they’re participating in a training session, respect that time.
• Encourage, don’t criticize.
  You always want your staff to do more, produce more, finish the project earlier — and for less cost. If there’s a gap between where they are and where you want them to be, and you criticize them, you’ll create resentment. Instead, make sure the goals are clear and encourage them to find ways to reach them.
• When giving correction, do so privately.
  If someone makes a mistake, talk to them about it behind closed doors. When doing so, focus on the issue, not the person, and on the actions that caused the problem. Try to help your employee learn from the situation so that the same issue doesn’t occur again.

By encouraging loyalty among your staff, you’ll protect the integrity of your department. Want to know more about employee retention? Contact The A&F Group today.

From Accounting 101: Foundations & Fundamentals to Accounting 402: Audits and Control, you’ve been through the coursework.  You’ve spent countless nights cramming for mid-terms.  You passed the CPA exam and are finally a registered licensed CPA.

It’s finally time to put down the books and relax, right?  Wrong!

Whether you like it or not (hopefully you like it!), you’re in a field that requires continual learning and recertification.

Continuing Education Requirements for CPAs

CPAs are required to take continuing education courses in order to renew their license.  The requirements vary by state but the majority of states require 120 hours of Continuing Professional Education (CPE) every three years with a minimum of 20 hours per calendar year.  As part of the CPE requirement, most states also require their CPAs to take an ethics course during every renewal period. Ethics requirements vary by state but the courses range from 2–8 hours.

So what are your options for CPA CPE credits?

Luckily, you can fulfill these credits in a lot of different ways.  We suggest trying different formats to determine what fits your learning style (and lifestyle) best.  Here are a few suggestions on where to start:

1. Head back to your roots.
   If you still live near the university you graduated from, start there.  Talk to the schoolto determine what type of CPE opportunities are available.  This option is great for people who thrive in a classroom environment.
2. Home-school yourself.
   There are some tremendous self-study textbooks available.  These allow you to work at your own pace, on your own schedule.  These require an exam at the end, so study up!  One key is to not stretch the lessons out too long and ensure the material you’ve studied is fresh in your mind.  This option is great for busy individuals and self-learners.
3. Hit the Internet.
   Online programs offer a wealth of different options and unique coursework.  A quick Google search for “Online CPE Courses” yields over 1,500,000 results, so your options are nearly limitless.  When choosing an online course, we suggest confirming the credits are accepted through your state’s licensing board, and also looking at reviews and recommendations from other CPAs.  Online courses are great for accountants that like a bit of structure but still enjoy a flexible schedule.
4. Go on vacation.
   Who says you can’t mix business and pleasure?  There are a variety of different CPE organizations that hold resort conferences offering CPE credits.  You spend your mornings in a collaborative learning environment, and then spend your afternoons and evenings:
   - Golfing
   - White water-rafting
   - Wine-tasting
   - Taking in a Vegas show
   - Going on a romantic dinner cruise
   - Taking the kids to Disney
   - Enjoying a Hawaiian luaus

You name it, and there is probably a resort conference that will meet your CPE and vacation needs!  And this option is great for accountants with families, so you can spend quality time and tackle those CPE requirements in one shot.

Are you a continual learner? If so, we’d love to have you join our team!
At The A&F Group, we help match talented accounting and finance professionals with outstanding financial jobs throughout the country.  If you’re passionate about your profession, and are interested in hearing about new opportunities, please connect with us today! 

Growth is a basic step in cooking up a recipe for business success. Once a company sees its brand awareness explode, sales goes up, revenue increases and an expansion of facilities and staff becomes necessary.

Strategic staffing can help a rapidly expanding company maintain control over finances while enjoying its growing success. By focusing your staffing on filling specific needs instead of simply placing warm bodies in office chairs, strategic staffing is a cost-effective way of determining how to increase personnel levels in anticipation of growth demanding a larger staff.

Make a Plan

Staffing on a strategic level starts with deciding what human resources are required to meet short-term and long-term goals. This involves creating a plan that outlines how many positions will need to be created over a certain period of time, what skills and qualifications each position will require and how each position will fit into the company’s organizational framework.

