Dave Cain: Welcome to unsuitable on Rea Radio, the award winning financial services and business advisory podcast that challenges your old school business practices in the traditional business suit culture. Our guests are industry professionals and experts who will challenge you to think beyond the suit and tie, while offering you meaningful modern solutions to help enhance your company’s growth. I’m your host Dave Cain.
How many of you are still spending countless hours scrolling through message boards, leafing through letters and resumes, and meeting with strangers in search of the chosen one? No I’m not talking about romance or internet dating, today we’re diving into the topic of recruiting. I think it would go without saying that we’re happy to have Renee West, the Human Resources Manager of Rea & Associates and recruitment expert back on the podcast to talk about the role that personality plays in the recruiting and hiring process. This episode is part one of a miniseries designed to help you optimize your hiring strategy and capitalize on the strengths of your team members. Welcome back to unsuitable Renee.
Renee West: Thank you Dave, I’m excited to be here.
Dave: The last time that you were on the podcast we talked about medical marijuana, you sang Bon Jovi “Living on a Prayer,” you talked about the overtime and compensation rules which have since been deep six and repealed, what are you doing for an encore today?
Renee: I don’t know, I’ve thought about that, how can I possibly top all of those things that I did so well the last time, so I’ll just have to save it for the end, there might be a surprise.
Dave: You’re a rock and roll connoisseur so we need your advice. You’ve listened to many of the podcasts, I think we need to change the music introduction, the intro and the end, what do you think?
Renee: Sure, yes always room for improvement.
Dave: Do you have any suggestions?
Renee: Maybe you could sing the opening.
Dave: I was thinking maybe we could do a little Traveling Wilburys.
Renee: Sure, let’s go, that’d be great.
Dave: I guarantee you we’d be the only podcast in the nation, accounting podcast with Traveling Wilburys and accounting and tax and HR advice.
Renee: We definitely would have a leg up I think.
Dave: We would, recruiting I need an individual now, this week, to fill a position for a tax accountant, let’s go. I want one this afternoon.
Renee: Yes and that’s a very common type of statement as when individuals state that they need employees, they need them yesterday and it’s a big challenge for almost every company because talent is hard to find. It’s easy to fill a position with any person, but you want to be sure you pick the right individual, that the employee has the skillset that is needed, they fit the culture of your company, so there’s a lot of factors to consider other than just filling the job.
Dave: Set my expectations, when I place an order for a new hire or position what’s my expectation until that position would be filled?
Renee: That basically varies by the industry. For our firm one of the main areas that we want to be sure that we look at is, with any position, what type of qualifications does that individual need to have? There are positions again that you can fill maybe in a day or two and some that take six, seven months to a year. It can depend on a lot of different factors and the biggest piece too is looking at and being sure you’re allowing your human resource department the time to communicate with managers, supervisors as to what type of employee they’re looking for as well.
Dave: Let’s go to some recruiting best practices. As a novice in the area, certainly resume passes my desk, looks good, let’s make the hire but that’s not necessarily a best practice. Help the listeners out with some best practices that you’ve seen in not only the public accounting field but manufacturing and other service related businesses.
Renee: Right, good question. Basically looking at, and again you can have 50 to 60 resumes that come across your desk at any given time, and being able to number one, being sure you, as the HR professional or the person that is conducting the hiring and recruiting, to number one know what type of person you’re looking for. Looking at the resumes to do what we call a pre-screening assessment of looking at and seeing what the job objective is of the individual, looking at their work history. That is a big piece of the employment that you want to look at. Have they had a lot of jobs? Have they job hopped over the last couple years? Have they been at a company for maybe 15, 20 years, so looking to see what their job history is, looking at their education is another piece of what is important. If you’re looking for someone that needs to have a degree in a certain discipline, being sure that they have that particular degree that you’re looking for.
We also look at, and what I’ve always looked at through my career, is what type of extracurricular activities are they involved in? Are they active in their community? It gives a little of an indication of what their responsibilities are outside of work and what they like to do in their spare time too.
Dave: What questions can’t I ask in an interview?
Renee: Basically there’s a lot that you can’t ask. As far as you can’t ask somebody are you planning on getting married anytime soon, are you going to have children? That is the number one do not ask question. Are you planning to stay home after you have children? Are you planning to move if your husband has a job, an offer? Anything that really has to deal with the gender of an individual, the age of an individual, the nationality of the individual, the sexual orientation of the individual. Basically a rule of thumb that I always tell everyone is if you are asking yourself I wonder if this is a question I should or should not ask you shouldn’t ask it. That is the number one kind of rule that I try to tell everyone too.
Dave: I guess there’s a reason I’m not in HR.
Renee: Yes, and trust me I’ve been on interviews over the years through my career where some questions have been asked that I thought oh my, and that’s a really telltale factor of an organization as well. If you have someone that is conducting interviews that is asking questions that are inappropriate that will allow that applicant to start thinking is this really a place where I want to be? That’s a very, very good question.
Dave: During the hiring or the recruiting process do you do a series of testing, personality testing or trait testing?
