Recruitment mistake # 2 when growing your bookkeeping business

Last week my blog was about the top three mistakes I think you can make when recruiting. If you didn’t see that you can find it here. The first mistake I spoke about last week is not testing the bookkeeper in some way in your office before appointing them. The second biggest mistake is not spending time with the new recruit once you’ve appointed them to induct them into your business before giving them clients.

If you’ve never recruited before you might think this is unnecessary. That’s what I thought too! I assumed that they would think like me, have the same standards and the same expectations. Over and over I stumbled across issues that arose because I hadn’t spent time being clear at the start about:

• My vision, mission, core values and culture of my business
• Expectations

It’s really important that you spend time engaging your new recruit into the culture of your business and your purpose. To help them understand they are not just a bookkeeper. That their purpose is to empower clients around their finances. Staff will choose to stay with you because they feel they are contributing to something worthwhile. There’s a great YouTube video by RSA Animate adapted from Dan Pink's talk which illustrates the hidden truths behind what really motivates us. You can watch it here.

The other area to be clear about is setting expectations about practical things such as:

• How they get paid
• Taking leave
• What they wear
• Learning and following the systems you have created
• Communication with you and the client
• Staff meetings/seminars
• Ongoing training
• Legal e.g. PI Insurance, signing an agreement to protect your IP, giving advice to clients
• Your system for handing over your clients

Some of this might seem like common sense and unnecessary to explain in detail. It’s not. As with all my messages, I learnt the hard way and I’m hoping you’ll learn from me! Build a solid foundation of open and honest communication with your new recruit by investing 1-2 hours with them before giving them clients.

Love to hear your thoughts. You can leave them below.