A strategic staffing plan should include a thorough analysis of past employment trends balanced against anticipated needs. You need to accurately forecast the frequency and duration of peak times for projected workloads. For an accounting firm, a peak time could occur in the weeks leading up to filing tax returns. Then, it is important to take steps to fill needs that will arise based on past trends and projected growth.

Focus on Needs

Comparing anticipated staffing demands to available resources works to pinpoint exactly what your company’s needs will be in the future. Strategic staffing plans can help a company train existing employees and bring in skilled and qualified new employees that will meet those needs.

The first step begins with examining current staff. Do they have the qualifications and skills needed to help the company manage its growth? Are they in further need of training? How will current employees respond to an increased workload? Are there too few employees in areas critical to future expansion? Finding the answers can tell you exactly what needs your company must fill to fashion a prosperous future.

Creating a flexible staffing plan will position your company to greet growth with enthusiasm instead of stress. It offers a chance to upgrade your workforce and streamline operations while you are in a position to do it without pain.

A&F can help with strategic staffing.

Need help putting together your strategic staffing plans? Contact The A&F Group today!

Social media makes recruiting a whole lot easier and better. More than 80% of companies used social media for hiring purposes in 2010, and LinkedIn is the network du jour for most of them. Why? Reviewing an individual’s profile on LinkedIn provides you an easy-to-find, fast, low-cost alternative to wading through resumes.

Referrals

Referrals are still a top source of talent, and LinkedIn is a collection of referrals waiting to happen.  Ask your Connections if they can recommend anyone for a certain position. They don’t have to remember every detail about a good worker to recommend them.  They can easily index their contacts and then pass them along to you.

This is also a double-edged sword.   A LinkedIn connection doesn’t necessarily represent a real, deep relationship.  You’ll likely have to spend a little more time talking with the referrer on these, but don’t let that scare you away.  If someone you trust is willing to put their faith in someone they refer, then you’re probably in pretty good shape.

Apply with LinkedIn

The “Apply with LinkedIn” button can send you direct applicants in an easy-to-read format.  The standardized pseudo-resume style that LinkedIn applications provide makes applications very easy to sort through quickly.  Even if you received a resume through some other means, you can cross-reference that with someone’s LinkedIn profile and compare candidates with one another very easily.

The Downside

Though there are ways to directly search for profiles on LinkedIn, unless you pay their fees (up to $500/month!), their search is relatively useless if you don’t know the name of the person you want to find.  Directly doing broad talent research isn’t easy for most people to do, so you might want to leave that to the pros.

Like any other piece of technology, LinkedIn is a tool.  Use it well and it can make your life much easier.

Stay connected with A&F

The A&F Group can help your company navigate social media and use it to find qualified candidates. Contact us today for advice on how to build your social media presence.

It can be a common scenario: A candidate wows the hiring committee during an important job interview. Their resume boasts impeccable skills and qualifications and they appear to be a perfect fit for the position. But skills on paper (and a great interview) don’t always equal a model employee.

Whether a new hire isn’t as strong as their resume indicated, or they are simply a bad fit for the organizational culture, there comes a point when you may need to cut ties. Here are a few tell-tale signs you may want to look for:

A rejection of teamwork

Some employees just do not work well with others. They want to be in charge and make all of the important decisions. Such an attitude can be dangerous for a new employee. If left unchecked, it can foster a negative attitude among other employees who work with them directly. It can also bring down productivity as results give way to arguments.

Fixation on past employers

There is nothing wrong with an employee wanting to share ideas and experience obtained from working with other companies. It does become a problem, however, when their fixation on how a past employer did things renders them unwilling to accept how their current employer does things. A new employee who constantly reminds their new supervisors and co-workers of how things were done at their old workplace will wear out their welcome in a hurry.

Failure to meet expectations

Nothing is more frustrating than hiring an employee to fill a certain role, only to discover they embellished their abilities. A dip in production can occur initially as a new employee settles into their new job and learns their new duties. If their results continue to lag behind expectations after an initial transitional period, it could mean that they were in over their head from the beginning.

Shows a negative attitude

Nearly every person in the workforce has worked in a job they didn’t like. It becomes a problem when negative emotions associated with one job spill over into the next one. A new employee who regularly complains about former jobs probably will not have the right attitude to function effectively at a new job. It will be only a matter of time before they also start complaining about their current situation.

