CNN put out it’s annual “100 Best Companies to Work For” report for 2010, which reveals some interesting reasons why the top 10 accounting and finance firm are the best places to work in the world. From superior compensation plans to posh work environments, this year’s top 10 have several things in common—something your company can emulate if you want to attract the best candidates.

Here’s a rundown of the similarities among the best finance and accounting firms this year:

Employee Wellness Programs – It’s becoming clearer to the best financial and accounting firms, that employee wellness is a huge factor for productivity in the workplace. Today’s workplaces are about finding ways to enjoy a healthier lifestyle, by adding fitness centers (like SAS’s state-of-the-art, 66,000-square-foot gym) and USAA’s 31-acre campus that features walking trails, jogging trails, and three fitness centers to choose from.

Diversity Initiatives – While the financial and accounting companies of the past promoted the typical white male professional, today’s best firms look for ways to encourage a great deal of diversity among staff. Edward Jones has actively made diversity a priority with new recruitment programs, as well as Deloitte that boasts a third of its employees as nonwhite, the highest percentage of the “Big Four”.

Work-Life Balance – Another outstanding feature of the best finance and accounting companies includes a priority of creating better work-life balance for employees. For example, Pricewaterhouse Coopers that gets thumbs up from employees for being flexible, and family-friendly Johnson Financial Group that gives new fathers (as well as mothers) up to six weeks of paid paternity leave.

Casual Work Environments – Being able to work in a less stuffy environment certainly gives the biggest financial and accounting companies a great rep too. Quicken Loans gives team members Razor scooters to travel around the office, which is adorned with scratch-and-sniff wallpaper, custom graffiti by a local artist and Foosball tables.

On-site Employee Perks – The best accounting companies would not be complete without other forms of on-site employee perks, such as onsite daycare centers, beauty salons and car cleaning services at SAS, as well as Goldman Sachs’ new $2.1 billion steel-and-glass tower that has a reading room, sky lobby, and 54,000-square-foot gym.

When trying to attract the brightest and best financial and accounting professionals for your company, it’s not necessary to spend a fortune on the above perks. However, you can easily make your workplace a more pleasant place to work by instituting employee wellness programs, and a friendly work environment in which your employee’s can flourish. For ideas on how to attract a better breed of finance and accounting staff, consult with the career professionals at Venteon.

As a busy and continually growing company, having access to a staffing agency can help you hire the best candidates and save you a lot of time and money in the long-run. Turnover rates and lack of skilled employees are something that can cost companies big bucks. The Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) estimates that it costs as much as $3,500 to replace just one $8.00 per hour employee, while other reputable sources say it can cost you up to half of a year’s salary to find suitable candidates for each job opening.

It shouldn’t be surprising then that a staffing agency can give you more resources for keeping great people on board, for increased productivity and profitability. Here are some ways that a quality staffing company, like Venteon, can save you a great deal of time and money with managing your personnel needs.

• Access to a wide range of skilled professionals. Before staffing agencies came on the scene, the only thing a company could do was start an expensive advertising and lengthy search campaign to find suitable candidates. This can take days, even weeks of weeding through resumes to find a handful of candidates who possess the right skills and background. With Venteon, you can have immediate access to a huge number of professionals in multiple skill sets.
• No time consuming interviews required. One of the biggest hassles of trying to recruit candidates on your own is the time it takes to interview the actual candidates. This can take as long as an hour or more for each candidate, not to mention having to reschedule or set up second and even third interviews with upper management. When you work with a staffing agency, the interviews are done for you, saving you time and aggravation.
• Pre-screened candidates mean no surprises. Worried about hiring candidates who have potential issues in their past, or those with addictions? This is a reasonable concern given the rate at which people falsely present themselves for interviews. When you allow Venteon to supply you with candidates, you can be sure they have been thoroughly background checked and can also be drug checked before starting work.
• Candidates ready to work on demand. Need a candidate in a hurry? This is nearly impossible without the help of a good staffing agency like Venteon. We have hundreds of excellent candidates who are ready to work on your job site for short term and long term immediate placement. Increase productivity and use our candidates for better results.
• Support for any issues with candidates. If you’ve ever made a poor hiring decision, then you can understand why working with a recruitment firm like Venteon can be to your advantage. We are here before, during and after the process of bringing great candidates your way, with full support should you experience a problem or need a replacement candidate.

For more information about Venteon’s career services, please take the time to visit our website today!

Strong interest and investment in alternative energy and electric-vehicle engineering
• 7 years automotive experience
• 5 years Hybrid engineering experience
• Overall knowledge and background in Electrical vehicles
• Familiarity with all power electronics components i.e.: power chargers, DC/DC converters
• Overall experience in vehicle components packaging
• Excellent communication skills
• Masters of Science in Alternative Energy Technology (2009) and Mechanical Engineering (1998)
• Pursuing MS in Electric Vehicle Engineering

Engine Development Engineer – Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering with 6 years of experience
• OBD responsibilities include evaporative system, clutch, engine position, cold start and fuel injector diagnostics
• Base engine responsibilities include startability, open loop fuel, and transient fuel
• Interfaced with dynamometer engineers and hardware engineers to develop initial calibration
• Worked with hardware engineers and suppliers to implement design changes for product improvement and cost reduction
• Traveled to extreme climates for development and verification of calibrations
• Developed and executed testing and development plans
• Evaporative emissions SHED development for federal and euro applications
• Evaluated drivability and work with lead calibrator and calibration specialist to root cause and resolve issues
• Open to Metro Detroit and relocation

