Development is an often discussed aspect of talent acquisition that is frequently overlooked. Organizations know the importance of retaining their top performers but often don’t build in enough development to keep their staff growing through their roles. While employees are definitely enticed by excellent compensation and benefits, they often bring a passion to their work that needs opportunities to grow. Without professional development strategies – and they can take many different forms – even employees who are happy with their roles and the company they work for may get the urge to look elsewhere.
Your tax team is no different. They don’t want to be drones within your organization, fulfilling the same tasks over and over again. They want to grow in their profession and expand their skill set as much as anyone else. Here are a few ways you can implement professional development strategies for your tax team.
Trade Seats for a Day
This strategy helps build up your team from the bottom up. You may have some team members who are comparatively inexperienced. One way you can help them conceptualize the work of the entire department is by having them do the work of another team member for the day. By doing this department wide, you accomplish two things. You engender empathy throughout the team as now everyone has a snapshot of what it is like to sit in someone else’s seat. It also can inspire junior members to improve their skills to the point where they could hold a senior position, should one become available.
Help Up the Ladder
As your junior staff members start to flourish, a great professional developmental strategy to implement is to have them train with and be mentored by your management team. This can have some very positive benefits for all involved. For the junior members, they are able to build their leadership skills as well as gain a better understanding of what it means to truly manage people and tasks within a department. It also encourages loyalty as you have provided this opportunity and have shown an openness to promote from within by doing so. This benefits the firm as well as it helps feed the leadership pipeline as you identify team members who have shown strong leadership traits. Having internal options to turn to in the event of a senior level departure is a great safety net to have.
Teamwork Makes the Dream Work
We all know how important it is to have excellent teamwork within the tax team and company wide. This is much easier said than done, depending on the size of your company. Working in professional developmental strategies that build teamwork will strengthen your tax team by creating new levels of trust. Teamwork can be built in many different ways. One way to instill teamwork from the outset is to be committed to having a diverse and inclusive team. Another way you can develop teamwork within your day to day processes is by making roles and responsibilities clear and give your tax team some room to make decisions for themselves. This will force them to work within the guidelines of their roles to land at tenable solutions. You can even take an afternoon and play games that require your tax team to rely on each other in order to achieve an objective. This gives them a chance to blow off steam while building trust.
Implement Staffing Solutions
You can rely on Unity Search to provide top notch staffing solutions for Accounting & Finance, Tax Services, Technology and HR. We have built a reputation in talent acquisition for being able to match the right candidate to the right firm for a fit that can create long lasting added value. If you are looking for a stellar addition to your team or searching for your next opportunity, contact us today!