Chronic attendance issues

It stands to reason that a new employee who starts showing up late or taking time off within their first few weeks on the job will make a habit of it as time goes on. An employee who looks to avoid being at the office is not fully invested in their job or in your company. Their productivity could reflect this mindset.

Make the right hire with A&F

The A&F Group can help your company make the right hire right out of the gate. Our accounting and finance recruiters work with a pool of highly qualified candidates who are carefully screened in advance to ensure they fit your company’s needs.

A well-crafted cover letter can help you stand out from the pack, or doom your chances of getting hired. While your resume outlines why you can do the job and why a certain company should hire you, your cover letter may determine if the potential employer will even read your resume.

In today’s competitive job market, you need to put as much time (if not more) in crafting your cover letter as you do polishing your resume.  Generic cover letters do not make you stand out from the crowd of applicants—so it needs to be tailored to each specific position in the same way a resume is tailored to that position.

Here are a few keys to crafting an effective accounting or finance cover letter:

Research the company:

Do your homework on the specific job opening and the company offering that job. You can do this by exploring the company’s website, reading about them in industry publications or consulting with people in your professional network who have worked for them or done business with them. Learn everything you can about the company, from their history to their operations. Then apply this knowledge into your cover letter and show how you can fit into that picture.

Highlight relevant experience:

A cover letter should focus on elements of your educational and employment background that directly relate to the job at hand. If you are applying for a nonprofit accounting job, for example, you could highlight experience you’ve had in working with grants and donations. Cover letters give you a chance to frame skills and qualifications on your resume and show a hiring manager how you will contribute to their company.

Be accurate:

Accuracy with facts and numbers is valued in the industry and should be valued on a cover letter too. Make an effort to make sure each skill or qualification referenced is accurate before sending. Embellishing these things will not help your cause. Stick to what you know. Don’t pretend to know something else.

Looking for help? The A&F Group can help.

The career experts at The A&F Group offer a wealth of advice on what to do for a more effective job search. From building a winning resume to writing an effective cover letter, we’ll work with you to boost your chances of landing your next financial or accounting position.

Nothing creates disruption for a business like employee turnover.  On average, it costs $30,000 to hire and train a new employee. Employee retention is becoming more and more challenging in the modern corporate environment. An increasing number of employees are choosing to change jobs every few years instead of spending an entire career with a single company.

Surviving in this transitory environment can be tough for any business unprepared to deal with it. Turnover costs can multiply over time. Average costs for replacing a departing employee can equal 1/3 of the annual salary for a newly hired employee. Continued high employee turnover rates will eventually cause a negative impact on a company’s bottom line.

Businesses can fight back against this trend. Adopting the strategies noted below can help to eliminate turnover and help a company turn into a career destination rather than a stepping stone:

Make Good Hiring Decisions
Nothing is as expensive as hiring the wrong candidate. Many organizations become so focused on filling the position that they rush into making a hiring decision. Effectively screening job candidates during the hiring process can reduce employee turnover rates in a hurry. Learning if an applicant has a right mix of skills, experience, personality and character up front can prevent a host of problems from developing down the road.

A company can look at how well they will potentially fit within the organization by examining several factors. What are their long-term career goals? Based on past experience, do they possess a capacity to learn and grow within a specific role? Are they motivated enough to meet daily goals and deadlines? The answers may shed some light onto their future performance if hired.

Hiring an employee who is a good match with a company’s core values, principles and goals increases the chances that same employee will stay and further their career with that company.

Offer Training and Career Development
Employees need to feel like they have a realistic opportunity to advance their careers. If this is not the case, they will be more inclined to see if the grass is greener elsewhere. Offering avenues for career development is a common-sense move if a company wants to retain more employees.

Provide ample opportunities for training long after an employee has been hired. Set goals and increase their involvement through engaging them in multiple tasks and allowing them to take on multiple roles. Reward good performance with opportunities for progression and promotion. Obtain a sense of what goals employees want to achieve within your company and help them meet those milestones.

