Are Accounting Recruiters Trustworthy?

Can you trust an accounting recruiter?

Some business owners and hiring managers are skeptical of the kind of value that recruiters can provide, specifically around whether they’re capable of delivering talent that will actually stick around. Sometimes there’s a misconception that a recruiter will work hard to find a pool of appealing candidates, provide support during the offer process, and then just disappear, leaving clients just hoping that the new hire will remain with the company past the guarantee period (and no recourse if they don’t). However, this simply isn’t true.

Top recruiters will support their clients through every step of the process and remain available even after the hire is made in case additional hiring needs arise. They will walk alongside their clients for the long haul and avail themselves if questions or concerns develop. Their goal isn’t to take your check to the bank and walk away! The best recruiters aim to foster trust to build a relationship that will continue past the current engagement for everyone’s best interest.

Of course, there is always the possibility of bad actors in any industry, which makes being able to discern what constitutes trustworthy recruiters from less reputable recruiters a key component of finding an accounting recruiter for your next hire.
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Let’s look at the value recruiters can bring to your next accounting search and what sets top recruiters apart!

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The Benefits of Using an Accounting Recruiter
Accounting recruiters can offer a whole host of benefits to their clients throughout the many parts of a job search, including speed, ease, and quality of results. But did you know that using a recruiter can also be less expensive than handling the process yourself?

Typically, when businesses or organizations weigh the benefits of hiring a recruiter, they consider things like reducing the time required to conduct the search or gaining access to more experienced candidates and classify these as qualitative benefits rather than quantitative benefits. What does that mean? Often businesses will see faster hiring as more convenient or getting a better-quality candidate in the door as advantageous, but they don’t necessarily assign a dollar value to these things. However, all these improvements and conveniences have positive financial implications as well.

Let’s break down the benefits of hiring a recruiter using a financial lens:

• Speed

Using a recruiter typically shortens the time to hire considerably, which has significant financial implications. Recent recruitment data shows that the average cost of vacant seat is $98/day (with some roles far exceeding that value) and an average time to hire of 25-66 days for business services roles. When it comes to more specialized roles or senior-level accounting/finance roles, this cost can be far higher, which makes hiring a recruiter an even more shrewd financial decision.
When you take these figures into account, it quickly becomes clear that a recruiter’s fees should be viewed as an investment in the business that will save money right away, before the search is even finished.

• Vetting

Vetting applicants is a time-consuming process between combing resumes for relevant experience, identifying salary and work expectations, conducting background and reference checks, and doing preliminary screening interviews. Recruiters can do the heavy lifting through the early parts of the hiring process to free your hiring manager up to do more important value-added work.

The financial implication here is that your company’s key personnel won’t need to waste their time doing the grunt work associated with hiring. This is a classic example of when it makes sense to outsource a business activity for the sake of profitability. By handing off these important but time-consuming tasks your owner or hiring manager can focus more on their day-to-day job functions that keep the business running and bring in the revenue needed to sustain its hiring efforts.  

• Access

When you hire for a role in-house, you’re limited to looking for candidates on open channels (like job posting boards and professional sites) and your own limited professional networks. But when you use a recruiting company, you also get to leverage the breadth of their networks and existing candidate pipeline to find top talent.

Recent recruitment data indicates that as much as 73% of potential candidates are “passive” candidates, which means they’re not actively looking but they’re open to having a discussion about the right role. Why aren’t they looking? The reason is simple – they already have jobs in their field that keep them busy, and their employers value them enough that they haven’t given them any reason to look elsewhere. These candidates are the best of the best, so they don’t need to look around. The best opportunities come to them!

Again, this has financial implications because going after these kinds of candidates allows employers to skip much of the rat race of screening unqualified applications from job posting boards. Furthermore, top candidates like this are more likely to remain in their roles longer than their job-hopping counterparts that are always on the lookout for the next better opportunity, which reduces a company’s long-term costs.

What to Look for in a Recruiter
What exactly should you look for when hiring a recruiter to fill your open role?

One of the most important elements to consider is experience. But don’t get confused about what that means! When we advise that you prioritize experience, we’re not simply saying that you should pay attention to the number of years that they have been in business (although that never hurts). We are specifically referring to their industry experience and experience recruiting for the exact role that you need to hire. The best recruiters will have industry experience as well as role-specific experience to draw on when searching for and vetting candidates.

At ASP we are accountants hiring accountants and finance professionals for accounting and finance roles. Therefore, we are uniquely qualified to find the right person for your open accounting or finance position because we have an intimate understanding of the industry and the roles within it. When someone is looking to hire an accountant, they come to us because they know that our expertise sets us apart from other recruiters with more generalized experience. Also, because finance and accounting hiring is all we do, we hire into these roles more frequently than other recruiters, which gives us a constant finger on the pulse of the industry. The result is that we can find well-qualified candidates more quickly, oversee the interview and offer process more effectively, and negotiate offers more smoothly than our counterparts. 

​Top recruiters will be able to articulate their expertise through their website and key channels. They’ll certainly be active on their own blog and/or the blogs of other organizations as well as on popular social media platforms. They’ll likely also have a newsletter or email list so you can sign up to have valuable insights shared in your inbox. Some may even have an ongoing podcast or video resources that you can utilize to learn more about their approach. These not only serve as an indicator of the kind of value they can bring to the table, but also give you a chance to get to know their team better.

Remember, experience isn’t the only thing you should be on the lookout for when vetting recruiters though. You’ll also want to prioritize ease of working together. The most trustworthy recruiters will want to develop a close working relationship with their clients, so they’ll have a genuine dedication to providing good customer service. This will manifest itself in how they treat potential and existing clients and can often be seen in client testimonials and positive online reviews as well as recommendations from colleagues. Look for evidence of their hard work and dedication to relationship building in what others are saying about them.

When you need a trustworthy accounting recruiter, we’re here to serve you needs! We are a top US-based recruiting firm specializing in finance and accounting hiring. Our depth of experience in the industry gives us access to top-quality candidates across more channels than business owners, hiring managers, or HR professionals have access to on their own. We work with privately held businesses, publicly traded companies, and nonprofit organizations of all sizes across all industries. Plus, as contingent recruiters we only get paid when we find you the right candidate for your accounting or finance role. Contact us today to find out why more business owners and hiring managers choose us!