Renee: We do what we call our assessments and there’s a number of assessments out there in the field, and it’s important for you to determine what’s the result of the assessment that you’re giving? Do you want to see what an individual’s possible personality characteristics are, how they’re going to interact in the workplace? At our firm we have an assessment that we provide to all applicants that is a part of our pre-screening process that helps us to determine how the individual will be in the workplace as to the personality traits that they have and the competencies that they bring to the workforce, and it also helps us in determining part of the process when we’re hiring. We always want to try to complement our team and the assessment that we utilize has been very successful in helping us to do so.
Dave: When you’re hiring a individual for a financial position within a company do you do credit checks, financial background checks? Is that part of the screening?
Renee: We do have standard screenings that we complete and that is comprised of a background through the state, a driving record, a social security number verification as well, and there is also the opportunity, it’s based on what the employers needs would be. If you’re in a financial industry they tend to complete credit checks as well, so there are a number of software components out there that allow you to pick and choose what you feel is best. The key in doing any type of pre-screening assessments or background checks is insuring that you are consistent in the administration of this, so you need to conduct it on all applicants, not on every one or two of them or every five, it has to be for every single applicant to avoid any type of discrimination issues.
Dave: What about drug testing? Is that type of testing on the rise or has it taken a back seat to other related tests?
Renee: It definitely is still very prevalent in the industry, it depends if you’re on the manufacturing side of the business that tends to be one that is continued to be administered and there’s different levels of the drug testing. There’s the standard screening, then there’s the hair follicle testing as well, and it depends on the actual industry. Definitely with the issue of drugs nationally there is definitely the need to continue to administer, and again that’s the consistency as well in administering of those assessments.
Dave: Do you use a tool, there’s tools out there that identify strengths and weaknesses, I think one that comes to mind is maybe StrengthsFinder, maybe Caliper testing, can you talk about those tools?
Renee: Definitely yes, as mentioned before at Rea we utilize the Caliper Assessment and it’s also a developmental tool as well. Not only a pre-screening tool, but is very helpful in identifying characteristics and components of successful indicators for roles. For example if we have an accountant position that we’re looking to fill we have metrics in place that have already identified key competencies that are important for the individual to have to be successful in that role, and has been very helpful for us to ensure that we’re setting an individual up for success. If we’re making a hiring decision we want to ensure that they have the key competencies that are predictive of a positive and favorable behavior, and once they come into the workplace we want them to be successful so it’s been very helpful for us.
Dave: Let’s do a quick advertisement for Rea & Associates. How many positions is Rea & Associates looking for at the present time?
Renee: At the present time we are always searching for qualified applicants. Right now we do have approximately nine positions open within our firm. All at different disciplines from staff accountants to experienced senior accountants as well, so you should always be recruiting. One of the best practices that we always try to share with our clients and then also just individuals that we work with on a daily basis is you’re always going to have turnover, unfortunately there might be individuals that might be out on leave that you need to replace for a short period of time. The market is very tight for talent so it’s important for us to be active in our communities, always be networking within your community as well, and that also creates a very positive image that you’re always actively looking for individuals as well.
Dave: I think years ago when the recession hit the recruiting kind of took a back seat as companies weren’t hiring and it left gaps in the workforce and now I sense there’s an uptick in recruiting now to fill some of those spots that are now coming back into the marketplace.
Renee: That is very true. The demographics of the workforce show that the workforce is aging so you do have a lot of companies that are starting to see individuals, a mass amount of their employees starting to retire. It’s important for them to start to hire, not only to replace those individuals, but start to hire to develop individuals internally that can start to move up the ladder so to speak as the years progress, and it’s important to always be looking for succession planning as well, but being sure that we are looking for individuals that are talented in all levels of the organization. As mentioned you’re always going to have turnover or individuals that might decide to move on.
Dave: In talking to young people that are looking for employment or putting a resume together or still in college, grade point average always seems to be a topic of conversation on that resume. What do you look for in a grade point average?
Renee: Definitely that’s very important. It tends to vary, there’s a range that from 3.5 and above, however I think it’s important for-
Dave: Oh boy, here we go again.
Renee: It’s important though to not only look at that one thing. If you see someone, for example if I have a resume in front of us that shows an individual that has maybe a 3.0, however they’re also working in addition to going to school, they’re active in their community as well, I think that says a lot about the individual that they are involved in a number of different things. In the hiring it’s not something that is a disqualifier by any means. However, if it’s somebody that has a 1.1 or 2 I doubt that they’re putting that on their resume, but it is important to look at all the factors involved with that.
Dave: Good, I mean that clears that up, that’s a very good topic of conversation with a lot of our young candidates. Now I’ve heard you say even after a hire is made the recruiting of that individual does not stop, it continues even after that individual is employed.
Renee: That is correct, that is very true. Part of the responsibility that we have is to continue to support our individuals once they’re hired, throughout their employment and that starts with the recruiting process through the onboarding process, also through the developmental process as they’re with your agency. With a number of times you might hire an individual in a particular role and over the period of time that individual has developed or possibly has experience in some other areas that they would like to maybe further develop, well you need to be open to providing that individual with that opportunity to try new skills and be sure that you really have employees in the right type of position for them and then also for the company.
