Conducting telephone job interviews for accounting candidates can increase your success rate in finding the best fit for each assignment. Not only is this a good way to better screen accounting job applicants, but this tactic is growing in popularity with recruiters as a way to more efficiently handle the often time-consuming interview process. Before you start using telephone interviews, be sure to conduct them based on the principles that accounting professional should have, not on general phone interview practices.

Here’s what you need to know about interviewing accounting candidates by phone.

Use a secure landline to conduct the phone interview. As you prepare to do a telephone-screening interview with accounting candidates, be sure to use a landline from a quiet office environment. Avoid the common pitfalls of using cell phones to make the call, which can be easily interrupted. Never call the candidate at their current job to do a phone interview.

Allow ample time to do the phone interview. Schedule the telephone-screening interview in advance with the candidate. Make the call promptly at the given time, and stick to a specific period in which to talk with the client. Do not rush the candidate; rather give the candidate the proper amount of time to answer each question.

Ask the right interview questions for accounting candidates. Before you make the telephone screening call, be sure to prepare a list of relevant interview questions that are specifically geared towards the responsibilities of the assignment. Stay away from general interview questions, and use those that get to the root of the candidate’s skills and background in accounting.

Observe non-physical responses during the interview. With a telephone interview, you won’t have the advantage of a face-to-face meeting, and you won’t be able to evaluate the candidate based on body language. However, you will be able to “observe” verbal queues, as well as how well the candidate responds to your questions.

Follow-up with a personal interview. Once you have narrowed down the accounting candidates who possess the skills and experience you need, it’s time to set up a personal in-office interview. Use this time wisely, and be sure to re-ask any questions for which you need more information from the candidate. Having completed a phone screening, you will be ready with questions that will help you find the right candidate for the job.

Need quality accounting candidates to fill assignments at your company? Consult with the recruiting experts at Venteon today!

Despite higher than average unemployment rates around the USA; it’s often challenging to find the best professional job candidates to fill assignments. Oftentimes this difficulty forces organizations to choose less than stellar job seekers just to have a “warm body” in place. However, this method completely backfires in most cases, with poor productivity and high turnover rates the result of poor hiring decisions.

Why is it so hard to find good talent these days? It may not be so much about the candidates, but the way in which you handle your recruiting practices. Here we will give you some reasons why your recruiting efforts are falling far short of your goals, and how to remedy this.

Poorly written job descriptions. One glaring mistake that many companies make is not creating accurate job descriptions for every type of assignment. This must be done in order to attract the right kinds of candidates who will be more closely matched with the duties of each job.

Posting job advertisements incorrectly. There is a certain skill to writing effective help wanted advertisements, which should not be taken lightly. This is the first impression you will give to potential candidates, so write them in line with the job requirements and make sure they meet EEOC guidelines to avoid discriminatory hiring practices.

Inadequate interviewing skills. Once you have candidates available, do you know how to effectively interview them to make sure they have the right stuff for the job? If not, then you are falling short in your recruiting practices. Interviews can be tough to handle on your own, so leave this to the experts.

Lack of screening resources. Do you have an employee screening process in place to test candidates’ knowledge and skills pre-hire? If not, then you could be ending up with candidates who have outdated skills, or those who are not able to get into the flow of things for weeks at a time. This can seriously affect workplace productivity levels.

Forgetting background checks. Without careful background screening policies in place, you have the potential for disaster. All candidates should be criminal background checked, as well as drug tested. Additionally, career references should be checked thoroughly because candidates are not always what they seem; some even lie on their resumes.

No onboarding strategy. Once you make a hiring decision, what are the next steps in place to make sure new hires have a good experience? Chances are you just match new employees up with more experienced employees, which only sets them up for frustration and learning bad work habits.

Not partnered with staffing agency. If you are not currently working with a quality staffing agency, like Venteon, you are probably going to continue to struggle with the challenges of finding the best candidates for your company. You can actually cut costs and time that it takes to find great employees when you work with Venteon to manage your workforce needs.

