Have you ever wondered how to hire staff for a bookkeeping business?
Whether you’re just getting started or been at it for awhile the topic of hiring help has likely come up.
Many bookkeepers who want to grow their business have a lot of questions about hiring because they’ve cleaned up messes left behind by inexperienced bookkeepers, so to prevent that from happening again and protect their reputation, they don’t recruit.
In addition, the financial cost of hiring the wrong staff will often be one of the expensive mistakes a bookkeeping business owner can make.
Say if they don't work out after 3 months, it isn’t uncommon for a small business owner to lose $10,000 during that period due to salary paid out and your time lost dedicated to hiring and training that 1 staff member.
Plus, the impact on your reputation from dissatisfied clients.
Yikes.
- Just relying on candidates to be truthful on their resumes
- Not using any skills tests to measure their abilities to see if they can actually perform the job
- Not accurately evaluating if they’re an attitude fit for your business
- No implementation of any recruiting system
She has over 20 years bookkeeping experience and remembers those tough early days of her business when recruiting staff was as excruciating as having a root canal.
Here’s one of her horror stories:
"I didn’t have any HR systems for a number of years, which meant I essentially relied on the honesty of the candidate,” Roberts said in The E-Myth Bookkeeper. “Somewhat naively, I accepted whatever was on their resume as completely truthful, and my interview technique was to merely chat over coffee. On one such occasion, an accountant applied for the position...At last, I had found someone who could not only do the bookkeeping but who could possibly take control of other high-end reporting for our clients. I was enthusiastic about the possibilities for my business before I’d even had the ‘interview.’"
She adds, "We had our chat and I offered him the position. I chose a suitable client for him to take over and spoke to the client, explaining that this new bookkeeper was going to be fantastic because he was an accountant as well! Because I didn’t have any HR systems, the way I tested the new bookkeeper was to sit beside him while he was actually doing real client work on site...He proceeded to sit there trying to figure out which icon he needed to select in order to enter the bills. Minutes dragged by as he fumbled his way around the software. My initial incredulity quickly turned to horror when I realized that, no matter how long I waited, his knowledge of the software wasn’t going to miraculously improve...Not only was I angry because I had to finish the job he couldn’t do, I was ashamed to face the client and admit this person wasn’t going to work out and try to reassure him the next one was going to be fantastic! How often do you think you can say that and not lose the client’s trust altogether?”
Fortunately for Debbie, she learned from that experience and eventually pushed through her fears to hire 12 great bookkeepers who would transform her business.
If you’re serious about growing, you’ll need to assemble a staff.
There’s no way around it.
If you try to stay in control of everything and lack the systems in place to allow other well-trained bookkeepers to step into that role, you will get in the way of your business growth - and probably go mad in the process!
As your business expands, it will become increasingly difficult (and then impossible!) for you to be the one maintaining your high level of client service.
If you want to bust through your fears like Debbie did, you have to hire the best of the best, induct them so they understand your purpose and provide them with ongoing training and support to ensure they consistently deliver outstanding service.
You’ll know when you’ve been successful because you’ll outsource yourself out of a job.
Your client will no longer call you with questions. You won’t have to be there every week to do the payroll and when you check in with the client to see if everything is okay, they will say how the new bookkeeper is an integral part of their team and they absolutely love them.
Sound good?
Great!
So, how will you accomplish this?
You can start by systemizing your hiring process.
Here are some tips to keep in mind:
1) Clearly Word Your Advertisement
- Be specific about the non-negotiable prerequisites.
- How many years of experience are required?
- What accounting software do they need to be proficient in?
- In what country do they need to have gained that experience?
- Do they meet the legal requirements?
- Do they have membership in the appropriate associations?
2) Place Your Job Ad Appropriately
Where to advertise?
Well, do some research and evaluate costs versus exposure. Ideally you’d like to reach as many suitable candidates with one ad. When considering placement, you need to factor in the type of candidate you want to attract and position the ad where they are most likely to see it.
For example, if you want a part-time employee, you might place your ad in the local paper. If you want to catch the eye of a bigger selection of candidates, you use an online recruitment website.
3) Organize Your Resumes
When you receive resumes via email, be sure to organize them into separate folders such as “Applicants to review”, “Applicants to call” and “Applicants for skills test.”
Successful applicants move from one folder to the next as they progress through each stage.
4) Create a Phone Interview System
Give each section a score then place candidate in one of 3 categories -- A, B or C.
If a candidate scores high then she is an “A” selection which allows them to head to the next level -- the Skills and Speed Test.
Pay close attention to communication skills since they are incredibly important. If you come across people who aren’t world class communicators, but still tick off other boxes skills wise, then they can have a Skills test after the “A” candidates.
As for the rest, you send them an email stating unfortunately they didn’t make the cut this time.
5) Create a Skills & Speed Test
This is the golden piece to see if you have a star or dud candidate on your hands. This test will accurately judge her bookkeeping abilities and ability to think on her feet to deal with surprise challenges. This 1 1/2 to 2 hour test is more like a mini-bookkeeping job that includes all the important tasks that a bookkeeper would normally have to do in a session.
In our Pure Bookkeeping System (PBS), we have a proven Skills & Speed test Debbie used for years and has helped hundreds of bookkeepers worldwide.
You can learn more about it in our Free Hiring Checklist.
6) The Interview
Once the candidate survives the Skills & Speed Test, you get to meet to ask her questions regarding her behaviour under certain conditions, dedication to clients and passion for the industry.
After all this, if you find a worthy candidate, hire her then congratulate yourself on this massive step!
The quicker you can implement systems into your hiring process, the faster you’ll be able to find the right person to help take your business to another level.
Good luck!
Michael
P.S. - Today, as a special gift, you can access a FREE HR Checklist that details exactly what steps Debbie took to create a powerful hiring system that enabled her to catapult her bookkeeping business to success.
Click here to sign up. :)
Article by Michael Palmer
Michael is the CEO of Pure Bookkeeping, the host of The Successful Bookkeeper podcast and an acclaimed business coach who has helped hundreds of bookkeepers across the world push through their fears and exponentially grow their businesses and achieve the quality of life they've always wanted.
