It’s hard to believe that we are fast approaching year-end, one of the busiest seasons for accounting and finance professionals. As planning for the close of year-end gets underway, it’s critical to incorporate staffing into your list of considerations. Many businesses are facing a talent shortage due to the pandemic, staff burnout or the overall tightening of the labor market. It’s never too soon to ensure your finance and accounting team is well-staffed, trained and equipped to close this year’s books.
The Minneapolis talent solution experts at Brillect, a leading provider of hands-on finance, accounting and project management expertise, have identified the top 3 ways to help set your staff up for success when it comes to managing year-end audit, accounting and reporting.
1. Identify gaps and pain points.
Seek input from your team on opportunities and challenges going into the end of the year. What’s working? What’s not? What red flags do you see and how can you get in front of them? Getting a line of sight to these issues now – rather than in December – can help eliminate stressful and costly delays and mistakes. Sometimes, bringing in a third party to help identify and discuss solutions to these challenges offers a fresh and more productive perspective on how to streamline and maximize efficiency.
2. Stay ahead of staff burnout.
Balancing work and home life has never been more challenging, and many employees are feeling increasingly stressed and overwhelmed from the constant balancing act. Loss of productivity, decrease in quality of work, frequent absenteeism and festering cynicism and negativity are all signs of burnout. Something else to keep an eye on? Employees, versus those in leadership roles, are disproportionately affected. Microsoft’s annual 2021 Work Trend Index report found high levels of overwork and exhaustion among employees, but a major disconnect compared to managers. Some 61% of business leaders say they are “thriving” — 23 percentage points higher than those without decision-making authority.
Remember that acknowledging burnout is different than addressing burnout. It’s not enough just to call it out. Leaders need to actively engage with their teams to identify warning signs of burnout and develop an action plan to help root it out. Listening to how your employees feel is a good first step, but if you don’t take action, it can exacerbate burnout and job dissatisfaction.
Year-end is synonymous with long hours and heightened stress, so taking steps now to ensure your employees feel as motivated, engaged and empowered as possible will help yield benefits in the months ahead.
3. Assess staffing levels.
Having staff on hand is a great first step but you also need to ensure you have the RIGHT staff in place to bring year-end to a timely and accurate close and to avoid unwanted turnover. Do you have the right skill sets on your team? What is your bandwidth to manage year-end given other high-priority projects? Did key talent retire, change jobs or move to a different project? Is there a project manager with capacity to take the lead? Make sure that the roles and responsibilities required for year-end align with your talent. Will you need to bring in additional short-term or project-based talent? If so, now is the time to begin your search and reach out to an accounting, finance and project management talent solutions expert such as Brillect who can help you chart a path forward.
Act Now and Thank Yourself Later – Our Minneapolis Finance & Accounting Firm is Here To Guide You
Investing the upfront time and effort to plan for year-end will pay dividends – (pun intentional!) – not only in December and January but also in the activities that follow, such as your audit. At Brillect, we know year-end because we’ve lived and breathed it at companies both large, small and in-between. As accounting, finance and project management professionals with decades of experience, we’re ready to put our expert knowledge to work for you by making sure you have the right talent and strategy in place to make your year-end process the best it can be. So whether that means adding a temporary CPA, outsourcing a project to free up capacity or engaging our expertise on how to streamline and maximize efficiency at year-end, Brillect can help you manage year-end with confidence.
Interested in learning more? Get to know our team of highly skilled accounting, finance and project management professionals and contact us today to set up a consultation to discuss your specific needs.