Dave: Good and what about interns? What role does that play in the recruiting field?
Renee: Here at Rea we are very proud of our internship program and really see the benefit of allowing the opportunity for individuals to come into our firm and learn different aspects of the field. This can be applied to any organization, it doesn’t necessarily need to be in a professional services, it can be in a manufacturing field. This allows you the opportunity to, again as I mentioned, allow the student to have an experience in the workplace, also allows you as the employer to have a streamline of candidates coming through the pipeline where you might have them come in at a freshman level and when they graduate you have the opportunity to possibly extend a full-time offer to them. That’s definitely a recruiting method that we suggest that everyone takes advantage of. Universities, even high schools are very open to employers coming in and speaking to the job openings and opportunities that they have and continuing to grow the talent at an earlier level as well.
Dave: Let’s talk for a minute about social media in the field of recruiting. When you do the recruiting do you go out onto Facebook or other social media site and look for that candidate dancing on a table or slugging down a Jack Daniels? Is that something you take a peek at?
Renee: I would suggest that all employers utilize whatever sources are out there to really determine whether you’re making a correct hire. That’s my PC version of answering that question, so it is-
Dave: Well you didn’t answer that question very well.
Renee: There’s a lot of information out there and I think too it’s important to not use that as your only method of making a decision for hire. Everyone makes mistakes, there’s some things out there I’m sure that they might not want, however as an employer you need to be able to make an informed decision utilizing a lot of different methods and facts.
Dave: What about using social media to recruit or find a resume or bring people on board? Obviously that’s an up and coming tool, I see it on LinkedIn, I see it all over the place, are you using that on a regular basis?
Renee: We are yes, and the social media is a very large portion of the recruiting methods and efforts that are out there. There is so much that employers can take advantage of and it’s important for you to ensure that, and it’s very easy to use as well, there isn’t one method of recruiting. All firms and companies should utilize a number of sources from LinkedIn to Facebook, utilization of Indeed.com, a lot of companies utilize their local resources like their Chamber of Commerce to send out email blasts for job openings that they have. Here within the State of Ohio we have Ohiomeansjobs.com that is a free source for employers to post job openings on and you can actually solicit resumes from there as well. There’s a lot of options for you and the method now for recruiting, the days of placing ads in the newspapers, you can do that now, however it’s not as big of a result as the social media portion of recruiting.
Dave: What’s a newspaper?
Renee: Very true, there are some areas where that demographic works well. However, one of the main things that we try to tell companies too is know your area, know your demographics, know what type of applicant you’re trying to recruit. If you’re looking for more of a professional skilled type position there are different facets of LinkedIn that you can utilize. There’s a lot of different methods out there, but knowing what type of applicant you’re trying to attract is the key as well.
Dave: For our listeners out there that are eyes and ears for Rea & Associates, if they know a candidate that is looking for employment in the accounting and finance field, what would your recommendation be to them to get ahold of you or what’s the next step?
Renee: Great question, we have a number of different ways for them to do so. We have on our LinkedIn page we have a Rea & Associates website that actually has all of our job postings available. We are very happy to accept resumes from individuals at any time, they can contact myself personally, they can give us a phone call, they can submit their resume via our website as well, so there’s a lot of different options. We rely heavily on employee referrals as well. Within our firm we’ve been able to hire a number of individuals that have been referred from our intern base, even our full-time employees as well.
Dave: Will I be allowed to interview the candidate?
Renee: Yes you sure can.
Dave: I wasn’t sure how you were going to answer that one. Our guest today has been Renee West, HR Director for Rea & Associates, 11 office CPA firm throughout the State of Ohio. Rea & Associates is listed in the top 100 CPA firms in the country. Renee has an interesting job to say the least, trying to manage and herd 230 accounting type people throughout the firm, so well done throughout the years, appreciate all that you’ve done. Before we wrap up we always like to end up with a question, and since 2017 is upon us we’re going to ask your advice what’s the best business New Year’s resolution that you can recommend?
Renee: I would recommend for employers to make an effort to be sure that you listen to your employees. Going into the New Year there’s a lot of information you can gather, so just be sure you have your ears open and allow them the opportunity to communicate with you.
Dave: Well thanks again for joining us on unsuitable Renee. Very thoughtful presentation, very famous in the HR field.
Renee: Thank you.
Dave: We’ll be sure to have you back for another update and maybe a song or two in the future.
Renee: I’m practicing so I hope you have me back.
Dave: We’ll get you.
Renee: Okay.
Dave: A huge shout out to our listeners for tuning in every week. Don’t forget to tune in next week for part two of our miniseries when Becky Boyd joins us to talk about how we can tap into our teams’ existing strengths for optimal results. We’ve included some excellent HR resources on our website at www.reacpa.com, and if this is your first time listening to unsuitable on Rea Radio please take a moment to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and SoundCloud. Until next time, I’m Dave Cain encouraging you to loosen up your tie and think outside the box.