Research from employment specialists Reed has found that half of UK workers are prepared to leave their roles to access hybrid working benefits. This means firms must now more than ever, double down on their employee retention efforts, especially accountants who have been hit badly by staff shortages. So they must showcase what they have to offer. Whether it be career progression, alternative career pathways providing a new challenge, learning and development or establishing greater flexibility around how and where people will work in a post-pandemic world. What is employee onboarding? Onboarding new staff is the process companies go through to welcome and integrate them into the workplace, a process that extends far beyond the first day, but continues until they’ve fully adjusted to their role and team. It allows for getting acquainted with the company culture and feeling welcomed and valued in their team. Why is onboarding important? If initial training and communication is poor, it can lead to demotivation. This may be one of the reasons that up to 25 per cent of new employees leave their jobs after their first three months. And this is a huge loss for a company that must repeat a costly hiring process to find a replacement. Good onboarding means staff reach full productivity faster, so getting new employees up to speed effectively can improve your company’s employee retention. As can outsourcing parts of the accountancy process to allow these employees to flourish. Onboarding process steps When welcoming new staff on board there are measures, like sending them a company welcome package, arranging a team lunch or dinner with colleagues, or preparing a presentation, that will make them feel welcome. Put together a plan for their first few days on the job and check all the important boxes, like informing co-workers, setting up their workstation or informing the front desk staff about the new arrival. So outsourcing tasks like tracking deadlines can help and allow accountants to concentrate on their staff. The chances are that new talented members of staff will stay and flourish if certain tasks can be outsourced. Organise deadlines and save time Deadline Tracker allows you to do away with complex spreadsheets and stop your calendar from being overwhelmed with customisable alerts, easy filtering of tasks, and intuitive, single dashboard setup. It can automatically manage deadlines and workflow by showing tasks in the order of priority that they should be worked on (overdue, warned, in progress and upcoming) in a kind of traffic light system. It allows you to organise, prioritise and track all of your deadlines in a single, easy-to-use system.  All of this allows accountants to concentrate on attracting and utilising top talent. We’d love to hear your view so do not hesitate to contact us, subscribe to our powerful software for free, or simply choose one of the paid packages, according to your requirements. Keep up to date with the latest content by following our social profiles on Facebook , LinkedIn , and Instagram .

Use the three-minute rule, but make sure you don’t run out of time

There are many jokes about missing deadlines. Here’s one: “I'm reading a book about meeting deadlines – I should have finished it a week ago.” How about this: “Why did the chef miss his deadline? – He ran out of thyme.” Amusing, yes, but for businesses and their accountants, missing deadlines is not a joking matter. The explosion of technology and digital data puts many challenges in the path of SMEs. Deadlines are a part of every accountant's job, but with accountancy evolving more into advisory roles, many traditional tasks are now being outsourced. Outsourcing can also help with hitting those all-important deadlines with tasks like tax filing deadlines, quarterly and annual financial report deadlines, and deadlines imposed by clients who need financial information by a set time. Bespoke deadline tracking technology can help prevent accountants from tearing their hair out by helping to manage their workload. It can also help as businesses strive to attract the talent needed for an evolving profession. A move to address this has been launched by the global body for professional accountants ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) and the International Baccalaureate organisation (IB). They have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that creates a pathway programme for IB students towards a professional accountancy career. ACCA’s diploma covers a wide variety of business and finance subjects, including technology and digitalisation, alongside core financial and management accounting subjects. Accelerated pathway into accountancy The IB is a non-profit foundation that offers four educational programmes for students. In the UK, it is studied mainly by young people in years 12 and 13 as an alternative to A levels. Accountants will benefit from this new talent ready gradually coming on stream and stepping up to the plate as the profession moves forward to a more advisory and consultative role. That does not mean that traditional tasks like compliance are overlooked and that’s where deadlines become ever more critical, and automation of tasks plays a clear role in improving efficiency.  Keeping pace with fast-moving environments and supplying solutions to hitting deadlines and improved efficiency are outsourcing experts who can unburden businesses of some of the more mundane tasks with the use of clever interactive technology. Deadline Tracker is pretty much a unique development in the market, automatically managing your deadlines and workflow by showing tasks in the order of priority that they should be worked on (overdue, warned, in progress and upcoming) in a kind of traffic light system. It allows you to quickly and easily see when you can actually work on a deadline and not just focus on the due date. Deadlines will never creep up on you again. No joke! We’d love to hear your view so do not hesitate to contact us, subscribe to our powerful software for free, or simply choose one of the paid packages, according to your requirements. Keep up to date with the latest content by following our social profiles on Facebook , LinkedIn , and Instagram .

Never miss a deadline and improve your client’s profitability

Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day, Fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way, Kicking around on a piece of ground in your hometown, Waiting for someone or something to show you the way When Pink Floyd recorded those lines in the song ‘Time’ on their classic Dark Side of the Moon album, they were making a point about procrastination rather than taking action and the final line makes it clear you are sometimes waiting for expert help. A missed deadline is costly in terms of incurring penalties and losing business with the added impact on your reputation. Missing filing annual reports on time on behalf of corporate clients, or tax returns for individual firms can be costly for both sides. Accountants are busy people juggling various accounts and losing track of deadlines can easily happen as the pressure builds. The days of keeping track of such areas with pen and paper have pretty much been consigned to the scrapheap, no doubt with a few exceptions, like firms still using: · An annual calendar on the wall with highlights on deadline dates · A drawn timeline on a roll of paper · Information drawn an annual wheel · An actual physical diary As the festive season is upon us, we wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and hope you will be able to celebrate with your family this year. In that spirit, maybe time to treat yourself by allowing your firm to outsource these key tasks to an expert like Deadline Tracker. A variety of businesses use these electronic tools to highlight key dates, facilitate day-to-day operations and keep track of plans for meetings or projects. Deadline Tracker is a dedicated tracking app that allows you to organise, prioritise and track all of your deadlines in a single system, offering customisable alerts, easy filtering of tasks, and an intuitive, single dashboard setup.  Our smart, intuitive dashboard allows you to create customisable alerts, and filter tasks as well as assign them to the relevant team member. In other words, it saves you precious time and then money. Pink Floyd no doubt would have approved. We’d love to hear your view so do not hesitate to contact us, subscribe to our powerful software for free, or simply choose one of the paid packages, according to your requirements. Keep up to date with the latest content by following our social profiles on Facebook , LinkedIn , and Instagram .

Time is money. That is a phrase attributed to Benjamin Franklin, one of the founding fathers of the United States of America. It is thought he meant that each choice you make has its cost, and delays through inaction, usually lead to a decrease in output.

The continuing growth in the UK economy after 18 months in the doldrums is driven by Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), which are the backbone of the UK economy.

1. Be friendly, but not too much

Would you carve your steak with a penknife?