As a general rule in HR management, it is considered both professional and courteous to send rejection letters to IT candidates who have not been chosen for the job. However, this doesn’t have to be as unpleasant or time consuming as you may think. Here are some tips for treating even your rejected tech candidates right, whilst building good will and a good reputation with thoughtful rejection letters.

The first thing you should know about rejection letters is that you should always send them to all candidates whom you have not chosen for an assignment. Why? Simply stated, to send rejection letters to only a select few people could be construed as hiring discrimination. In this day and age, with an increased number of unemployed people, lawsuits claiming hiring discrimination are rampant. Don’t take a chance – send them out to everyone you don’t choose and keep a copy with each candidate’s resume for at least 6 months in a secure rejected candidate file.

Secondly, develop a form rejection letter, that doesn’t sound too much like a generic letter. Start out with a respectful greeting to the candidate (you will address the candidate personally by name), followed by a statement that thanks the candidate for applying for a job with the company. Then add a general statement to let the rejected candidate know that while you value his or her unique skills and abilities, at this time you have decided to move forward with another candidate. Don’t get into specifics, nor address any particular skills or traits in this letter. Wrap it up by inviting the rejected candidate to apply again in the future for another open assignment.

Send the rejection letter out within 2 weeks of your hiring decision. Any sooner and the recipient is likely to respond in a negative way. However, this is a good time frame to let the rejected IT candidate know your decision so he or she can move on to another opportunity. If the candidate does happen to respond to the rejection letter, do not engage the person directly nor give any specifics about the reasons for not choosing them over the phone or by email. Diffuse the situation by repeating the rejection letter and again thanking the rejected candidate for their time, and letting them know they are welcome to re-apply if they wish for future consideration.

Remember, it’s very upsetting for a rejected candidate to get bad news, especially if the candidate has been out of work for a long time. Be kind and think how you would want to be treated given this situation. There is also the possibility that you can foster good will with the candidates by being professional and prompt about sending out rejection letters.

Need help finding quality IT staff, or want more hiring advice from the experts? Please visit Venteon for more information and resources!

Let Venteon Help you Hire the Best Engineering Candidates Before Your Competition Does

Searching for qualified candidates for engineering assignments? The market is about to become a tougher place to find them. Recent figures from trusted hiring trend sources indicate that there are shortages in engineers available for work, while the demand has gone up significantly over the last 90 days.

If your company needs engineers, here are some things to start paying attention to so you can position yourself for success.

According to the most recent data from WANTED Analytics, a reliable source of real time business analytics in the recruiting industry, there has been a recent spike of almost 10% in the advertisement demand for engineers in major cities across the USA. These areas include Los Angeles, New York City, Detroit, Houston and Chicago. For recruiters trying to position their organizations to attract the best engineering candidates, it’s going to be increasingly challenging to find experienced engineers across all industries over the coming quarter.

The largest demand for engineers included industrial engineers, which made up more than one-third of all the advertisements for engineers. This is actually a good sign that the economy and building is picking up around the nation. The increase in job ads seeking industrial engineers amounted to approximately 42,000 new positions, and increase of 17% from last year’s figures, with mechanical engineers and electrical engineers trailing closely behind at 13% and 9% respectively.

Nationally, there are some 16 engineering candidates available for each engineering job ad, with Detroit offering the least eligible candidates of 13 for every job and Los Angeles providing 22 qualified candidates for every engineering assignment. It’s natural that larger cities that have been affected by higher than average unemployment numbers, plus those in technology sectors would provide greater access to readily available engineering candidates. However, this still poses a challenge for companies trying locate the best candidates from an ever-shrinking pool.

It’s clear that in order to have the advantage over your competitors, your best course of action is to contract with a staffing agency that specializes in recruiting and placing highly qualified engineers. Venteon is your source for finding the best engineering candidates for exciting, key roles within your organization. With the support of our experienced team of recruiters, you can easily position your company as the employer of choice for the best engineers. The future of America is in your hands, so be sure to hire the best engineers for the job.

To find out more about Venteon’s innovative technical recruiting solutions, please visit our corporate website today!