Source for good employees... Where do you go?

[Unregistered]

What are your hiring practices? I'm located in SW Michigan and plan on hiring 2 or 3 people in the near future. Just curious if most people simply put an ad in their local paper or if they were successful using one of the large online resources. Anyone use a "head hunter"? Any insight would be appreciated.

Regards,

Steve

[S T]

Employees

If you haven't hired employees for your accounting tax practice before, you might want to see if you have an accountants temp hiring agency in your area. I have never used them, I always hire "green peas" college students and train, for the data entry.

I would believe another good source for tax prep or reviewers , could be your local EA Chapter, our Chapter here in So Calif, is always advertising.

Good Luck,

Sandy

[Black Bart]

Hiring relatives and friends

Here, you can call the nearby "large" town's branch of the Arkansas Emploment Security Division (also known as the "unemployment office") and they' ll send you a steady stream of people who haven't eaten for a week. I guess you could do the same in Michigan. This is assuming, of course, that you're ready, able, and willing to put up with interviewing and declining lots of applications.

Also, I once put an ad in the local paper and had several people come in over a period of a month. A small-town downside here, though -- I declined a local girl who works at the grocery where I shop. It's over ten years now and she's still miffed about it.

Nepotism is alive and well in this neck of the woods and I usually hire friends and relatives. My son and daughter-in-law once worked for me and they were both very good. The "employee" I referred to in a recent post (to sound impressive) was actually my wife (she does work-- excellent and at no charge). This isn't the best method by a long shot, but it's one that's available to almost everybody even if, workwise, most relatives don't exactly "set the woods on fire."

Others I've run through include three nieces, a nephew, my sister-in-law, my mother-in-law, a client's daughter-in-law (a slower person you will not find), a former co-worker's sister (ever see the movie "Single White Female"?-- that's her), my wife's close friend, my wife's close friend's daughter (good clerk, snappy dresser -- wore a fur coat to work -- quite the charmer too, but snagged a doctor -- forever ending her working days), and...hmmm...let's see now...guess that's about it. No, wait -- the ex-daughter-in-law of my former boss who was able to get my son's traffic ticket "fixed" for him since she was having an affair with the mayor (probably not pertinent to this discussion, but I thought it was an interesting side-note).

Check out your family tree. You may not get much work done, but you'll have lots of interesting experiences to tell about years from now.

[Rocky]

I'd pm you if you were registered. PM me if you can.

Rocky

[Hamacher]

I'd pm you if you were registered. PM me if you can.

Rocky

You have a PM!

[taxmandan]

I too use the family tree. My wife came into the office full time two years ago and so far so good.

Whatever source you use to locate possible hires, use a skills test to make sure they know what they are doing. Most important, test their computer skills, so many people claim to be proficient but can only open their e-mail and MSN chat site and are clueless on even basic office software. Don't take their word for it, test them.

Daniel

[Lion]

Employees

Grab a retired CPA who wants to work just seasonally for extra income. Grab an HRB employee who's fed up. If you want someone else to do the screening, call Robert Half or another financial temp agency. Where are you located, exactly?

[Unregistered]

Grab a retired CPA who wants to work just seasonally for extra income. Grab an HRB employee who's fed up. If you want someone else to do the screening, call Robert Half or another financial temp agency. Where are you located, exactly?

We are located in SW Michigan

Steve

[veritas]

Call Presidente Vincente Fox, heees preety good at job placement.