Provisional Accounting Blog

Being the boss means you’re in charge, but don’t let your ego get the best of you. If you want to hire accountants in Spokane — and retain them — you have to treat your team with respect.

The most effective managers realize a power trip will get them nowhere. Instead, they treat employees as equals and do everything they can to help them learn and grow. Here’s a few tips to help you thrive in your leadership role.

5 Ways to Lead Your Team to Success

Be a Positive Role Model

You can’t expect employees to follow the rules if you don’t do so yourself. Lead by example to earn your team’s respect. For instance, if you require everyone to be in the office by 8:30am, make sure you’re on time as well.

Don’t Micromanage

Serving as the boss is a big job, so you might be hesitant to loosen the reins. However, operating on a “my way or the highway” basis doesn’t help anyone. You hired seriously talented people, so allow them to do their jobs the best way they see fit. This will make them happier and more effective, while leaving you more time to focus on your own workload.

Listen to Their Ideas

Your employees are smart people, so encourage them to speak up. Challenge them to come up with innovative ways to improve processes, new project ideas, and ways to better serve clients. Give each person the respect they deserve by listening to each idea and making people feel valued for sharing their thoughts. Even if you don’t implement the initiative, they’ll respect the fact that you gave it consideration.

Keep Them in the Loop

Bad managers only provide selective information to their teams, which of course isn’t effective. No one likes to be left in the dark, so keep employees informed on all information impacting both the team and the company as a whole. Some news is more fun to share than others, but always being transparent with your team will help you earn their trust.

Own Your Mistakes

You’re in charge of a team of people, but you’re only human. No one expects you to be perfect, so when you slip up, admit your error(s) and move on. Admitting to your errors in judgments takes a strong person, and your employees will admire you for it.

As an added bonus, this will also inspire your team to take risks. If they feel like it’s okay to fail, they’ll be more confident taking on new initiatives, because they know you have their back.

If you’re ready to hire new accounting or finance talent, Provisional Accounting is here to assist. We’ll help you find the best person for the job every time, so get in touch today to discuss your needs!

A new year is a perfect time for a fresh start, so kick off 2017 with a wellness initiative designed to help your employees improve their health and enjoy an enhanced quality of life. Whether you’re joining the ranks of the 70% of employers that already have a wellness program in place — according to the 2015 SHRM Employee Benefits Survey — or simply improving your existing one, investing in the health of your employees is a pretty fantastic decision.

Preparing for a Successful 2017 Wellness Initiative

Evaluate Your Needs

Survey your staffers to find out what they would like their wellness program to encompass. This may include anything from programs to help them stop smoking to complimentary or discounted fitness club memberships to aid in weight loss. Add to this by evaluating your company culture and work environment to get ideas of areas for improvement. If you’ve ever attempted a wellness initiative in the past, review the results to get an idea of what worked and what didn’t.

Create a Strategy

After gathering information, create a wellness program catered to the specific needs of your workforce. Check with your insurance provider to see if they offer any support to help you plan and execute this initiative. This is the time to decide exactly what programs will be included in your program — ensuring there’s something to interest every employee.

Educate Employees

After the structure of your wellness program is in place, start getting your employees excited about it. The kickoff is still a couple of months away, but you want everyone to be ready to get started from day one, so this is the time to get the buy-in of your team. Really sell the wellness initiative and explain how participation will positively impact their lives. Heavily market the program by sending emails, hanging posters around the office and holding a team meeting to introduce it.

Provide Enticing Incentives

The ability to improve their health will be enough to motivate some staffers to participate in the wellness program, but some will need an extra push. Provide incentives such as reduced health insurance premiums, cash bonuses, gift cards, and extra days off to those who join in setting goals, and achieve them. Becoming motivated to work your hardest is generally much easier when an enticing prize is at stake.

About Accountingpros Recruiting + Staffing

Partner with Accountingpros Recruiting + Staffing to fill your open positions with Seattle’s top accounting and finance talent. Our recruiting managers take a personalized, relationship-based approach to staffing, so you can relax in knowing we’ll find the exact right fit for your team. Contact us today to learn more!

A little friendly competition can be a great way to push your employees to work their hardest, but you have to take strides to ensure the atmosphere doesn’t turn cutthroat. Nothing good happens when people on the same team feel pitted against one another, so you have to work hard to build a supportive culture where one person’s win benefits everyone.

