As part of a month-long campaign during May where we’re shining a spotlight on what accountancy practices can do to combat the ongoing hiring crisis impacting the sector, this week’s blog focuses on better understanding your team to nurture existing talent and identify where recruitment is needed to plug the gaps.
By taking the time to recognise what skills are already within the team, including scoping potentially untapped talent, managers can then better understand where the gaps are and recruit specifically to strengthen the team. Let’s take a look at the ways firms can nurture internal talent and identify what skills, experiences, and personalities are missing from the mix.
How to better understand your team and identify gaps
- Getting to know each team member: Take the time to get to know your team members on a personal level. Ask about their interests and hobbies, and understand what motivates them. This can help you build stronger relationships with your team and better understand what skills and experiences they can bring to the team.
- Communicating regularly: Regular communication is key to understanding your team. Schedule one-on-one meetings with each team member to discuss their goals, concerns, and progress. By listening to what they have to say, you can identify training opportunities, new responsibilities they would excel at, and shape their role to better take advantage of where their skills lie.
- Understanding their career goals: Understand what your team members want to achieve in their careers and how you can help them achieve their goals. Professional development is a key part of any role and encouraging learning and progression will strengthen your team.
- Providing support: By providing the necessary support, resources, and tools, team members will be empowered to perform their job duties to the best of their ability. This includes providing training, guidance, and feedback when necessary.
- Being transparent: It can be easy for managers to have a birds eye view of a team and not truly understand the dynamics of day-to-day working, so it can help to bridge transparent relationships where staff are asked what gaps they believe are within the team and what skills they would like to see a new recruit bring to the table.
Once you have a clearer picture of how strong your team currently is, you can turn those skills gaps into recruitment opportunities. And that’s where we can help.
At Public Practice Recruitment Ltd, we work with accountancy practices of all sizes up and down the country, helping to strengthen teams with truly standout candidates. As specialists in recruitment for accountancy practices, we’ve seen first hand how the skills shortage across the sector is having a big impact on recruitment and retention.
- Is it time you reviewed your job roles and descriptions?
- Do you have hidden talent within your team that you’re not taking full advantage of?
- Do you know what roles you should be recruiting for to strengthen your team?
These are the kinds of questions we can help you with. We can not only connect you with skilled candidates, we can also be a sounding board for your recruitment needs. Managing Director, Garry Howling, has steered the recruitment direction for some of the UK’s leading accountancy firms, so contact us today to schedule an informal chat.
Explore the Solve Your Hiring Crisis campaign and keep an eye out for more articles coming throughout the rest of May:
It’s time to shake up accountancy practice
Solve Your Hiring Crisis – Part 1 – Unconscious Bias
