Making Your Team Attractive to New Hires

Is your AP or AR team the kind of place your colleagues would advise someone to join? The answer to that question may very well determine how likely you are to retain existing staff. 

In the next three years, nearly 40% of financial operations professionals say they will leave their current job. But there’s some good news: You can change that trend by making your team the kind of place your teammates would recommend to others.

In IOFM’s recent employee engagement survey of more than 400 practitioners, we asked a deceptively simple question: How likely would you be to recommend someone join your team?

On a scale of 1 (low) to 10 (high), roughly one-third fall into each of these three categories:

·         Detractors (1-6): those unlikely to recommend someone join their team,

·         Passives (7-8): those neither likely nor unlikely to recommend their team,

·         Promoters (9-10): those likely to recommend someone join their team.

More than 60% of promoters say they plan to stay at their current job until they retire – that’s nearly twice the share of detractors who plan to stay that long. On the flip side, among those who wouldn’t urge someone to join their team, nearly 1 in 4 say they are already looking for another job.

Figure 1. Correlation Between Willingness to Recommend Someone Join the Team and Anticipated Retention

Source: IOFM’s Best Teams to Work For

Overall, a higher salary was identified by more than 80% of respondents as something that would make them consider changing organizations. However, the data also found that the more content someone is with their job, the more money it would take to lure them away.

Nearly 60% of promoters would need at least a 20% bump in their base salary to consider leaving their current job. In contrast, about 40% of detractors would be willing to go elsewhere for such a raise.

Figure 2. The Happier You Are, The More Money It Would Take to Lure You Away

Source: IOFM’s Best Teams to Work For

Similar results emerged when asking about other attributes of a Best Team to Work For: clearer career tracks, more interesting work and a more supportive manager. Approximately half of detractors would leave for any of those three offers; those that are content with their current jobs are far less likely to be tempted away by them.

Figure 3. What Else Would Entice You to Leave?

Source: IOFM’s Best Teams to Work For

Trusting your manager is a key attribute to staying with your current team. The vast majority (62%) of promoters say their manager “always” has their best interests at heart. Far fewer detractors (13%) share that feeling.

Figure 4. Promoters Trust Their Managers

Source: IOFM’s Best Teams to Work For

In the end, if someone wouldn’t recommend their team to a peer, they are less likely to want to remain there themselves. Knowing what would make them more likely to urge someone to join your team can give you insights into what can help you retain your top talent.