Craft a Competitive Compensation Package

Taking a creative approach to offering financial compensation and benefits accomplishes two objectives. It shows that a company cares about the individual needs and welfare of their employees. It also demonstrates a willingness to remain competitive to industry standards with compensation packages that are offered.

Turnover rates within a company can be directly connected to employee compensation packages. Being fair and consistent in compensation is important, but employers can still work within that framework to tailor a package to better fit the needs of individual employees.

Offer generous benefits whenever possible. Employees value things such as comprehensive health insurance, a flexible work schedule and long-term incentives. A company who goes an extra mile or two to offer competitive salaries and benefits will retain a greater number of employees and could reduce costs down the road.

A&F Group Can Help Reduce Employee Turnover

Turn to A&F Group for assistance in finding employees who are good long-term fits for your business. We can help your business screen applicants to find candidates who possess the greatest potential to develop within your company. We can also work with you by offering tips and suggestions on developing your employees to their full potential.

Hiring Generation Y workers is a whole different animal compared to the type of employees who might have staffed your company’s offices in the past. This is a generation of employees who are used to getting things their own way. They do not fit the traditional employee mold. Generation Y employees demand respect, want flexibility, and desire to reap immediate benefits from their contributions.

Motivating Generation Y talent and molding them into productive employees starts by creating an appealing work environment. Employers can retain a younger staff and turn them into a force for the company by implementing these suggestions for molding the work environment to fit Generation Y needs and expectations:

1. Show Positive Leadership
   A good manager or executive knows which buttons to push to keep their employees happy and productive. Strong leadership requires introducing positive feedback instead of simply offering criticism. It involves mentoring new employees to help mold them into a valued contributor to the company’s success. Value their decision-making by giving them responsibilities. Offer honest and thorough feedback that allows them to grow and flourish in their designated role.
2. Establish Healthy Communication
   Employees need to see their contributions make a difference in the direction a company takes and in its bottom line. Motivate Generation Y talent by giving them a voice to express their ideas and offer input. A company thrives at the highest level when everyone is given a voice. Such an environment fosters innovative ideas and creative solutions. Employees who are involved in making things happen will be more motivated to take an active role.
3. Incorporate Flexibility
   The best companies make life easier for their employees. Generation Y may demand job flexibility. Companies can engage these employees by equipping them with the latest high-tech gadgets that let them do their job in the fastest and most efficient way possible. It can also mean accommodating their desire for a work-life balance by permitting flexible hours in the office and the ability to do some work from home. A company who offers flexibility can hold onto young talent much easier than competitors who are rigid in their thinking.
4. Offer Development Opportunities
   Employees need to be rewarded for good job performance. Craft a career development plan within your company that is tailored to their individual needs. Offer incentives that correspond with reaching specific milestones. An employee needs evidence that working hard has the potential for increased pay and a higher position down the road. Help Generation Y employees to realize their full potential so they can be worthy of a promotion.
5. Express Individuality
   Generation Y workers do not want to be another anonymous face in a non-descript cubicle. They want to make a difference and feel like their contributions matter. Let them forge an individual identity. Give them ownership over assigned tasks and leave it up to them to discover the best solution. Challenge them to use their creativity to solve problems. Reward them when they show success. An employee in this situation feels empowered and relishes coming to work each day.

Get Motivational Help From The Professionals!
A&F Group understands the changing dynamics of today’s workplace. Our team can work with your accounting or finance firm to match you with the Generation Y workers who will make the biggest difference in contributing to your company’s success. Get in touch with us to recruit the best young talent available.

Does thinking about the upcoming tax season make you a regular investment holder in Tums? If it does, you can help your plight by investing in highly-skilled personnel to alleviate the inevitable burden tax season brings, instead of investing in antacids.

