Category: Staffing Trends

2023 is flying by and the calendar fiscal year will be coming to a close before we all know it. The fourth and final quarter of the year actually begins next week. As finance managers and CFOs plan for year end, they also need to have a staffing strategy for employee turnover and how to manage year end closing and reconciliation deadlines. Now is not the time to be afraid of a partnering with an accounting temp agency.

Employee morale and burnout is real so why delegate the more tedious accounting functions to loyal full time employees? Accounting temp agencies serve a real purpose. Let the experts provide an outside resource and relieve full time staff while helping manage year end deadlines and reporting.

Accounting temp agencies provide qualified finance professionals who can handle a variety of accounting projects. A company can offload administrative roles such as bank reconciliations, accounts payable, accounts receivable (cash applications), as well as general bookkeeping journal entries (amortization and depreciation). The end result will restore internal employee morale and productivity by handing over these tasks to a qualified temporary or contract employee.

There are several benefits to using a temporary employee from an outside accounting temp agency. First, there is no full time hiring commitment. Bringing on a temp does not create a hiring relationship because a temp is not an official employee of the company. Temps are the employee of the the registered and licensed temp agency so they do not report as headcount for the company utilizing the temporary employee. Secondly, a temp assignment can end at any time. When the project is complete or undergoing budget challenges, the assignment can end and the hourly billing stops.

Accounting temp agencies also assist with managing employee turnover. Many full time internal employees prefer to take year end vacations. Temps can help fill the skills gap when employees leave for vacation at the end of the year.

Accounting temp agencies also provide highly skilled finance and accounting professionals. They have a deep inventory of candidates with a variety of specialized accounting or ERP software experience (such as SAP, Oracle, NetSuite, QuickBooks, etc.). Temp agencies also recruit candidates with relevant industry experience (e.g. manufacturing, real estate), education/certifications, and specialized skills such as cost accounting, property accounting, or tax accounting.

Why not “try before you buy?” A good temporary staffing firm will provide employee references, an executive summary with the resume and mandatory background checks. It may be new territory for a finance manager, but don’t be afraid of accounting temp agencies.

As an accounting temp agency, we hear the same thing every week from new clients. “Our financial books are behind and we need someone who can quickly help our organization keep up with the pace of paying invoices and processing incoming payments.” It’s a common theme with a common pain point.

Unfortunately, there is turnover in every organization or there is a retirement from that one employee who does all the accounting or bookkeeping as the bottom falls out. Fortunately, there are solutions to consider. Accounting temp agencies provide an inventory of ready-to-go accounting professionals who are interested in working on a project or temp-to-hire basis. The agency takes on the role of employer of record and handles the employee payroll and benefits.

According to a recent article by the Wall Street Journal, there is an Accountant Shortage. This shortage in accounting staff has posed a challenge for many large companies as they face the challenge to meet month end financial reporting deadlines or SEC reporting compliance. Some reasons cited for the accounting shortage ranges from an aging retiring population as well as a decrease in students pursuing degrees in accounting.

These factors creating an accountant shortage make it more difficult to find full time finance and accounting talent. Additionally, companies are also taking much longer to hire due to a low unemployment rate as well as a very long drawn out internal employer hiring process. The Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) published an article on the increasing time-to-hire for employers. The professional services category is above the average, at 47 days time-to-hire, and is expected to continue experiencing longer-than-average hiring times this year.

So if there is a decreasing accounting workforce and a general longer time-to-fill positions by companies, how do organizations keep up the productivity? Companies can continue to compete with these market conditions or consider an Accounting temp agency, an efficient source to fill the staffing gap quickly in order to maintain productivity. When the assignment ends, the hourly billing stops. If the plan is to hire an accounting professional, a temp-to-hire solution is a quick way to hire.

After the global pandemic, many older employees began to leave the workforce and retire due to the uncertain job market and healthcare environment. Now that inflation is at decade high levels and the cost-of-living has risen, retirees are now considering to “unretire” and return to the workforce.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), the number of people ages 65 and older working or seeking employment has increased by 144 percent in the past 20 years. The DOL predicts labor participation among older workers to grow over the next 10 years.

When older workers retire, companies potentially lose a wide array of employer attributes. Knowledge management becomes a challenge since employee skill sets transition out of the workforce and company culture. Additionally, generational work habit differences create a potential gap in productivity and employee morale.

Companies have options when it comes to rehiring a retiree. They can either bring them back internally or consider a third party payroll solution. Utilizing an employment agency that offers third party payroll solutions in multiple states provides a company with the flexibility to bring back retirees without the burden of adding to its own W-2 payroll. Instead, the employment agency on boards and re-hires the retiree while providing the legal employer of record (W-2) relationship. At the same time, the retiree can reap the benefits of drawing retirement or pension benefits because the retiree does not, in fact, work for the former company (that he or she retired from) any more.

