Hiring New Employees During the COVID-19 Crisis
Spoor Bunch Franz is growing, and we’re modifying our hiring process while maintaining our culture.
The COVID-19 crisis hasn’t slowed our growth! We are always looking for new team members.
Since the crisis started, we’ve hired four new team members, including Britt Galipault, who was hired in July as a senior associate in the tax and accounting services department. She provides outsourced accounting services for SBF clients, using experience she gained working as an in-house accountant and controller at small and medium-sized businesses.
“The interview was via Zoom, which was different but not unpleasant,” she said. The onboarding process was also simple. “Believe it or not, at one company I worked for, I actually onboarded myself. So, from my perspective, the onboarding process was really well-organized and looked seamless.”
The pandemic has also changed how we are recruiting for new interns; we would normally be going to recruitment fairs and giving presentations in person at schools. Generally, recruiting for fall internships is not being done in person; instead, we’re doing presentations to college groups virtually to introduce them to our firm.
Most of the onboarding process for full-time staff roles has not changed, aside from Zoom interviews. We have HR staff who are working in the office, so our new team members have been able to come into the office for safely-distanced onboarding and for training on software, tools, and processes. For recruiting, we use Indeed and LinkedIn, but as usual, we are still getting our best candidates from referrals from current team members.
A referral is how Galipault landed at SBF, too. “I think COVID just amplifies the importance of the things job seekers should be doing anyway,” she said. “You don’t get jobs from websites, you get them from people. Networking and forming connections with other people are the most important tools you have.”
Our culture remains a top priority for us, no matter where our team members are working, and during the pandemic, we are taking steps to ensure our culture continues to thrive.
We started in the spring with Zoom happy hours and group trivia games, and now we’re doing weekly Zoom chats, where groups of 3-4 team members have their coffee at the same time and chat on Zoom. We are also still facilitating our New Employee Committee, which meets quarterly as a way to help new hires assimilate to our culture and encourages them to offer their fresh perspective on what we’re doing at the firm. From one of those committee meetings, we got the idea for Zoom chats.
If you have a broader network that includes people who might be interested in a position at Spoor Bunch Franz, feel free to share this post on LinkedIn. And if you know someone who is looking for a job at one of Tampa Bay’s best places to work, we encourage you to share this post with them, and we encourage them to reach out to us at info@sbfcpa.com.