You can eliminate tax season burdens by hiring highly trained and knowledgeable professionals on contract or full-time. Most likely your staff is working at its full potential already—and during tax season, above and beyond. This is a recipe for costly mistakes, which can be avoided by hiring additional temporary personnel such as:

• Tax Accountants.  A highly skilled and experienced tax accountant can provide services that your existing personnel may not be able to. Tax accountants specialize in tax advice, tax liability, and tax returns. They double as advisors on tax efficient business decisions.
• Sales Accountants. These are accountants that specialize in establishing an accurate picture of your businesses sales revenue, while verifying and recording revenue from different sources, like billing customers, and maintaining customer records.
• Tax Analysts. Tax Analysts provide an essential set of business services. They are trained in highly specialized areas like interpreting and complying with state, local, international tax statutes, regulations, and legislation.
• Tax Preparers. Tax preparers can assist with a host of tax duties that tend to hit all at once. They can assist your staff with tax returns, reviewing financial records such as income statements, and documentation of expenditures to determine forms needed to prepare tax returns. Tax preparers assist with complex tasks like consulting tax law handbooks for preparation of atypical returns. They act as auditors and check data input and verify totals on forms to detect any errors as well.
• Payroll Tax Analysts. These professionals are trained to help you with all payroll-related compliance, and accounting functions. A payroll tax analyst ensures that your business is in compliance with federal, state, and local payroll regulations. They research and recommend best practices to optimize payroll tax processes.
• Corporate Tax Accountants. Corporations are complex. You may need a tax accountant who is trained to prepare complex tax returns, and filings for property and sales tax, sales and use tax, premium and self-procurement tax, federal excise or property tax. Corporate Tax Accountants are trained to do all of these.

Hiring specially trained professionals during tax season is something that everyone from small business owners to owners of corporations does on a regular basis. This extra staffing during tax season will help to eliminate stress that comes before, during and after tax time. Best of all, you can invest more of your money into your business rather than in Tums.

If you’re searching for additional support during tax season, The A&F Group can help.  Just call us today at (302) 504-9870!

Chances are, you’re already tensing up, thinking about the busy season: Incredibly long work weeks. Colds, headaches, dizziness, weight swings, stomach pains… the list of ailments can grow as you get less sleep. And drinking too much coffee to stay alert during the day means you might need to take medication or drink alcohol to get to sleep at night. The result? Feelings of irritation and anxiety.

It’s no wonder so many accountants burn out after the stress of tax season. What can you to do avoid becoming one of them?

1. Take the Time NOW to Get Organized

Having a disorganized workspace will only add to your stress. Especially in the accounting business, piles of papers and files quickly get out of control, spilling all over the floor and teetering on the edges of crowded desks. And what happens when a client calls and you can’t find their information easily?

Before the busy season ramps up, prepare for the onslaught of work. Arrange your files, clean out your Inbox and set aside an area for projects that can wait until the season is over. And once work starts coming in, spend a couple minutes at the end of every day to tidy up your office. You’ll feel empowered and well-prepared for the next day.

2. Start or Revise an Exercise Program

If you don’t already exercise regularly, start now. Even a 20-minute daily walk will help prepare your body for the upcoming onslaught. If you already work out, make sure you don’t slack off because you don’t have the time. Just cut back. If it takes too much time to go to the gym, do light exercise at work. Take the stairs to the office, power walk around the parking lot or do squats at your desk. Whatever revs up your circulation and helps your heart pump in a healthy way.

3. Eat Right.

Eat three meals a day, along with healthy snacks. Don’t skip breakfast or work through lunch no matter how busy you are. You’ll get fatigued or starved and end up filling the void with junk food. Instead, keep healthy snacks like fruit, nuts, yogurt, or hard-boiled eggs on hand. But don’t use food to relieve your stress. Try stretching, deep breathing, or a little exercise instead.

4. Give Yourself a Break.

In the past, you may have found yourself working 10-14 hours a day during busy season, which is not unusual. But you’re only asking for more stress, the more hours you work. Schedule in some breaks for yourself: decide in advance each day what time you’re going to leave the office, and stick to it. On a regular basis – at least one day a week – put aside all thoughts of taxes, numbers, and difficult clients and treat yourself. Go to a movie, enjoy a massage or plan an evening out with friends.

5. Remember You’re in Charge.

Tell your clients that you can’t work miracles and give them deadlines. They need to know up front that they MUST hand in their materials by a particular date or you’ll be filing for an extension on their behalf. End of story. Don’t let a client’s procrastination put you into a panic on April 14^th.

At The A&F Group, we know the ups and downs of the accounting world. If you’re looking for more tips to alleviate on-the-job stress, please give us a call today and we’ll be happy to share.