The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) conducted an interesting interview with Laurel McDowell, a leader in Mature Worker Programs, about companies bringing back retirees.

As a temp agency, we always get the same question. And it’s a very good one. How does your staffing firm or temp agency find qualified employees with an accounting background? After all, most client companies search for candidates on their own before they come to the realization that they need help from an accounting employment agency.

Well, we can’t give away our secret recipe or special sauce, but we can share our recruitment and staffing process. Here we go:

Candidate Sourcing: A temp agency needs to source and find accounting professional candidates through various channels.

1. A staffing firm needs to have relationships with various colleges, universities, and vocational schools that specialize in accounting and finance. They should know how to network with students and alumni through in person events and online school job boards.
2. Social Media is another great tool for employment agencies to network directly with accounting and finance professionals. Recruiters constantly need to expand their social network.
3. An applicant tracking system (or ATS) is vital to the candidate supply chain of a temp agency. The system should include many search filters in order to source resumes that list certain skill sets and other search parameters.
4. Direct sourcing or “headhunting” is always the best way to find an accounting professional. Staffing professionals need to pick up the phone and connect directly with cold and warm candidates to investigate their career objectives.
5. Online mainstream Job boards are always a reliable source of accounting candidate flow. The talent pool is not always on the mark, but those web sites can yield many candidates depending on your job advertising budget

It’s also important to partner with a temp agency that understands accounting and finance principals. Some staffing firms actually hire former accounting and finance professionals as internal recruiters. Those temp agencies that offer a variety of specialized temporary and direct hire accounting staffing solutions benefit the client’s unique accounting and finance staffing needs.

Candidate Recruiting: A temp agency needs to skillfully recruit and prospect accounting professionals to ensure that their skill sets and career goals align with the job description of the client.

Recruiting is the most challenging part. Recruiters need to become psychologists when interviewing accounting and finance candidates. They need to find out:

• What kind of job do you want?
• What is missing from your current job at your current employer?
• How much money do you want?
• How much time do you need to give notice to their current employer?
• How far are you willing to drive?
• Do you need to include your spouse or other family member in your career change decision?
• What kind of employee benefits do you need?
• And many more questions….

After the 30 or more question interview, the temp agency can now determine the motivating factors behind the candidate’s career choices. It’s always a great idea to document all these notes in the applicant tracking system so the information is saved and shared across the staffing firm group of recruiters.

Finally, a temp agency should extract, list and clearly communicate those accounting candidate highlights with an Executive Summary. The Executive Summary is a cover sheet that precedes the resume on the send out to the client. The Summary should highlight all the candidate’s accounting software skills, knowledge of journal entries, and various accounting techniques such as amortization and depreciation, to name a few.

Candidate Interview Prep: This step is the unsung hero in the process.

When an interview is confirmed, it’s critical to send out an interview prep cheat sheet via email to the candidate. After the email is received, a phone or video call should be scheduled to carefully review the client accounting job requirements. It’s also a great forum to go over any interview prep questions and re-qualify that nothing has changed in the life of the candidate since you first started working together. A common mistake.

Accounting is the back office pulse to any organization and it takes qualified employees to hit the ground running and contributes. It’s very difficult to “fake it until you make it.” Partnering with a temp agency that utilizes a complete and proactive candidate recruitment process will net the best candidate results in order to mitigate that fearful employee turnover.

Across the board, hiring still remains substantial despite the Federal Reserve Bank’s efforts to soften a strong labor market that has placed upward pressure on wages and contributed towards the current inflation crisis. Temporary staffing firms or temp agencies that provide healthcare temps or traveling nurses are noticing the increase as well.

According to the BLS, the labor force participation rate in December edged up slightly to 62.3%, still 1% below its level in February 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic began. This measure was largely unchanged throughout 2022.

At the industry level, the largest gains were seen across leisure and hospitality, healthcare, construction, and social assistance.

Leisure and hospitality, one of the industries hardest hit by the pandemic, continued its strong recovery, with employers adding 67,000 jobs during December. An average 79,000 leisure and hospitality jobs were added or created per month across 2022, a percent of the 196,000 jobs per month gained in 2021.

Interestingly, the healthcare industry added jobs much more robustly throughout 2022 than in the year prior as the country continued recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2021, the healthcare sector added about 9,000 jobs on average each month, compared to 49,000 each month in 2022, according to the BLS. The biggest gains were in Ambulatory healthcare (outpatient) services which accounted for approximately 30,000 of those new jobs. Hospitals and nursing and residential care facilities also saw gains, adding about 16,000 and 9,000 new jobs, respectively.

Meanwhile, medical practices or physician offices added about 10,000 new jobs in December, according to the BLS.

Temporary employment, where employers provide contractors or temps, accounts for almost 2% of total nonfarm employment. Across the temporary staffing or employment agency sector, those gains were realized a similar basis.