“Hands On” Manufacturing Engineering Professional
• Bachelor of Science in Manufacturing Technology
• Past direct employment with: Ford Motor Company and Visteon Corporation
• Experience includes product development, assembly, testing, problem resolution, production & project planning, site development and product launches.
• Exceptionally strong manufacturing experience, including: QS/TS 16949, injection molded and assembled products, APQP, PPAP, Control Plans, PSW, etc.
• Outstanding communication skills: high-energy, knowledgeable, flexible, positive.
• This candidate is immediately available 

Mechanical Engineering Professional
• Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering
• 2 years of experience with Autodesk Inventor; 2D and 3D CAD experience
• Define system requirements, plan and implement test and development programs
• Integrate with other departments such as manufacturing, sales, purchasing and planning
• Strong communication skills:  verbal and written, interpersonal, teamwork
• This candidate is immediately available

If you are looking for ways to turn your Information Technology temp job into a permanent career with a great company, there are several ways to strategically handle this. The sooner you start looking at your IT career as being in your control, the better you will be when choosing assignments that help to meet long term goals. In fact, a recent article in USA Today indicated that as many as 5% of new positions with big IT firms will start out as temporary assignments while the economy recovers.

To position yourself for the best possible permanent IT opportunity, work with a reputable IT staffing company to get on board with the best IT companies in the industry. Then you can take these 4 steps to get permanent placement.

Communicate You Want a Permanent IT Job. This is something many temps are either afraid to do , but if you truly want to turn your temp job into a perm one, you must speak up. Let your recruiter know you have a desire for permanent placement in a prominent IT company. Since many IT workers are happy to take on temporary jobs or project work, do not assume that the recruiter understands this need. Also, don’t automatically think the temp job will become permanent. Communicate your request for a perm job often so that when the time comes for your contract to expire, you will be thought of for a perm spot.

Blend in With the Corporate Culture from Day One. From the very first day you start your new IT assignment, be a keen observer and find ways to become part of the corporate culture, and fast! Ask relevant questions, get to know your future co-workers, and learn as much as you can about the company founders and mission. Dress like the perm employees, engage in meetings and other company events. Find a way to conform to the corporate goals and become an invaluable member of the team. Once your contract is ready for renewal, you will have already established yourself as the person the company needs.

Keep Your IT Skills Up to Date. Use your time as a temp IT employee wisely and learn all you can about the work at hand. Take online IT courses, participate in webinars and use training that the company provides to further educate yourself. Keep your IT skills and credentials fresh to be a more effective worker. The more you invest in yourself through your experience on IT temp assignments and continual education, the better you will be in terms of landing a great perm job.

Treat Your IT Assignment as a Real Job. Many times, IT temps do not respect the work they do on a daily basis, considering a temp job as not a “real job”. This can lead to slacking and poor performance, which ultimately leads to termination. Instead, take your IT job seriously and show up for work on time and prepared every day. Be proactive and seek out more challenging work. Ask for responsibilities you can handle with ease. If you treat  your IT temp assignment as a real job, fairly soon it will become your perm job.

For more tips on turning an IT assignment into a perm placement, or to find your new IT job, please visit Venteon’s career portal today!

It has been estimated that the cost of replacing just one engineer is equivalent to half a year’s salary. This can be a hefty sum when considering that the average professional engineer earns between $43,000 to $160,000 USD annually (US-DOL 2010 statistics). In order to retain your top engineers and maintain personnel costs, an HR department must thing ahead and be proactive with retention initiatives. Here are 4 retention steps to consider.

Reward and Recognize Your Engineers – A company that retains engineers and other higher level professionals understands the critical nature of providing employee incentives for a job well done. While a paycheck is good enough for some, for most it’s not sufficient because dedicated professionals also look for positive feedback and recognition. This is especially true for engineers who work hard to design things and then expect a little praise for their genius. Take the time to develop consistent reward and recognition programs in order to retain your top engineers.

Provide Succession Planning – Even the most progressive company needs to stimulate its best minds through a program to promote its best engineers. This is an important step in the evolution of any company. Having a clear path for promoting within is often a deterrent to disloyalty among the brightest employees. Give engineers opportunities to work on higher level projects and encourage further education and certification to encourage them to stay aboard.

Know Your Top Players – As part of your company growth, it’s important to always stay abreast of the inherent skills of all your employees, but especially your top players. Maintain a list of the best engineers you have, then seek projects that will keep them engaged and challenged to stick with the company for the long term. Invest in these folks as they are the ticket to success as your company expands.

Seek Regular Employee Feedback – How can you know what your best engineers need unless you take the time to ask them? A good way to know what’s going on with your top employees is to ask for frequent feedback from all employees. Conduct a 360-degree survey at least once  a year and invite employees to share their honest thoughts and ideas. Remember, people don’t leave jobs, they leave because of poor management, so use this information to improve training of supervisors.

Want more helpful tips for maintaining your engineers and other support staff? Be sure to come back here frequently for more articles and resources.