Five Ways to Build a Healthy Competitive Culture

Focus on Team Goals

Challenging your employees to meet a certain goal can be a fun way to boost productivity, but instead of focusing solely on individual results, emphasize the impact everyone’s hard work has on the group as a whole. When recognizing top performers, ask them to share their strategies for success with the team for the common good. Concentrating more on shared goals than individual performance is a great way to avoid conflict.

Give Everyone a Voice

Help everyone feel invested in the company by making each person feel like their thoughts and opinions count. Employees are much more likely to work their hardest and support one another if they feel a sense of ownership in the organization. When people truly care about the future of the team, they want to lift their colleagues up, instead of sabotaging them.

Share Individual Objectives

Your employees are all working towards the same common goals, but everyone has their own set of personal objectives. Simultaneously promote competition and team spirit by gathering everyone together before starting a big project to discuss what each person hopes to get from the experience. Getting these goals out in the open allows people to help each other find opportunities to achieve their objectives and hold them accountable for it.

Make Time for Fun

Super intense work environments breed conflict, so lighten the mood at your office by reminding everyone to have fun. Sure, your staffers might be trying to outshine one another, but nothing about this needs to be ruthless. If you see tensions rising, gather everyone for a ping pong tournament in the break room or hold an emergency beer Friday on a Wednesday afternoon instead.

Hire Team Players

The most important aspect of promoting a healthy competitive culture is hiring the right people. Those with a naturally aggressive, win-at-all-costs mentality might not be the best fit for your team. When hiring new employees, choose ambitious, even-tempered candidates who have a track record of playing well with others. These people can have fun with competition, but they won’t take it to lengths that turn your team upside down.

Your company needs the very best accounting and finance talent to thrive, so let Accountingpros Recruiting + Staffing assist in filling your open positions. We understand that no two teams have the same needs, so we take a consultative approach to fill your open positions with the best and brightest professionals in the Northwest. Contact us today to learn more!

Fall has officially arrived and the holiday season will be here before you know it. Now that the fourth quarter of the year is approaching, it’s time to prepare a strategy for the next three months that allows your company to meet its year-end goals.

If you want to make big things happen in the next few months, you’ll need the full support of your team. Follow these tips to keep people motivated through the end of 2016.

4 Ways to Inspire Your Team to Achieve Year-End Goals

Get Everyone on the Same Page

For success to be achieved, everyone must work together, so gather your entire team for a meeting to get everyone up to speed. Remind employees of the company’s 2016 goals, provide a status update, and make it clear what needs to be accomplished by the end of the year to realize success. The sky’s the limit when your entire staff focuses on shared goals.

Let Employees Take the Lead

Knowing your boss trusts you enough to make important decisions is empowering, so inspire your best employees to produce their finest work by putting them in charge. Step back and allow top talent to guide the direction of key make-or-break projects, because people are more invested when they know they’re responsible for producing results. Maintain a hands-off approach — only adding input when necessary — and you won’t be disappointed with the outcome.

Provide the Proper Tools

Your employees are very talented, but they’re not superhuman. If you want them to make big things happen by the end of the year, you need to provide them with the resources needed to support these objectives. This can be anything from upgrading software to hiring additional staff to fill skills gaps, but make sure you’ve done your part to help them succeed. Realize your goals will not be accomplished if you place unrealistic demands on your employees.

Celebrate Small Victories

The road to success can be long and challenging, so keep your team motivated by celebrating every little win along the way. No matter how big or small an accomplishment is, it gets the team one step closer to meeting — or maybe even exceeding — year-end goals. Treating every victory as something major is a great way to boost morale and encourage people to keep working hard.

Need to hire a few new employees to help your team achieve year-end goals?

Partner with Accountingpros Recruiting + Staffing. Whether you’re searching for professionals specializing in accounting and finance, audit and taxation, cost accounting, analytics and reporting, or accounting support professionals, our expert recruiting managers will find the best fit for your organization.

If you’re like many people, you dread Sunday nights, because their arrival means it’s almost time to head back to the grind. After a fun weekend, getting up early on Monday and heading into the office for a day of work can seem daunting, but it doesn’t have to be that way.

Instead of viewing Sunday evenings as the end of your good times for another five days, consider them a fresh start by taking time to mentally prepare for the week ahead. Wind down doing something you enjoy and take a few minutes to ask yourself these three questions.

What do I need to accomplish?

Get ready for the workweek by thinking about what’s on your to-do list. Whether you have a meeting with a prospective client or a deadline for a big project, organizing your thoughts can help you feel focused and ready to tackle everything on your plate when you walk through the office door on Monday.

What hurdles will I face?