Effective November 1st, 2022, New York City is now requiring that employers display the pay rate or salary range on its job postings. Employers also need to:

a) Conduct an internal salary survey to determine an accurate compensation range

b) Analyze salary ranges to be offered to new hires

c) Conduct a pay equity audit on any differences in pay/salary

d) Ensure that any staffing firms or third party recruitment agencies are in compliance with the law.

Interestingly, Temporary Help Agencies or temp staffing agencies are not covered under this law. Temp agencies will continue to provide value to employees by conducting internal salary audits to ensure that they are paying competitive wages. Additionally, a reputable temp agency employing workers in New York City or surrounding New Jersey will want to be transparent with potential employees as part of its recruitment and retention strategy. The primary goal of a temp agency is to partner with its employee at the beginning of the recruitment lifecycle.

For more information on the New York City Employer Pay Disclosure law, visit the SHRM website.

When turning on the news on television, it’s difficult not to see stories that include the catch phrases “supply chain” or “inflation.” The truth is that prices have gone up drastically over the last 2 years. And unfortunately, wages or salaries have not gone up at the same level. Consequently, everything is getting more expensive but yearly salary increases are not keeping up.

One way to try to keep up with the salary increases is to partner with a temporary staffing employment agency that works in many states such as NJ, NY, TX, FL and others. Why not let the agency tell your salary requirements and story to a prospective employer. Temp staffing agencies have access to salary surveys and real-time market research. Employment agencies also have multiple direct relationships with Directors and Heads of Human Resources and Talent Acquisition at various companies and organizations.

In September 2022, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for all items rose 8.2 percent for the previous 12 months , just a bit under the 8.3-percent increase for the period ending in August. The annual inflation rate remains near a 40-year high despite recent declines in gas and energy prices.

Additionally, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) just released today that compensation costs for private industry workers (employees) increased 5.2 percent for the 12-month period ending in September 2022. Benefit costs also increased 5 percent over the year.

So what does this all mean? Simply put, it’s sure a lot more difficult to pay for items when prices are rising on average 8.2% and salaries are rising on average 5.2%. The math doesn’t quite work.

In this current low employment rate, working with a temporary staffing agency can help negotiate your salary requirements. That’s why they are called an agency. They act as an agent on your behalf. Additionally, there is no fee to the job seeker (or employee) for their service.

Now we know not all temporary staffing agencies in NJ and other states don’t have the best reputation when it comes to certain things, but the truth is that temp agencies really want to make a successful job placement that is in the best interests of the candidate. Employment agencies don’t look good when there is employee turnover. Agencies are evaluated based on placement activity and retention. Secondly, a happy placement means a happy employee.

Consider partnering with a temporary staffing agency when it comes to shopping for a new position. Let the employment agency earn it’s fee with regards to its value proposition to maintain parity between inflation vs. wages. Not only does a higher salary or pay rate benefit the job seeker, but it also benefits the temp agency since fees are based on the employee salary pay rate. Partnering is the right word.

Utilizing summer interns can be a creative tool for an organization to maintain office productivity and let you take that much needed vacation. One consideration that many companies don’t realize is that summer interns need to be paid a fair hourly wage according to federal and state payroll tax guidelines. In other words, interns must be added to a company’s full time staff payroll. You can’t get something for nothing.

Even when companies acknowledge that they have to pay to play, they still hesitate to use summer interns because they must now officially add the workers to the company’s full time staff payroll. This reality can frustrate the CFO and Human Resources department due to the fact that summer interns who are directly employed will add to the overall company’s headcount. The employment of interns can also complicate monthly full time employee (FTE) census reports. The impact could cost throw off discrimination testing for retirement plans, add additional payroll processing costs, and simply just increase employee risks and exposure with regards to workers compensation insurance premiums.

A popular tool to alleviate such employer risks is to offload or outsource the summer interns to an employment agency that specializes in third party payroll solutions. With this remedy, the summer interns can still be retained, but the summer intern now becomes the employee of the employment agency. The employee or intern is simply transferred to the employment agency and the agency takes on the official employer of record. The employment agency will also engage as the W-2 employer and deduct state and federal taxes as well as insure the employee (workers compensation and professional liability).

A responsible third party payroll solutions firm will understand compliance issues, co-employment loopholes, workers compensation insurance risks, and payroll laws. When selecting a third party payroll solutions partner, select a provider that is financial solvent. After all, the employment agency is extending payroll on your company’s behalf. Also, inquire about the employment agency’s employee benefits offerings. Health benefits and 401(k) retirement plans will increase summer intern retention if applicable.

Overall, summer interns are a great way to maintain succession planning and office productivity. An easy way to get the payroll process going smoothly and quickly is to partner with an employment agency that specializes in third party payroll solutions. Why not let your trusted payroll specialist and advisor handle the compliance?