The Wize Way

Episode 134: How to Onboard and Train New Staff

• Wize Mentoring for Accountants and Bookkeepers • Season 2 • Episode 134

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In this episode of The Wize Way Podcast for Accountants & Bookkeepers, Brenton Ward, Jamie Johns, and Ed Chan talk about the importance of training your new recruits and why having a proper onboarding procedure equates to investing in the balance sheet of your firm. 

Learn more on this episode to get you equipped in onboarding new recruits for your firm! 

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PS: Whenever you’re ready… here are the fastest 3 ways we can help you fix and grow your accounting firm:

1. Download our famous Wize Freedom Strategy Map for FREE - Find out the 96 projects every firm owner must implement to build a $5M+ firm that can run without them - Download here

2. Need to Hire right now? Book at 1:1 FREE hiring assessment with our WizeTalent recruiters to help find your next best employee locally or offshore – Click Here

3. Book a 1:1 Wize Discovery Session – Spend 30mins with our Wize CEO, Jamie Johns, a $7M firm owner who is ready to give you his entire business plan to build a firm that can run without you – Find out more here

Brenton Ward:

From Wize Mentoring is The Wize Guys Podcast, a show about accounting and bookkeeping practice owners and the many stories, lessons, and tips from their experience of transitioning from a time- poor practice to a business that runs without them. I hope you enjoy and subscribe. Coming back to the recruitment process and overlaying our deep and narrow team structure to make sure that we're getting that resource mix right because one of the things we want to talk about today is coming back to whether we've hired a finder, minder, or grinder. I think each of those different layers guys will require different tasks and different training when we bring new staff on board. So I want to come back and just recap on getting the resource mix right. But, more importantly, once we've got that resource mix right, we've recruited for the roles that we need to recruit.

Brenton Ward:

Where do we start? Jamie? We've acted fast. We've and you know we've acted fast. We've hired slow. We've acted fast. We've taken a methodical process in terms of um recruiting. Now take us through your, your approach on how important it is to hone in on this investment in onboarding and uh training from from day dot of a new team member.

Jamie Johns:

So, to recap, Brenton, you really want to know, like the steps, If someone's starting tomorrow after you've been through the recruiting process, what does the next 30 to 90 days look like?

Brenton Ward:

Yeah, and then I would really like to drill down into what that looks like from a finder to minder and grinder. I'd like to dive in, to start with, what your focus is, whether they are a find-a-minder or a grinder, when they come in the door, and how you approach onboarding.

Jamie Johns:

Yeah. So, look, there are different idiosyncrasies there, whether they're, obviously, you know, offshore or onshore, but then there's also, you know, common traits that you'll have between both. So, yeah, look, to start off, really, the first thing you want to do is you know, as part of the recruitment process if I step back a little bit is essentially, who are they going to report to, so who is the senior client manager on their team and who is the senior production manager, and you would introduce them to both those people. So one of the first things you'd want to do from day one, so if they're in the Philippines, is get on a call and welcome them to the firm, introduce who they'll be going to work with, and you know the key people. There is the senior client manager, Ed often calls them the three stable terminals and it might be the assistant client manager and the senior production manager, and so you know, introduce them to those main people you know, introduce them to those main people and then, obviously, introduce them to the rest of the team, because while we do checks and bookkeeping and all that, like we're just a people business, it's all about the people. So introduce them to the team. That'd be the first thing. The other thing that we do is then I really like to give them a letter from myself as the owner or the founder. The other thing that we do is then I really like to give them a letter from myself as the owner or the founder or the CEO, whatever you want to record. Call it, and we do have a sample letter in the wise gold about this and that letter really should set the scene around the culture of the firm. Ed has a really good example. I think that Chan and Naylor, they'll use we've just modified it, use the things that you want to talk about in that letter, and go through that introduction with the senior client manager and with the person.

Jamie Johns:

It's things about the culture of the firm. You know, one of the things is responsiveness. You know responsiveness to your team members. You know responsiveness to your team members and some of the time when, depending on who you hire too responsiveness to the clients as well, and that's a really critical one. The other one that you can cover as well in that is what it's probably more softy sort of touch. People talk about mission, vision, and values so you can talk about. You know what the vision and mission of your firm as well.

Jamie Johns:

In that introduction, one that I really like to do and I've often shared with this, is, is the firm, what I call the firm's guarantee. So what's your firm's guarantee? Another way to word it is what's your firm's unique selling proposition. What is it about your firm? That is different to every other firm um in your mind. So I call that the firm's guarantee and I really love it, whether it's a finder, a minder, or a grinder, I love everyone to know what that is. I don't expect them to know off by heart. The finders need to know that off by heart because one of the first questions that a new client will have as well is why should we, you know, come to Sky Accountants, and so they need to know that off by heart.

Jamie Johns:

The other thing I'd like to give them, Brenton, is an employee handbook, and I think there's a sample again in the vault. The employee handbook can cover any myriad of things in there how to apply for annual leave and then, built back onto that employee handbook is a list of videos that you want that person to watch as well. Then some of those videos. We actually just refer straight back to the Wize Vault. So we'll just reference that to the Wize Vault and they can have a look at some of those videos as well. And then not only that, it's all your internal videos, so your how-to videos as well, that you've got on your own intranet, okay and so? Yeah, that's probably answered that question, but that's what we do.