Hopefully, work will be smooth sailing for you this week, but most of the time, a few obstacles are inevitable. Procrastinating dealing with these issues will only make things worse, so create a plan to tackle them head-on. Instead of starting your week filled with anxiety about potential roadblocks, you can feel confident in knowing you can handle anything that comes your way.

What am I grateful for?

Stop treating work like a chore and remind yourself why you accepted the job in the first place. Conjure up a few reasons why you entered the field and what about it makes you feel fulfilled. It’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day and forget why you work so hard. Sometimes you need to take a pause to rekindle your passion for the job.

In addition to mentally preparing for the week on Sundays, there’s plenty of other actions you can take to ease the stress of your work week. Plan your meals for the week and stock up on groceries, get your work clothes washed and ironed, and set a mid-week date with friends or family to relax and unwind.

Find a job that makes you excited to go into the office on Monday mornings

Accountingpros Recruiting + Staffing is here to connect you with the most rewarding temporary/contract, contract-to-hire, and direct hire accounting and finance job opportunities in the Seattle area. Contact us today to get started!

If you spend an above-average amount of time at the office, you’re not alone. In fact, 50% of full-time employees in the U.S. work more than 40 hours per week, according to a 2014 Gallup poll. Of these workers, 11% reported working 41 to 49 hours weekly, 21% said they work 50 to 59 hours per week, and 18% described a standard workweek as 60 or more hours.

Whether you love your job or hate it, achieving a strong work-life balance is essential for your health and happiness. Just as it’s important to concentrate on your job when you’re at work, you need to focus on your personal life during those precious few off-hours. Learn how to leave your job at the office when you head home for the day.

Stop Checking Your Work Email

In today’s digital era, you’re always expected to be connected, but you have to know when to pull the plug. Stop logging into your work email during your evening, weekend, and vacation hours. Let your colleagues know you’ll no longer be checking in during your free time, and if a true emergency does happen, instruct them to give you a call instead.

Keep Work Talk to a Minimum

Work is a major part of your life, so it’s only natural to want to share a few stories about your day with your spouse, family, or friends, but limit yourself. Dwelling on your bad day or the huge project you’re working on stresses you out and keeps you mentally at the office. Instead, focus your attention on what’s going on around you right now and appreciate the moment.

Do Something You Enjoy

Spending time doing something that makes you happy is the best possible way to push work to the back of your mind. Go for a run, make dinner with your family, or curl up on the couch and watch your favorite television show to fully separate yourself from the office. When you’re busy having fun, there’s no time to think about anything else.

If you’re searching for a rewarding accounting or finance position in the Seattle area, contact Accountingpros Recruiting + Staffing. We’re committed to connecting talented professionals like you with competitive temporary/contract, temp-to-hire, and direct hire opportunities at some of the best companies in the Northwest.

If you’re looking for a new accounting position, you’ll be relieved to hear the Bureau of Labor Statistics expects job growth for the field to increase by 13% through 2022 — compared with the 11% predicted for all occupations. However, competition is still going to be intense for the most highly sought-after jobs with the best companies. If you want to make a great impression, you’ll need to work hard to sell yourself as the absolute best fit.

3 Things an Accounting Manager Wants to Hear

Gain a competitive advantage on other skilled accounting candidates, by emphasizing these three points:

1. You Thrive Under Pressure: As you’re well aware, accounting can be a very stressful field. Month-end and year-end closing can bring many long hours and late nights, so an accounting manager wants to hire someone who can cope with the added stress without a second thought. It takes a very special type of person to handle this, so use examples of past situations to explain how you’re able to stay calm under pressure and why you actually revel in it.
2. You Enjoy Keeping Up with Industry Trends: Good accountants know how to get the job done right, but the best people in the industry truly love what they do. Prove you’re one of them by displaying a strong knowledge of current trends impacting the industry and describing how you stay up-to-date with them. If you make a point to attend periodic training sessions or are part of an accounting professional association, be sure to mention that.
3. You Would Never Compromise Your Integrity: When you’re interviewing for a position that can seriously impact the company’s financials, the hiring manager needs to know you can be trusted. If you’re asked if you would be willing to lie for the company, you can be certain this is a trick question — and if it’s not, you don’t want to work there anyway! Always make it clear that you’re a very honest person who wouldn’t compromise your integrity for the organization under any circumstances.

Ready to find a fulfilling new accounting job?

Contact Accountingpros Recruiting + Staffing. We’re pleased to offer temporary/contract, temp-to-hire and direct hire opportunities with some of Seattle’s top companies!