Brenton Ward:

That's good and I want to drill down into some of the finer points on that in a second. A bit more context from your angle the importance and the difference in training and how we onboard, based on whether we're onboarding a finder, a minder, or a grinder. Any suggestions or contributions there?

Ed Chan:

Yeah, sure, I just wanted to echo what Jamie was saying. To begin with, for every staff member that comes onboard, I give them what's called a chairman's welcome, and in there, it itemizes what we expect of them, and right up on the top is they need to return their emails and phone calls on the same day. They receive the email and at the very latest the next morning, because often you might be in a meeting and you can't do that that day, but it's the first thing you do the next morning. And if you can't get back to the client the next morning, you've got to get somebody else to call the client, to let the client know that you'll get back to them later in the day and that's the first thing I give to them. That's part of Chairman's Welcome, and it's a sack of wool fence if they don't do it. So I set the bar really really high, and the reason for that is that you can imagine if you had 160 people and they took their time to respond to the clients. I mean, it's easy if you have one staff and the staff is sitting right next to you and you're making sure that they're doing it, but when you've got 160 and they're right across Australia. It's nearly impossible to manage 160 if they don't reply instantly.

Ed Chan:

And we are in a business of service and the thing that differentiates your firm from the one down the road is your responsiveness. If you can just put yourself in the client's shoes, if you were dealing with two businesses and one responded to you quickly and the other one just didn't respond to you, the body language they give you is that they don't care. They've got other, more important things to do and you're very low on their priority list, whereas the one that responds to you very quickly tells you that you're very important to them and you're really high on their priority list. So the message that we give now? You know the owners of the businesses can do that instinctively and they understand that, but it's the staff that don't particularly understand that, because a lot of the staff are input- focused and they're not output- focused, meaning they're focused on. If they're grinders, they're focused on doing the work and getting the work out, not particularly focused on the client right. Then other staff are more input- focused, meaning you know it's about working hard and working fast, but they may not necessarily produce anything. So just because you're busy doesn't mean that you're productive and it's a bit like saying it's a bit like the salesman who works seven days a week but doesn't sell anything. You know, it is about the output. It's a bit like the salesman who works seven days a week but doesn't sell anything. It is about the output. And so I put that right out there, right up there, because often the staff that come on board don't realize that we're here for one thing, and that's to service the clients. So that's really important.

Ed Chan:

Second thing, then, in the first three months you've got to watch out for is that it depends on whether the person that you've recruited is an experienced person or that person is a graduate. If it's an experienced person, then whatever they do in the first three months is going to be like that for the next three years or 30 years. Okay, that's my experience. So that's for experienced staff. Now, if they're inexperienced, like graduates, then you want to see a trend. They're learning something new, they're sort of learning, and they're improving every day. You need to see that trend. They're improving, they're learning, they're improving and they're getting better every day. And if they're not improving every day, then there's something wrong. So just go back to the experienced person.

Ed Chan:

If that person is very slow, for example. See, in our industry, we can't have staff that's very slow because we charge our time out to clients, and if someone takes two hours to do something instead of one hour, then whatever you're paying them just doubled. It's like it's costing you twice as much because they're twice as slow to produce output because it's all about productivity and output and they shouldn't be working in our industry. They should be working in, maybe in commerce, or they should be working in the public service. They're not suited to our industry. They should be working in, you know, maybe in commerce, or they should be working in the public service. They're not suited to our industry and often we think that we can just go out there and hire accountants. But they're accountants and then they're accountants and they're different types to suit different industries.

Ed Chan:

And in our industry it's about speed, getting through the work, and getting production out the door. So it's really important that in that first three months, if that person is experienced and they're very, very slow, they're not going to change. So it's better to move them on because you're going to lose three months of getting somebody else in there and training them up. So if you don't move that person on quickly, then in three months' time you've got to start again. It may take you another month to find another person and that's four months and you've lost four months of training the right person. So move them on very quickly and that's extremely important. Now, just to break it up between finders, minders, and grinders. Now what you should do in those first three months depends on, obviously, how big you are, because it changes if you're a large firm compared to a small firm and I always say that you've got to micro train so that you don't have to micro- manage them later on.

Ed Chan:

If you put the time and effort into training them, often some accountants see that as a waste of time. They see it as you know. I'm spending time with them. I've got to write the time off. It's just a waste of time, whereas I see it as a balance sheet investment. You know, if you invest a balance sheet investment with these people but you know I'm saying this on the presumption that these are competent people, not you found the right competent person, not an incompetent person which you've got to let go then you've got to micro-train up front so that you don't have to micro-manage them later on because really good output.

Ed Chan:

People don't like to be micro-managed. They know how to. They just do the work, they're very productive and they want to get on with it. They need some direction as to what they should do and they just want you to let them get on with the job and you measure them by their productivity. So micro-train them up front so you don't have to micro-manage them later on. Now break them up into grinders, minders, and finders.

Ed Chan:

So obviously if you're a small firm and you're training a grinder, then you've got to get in there and teach them the technique, Because it's about technique. Someone could take an extra 30%, 40% or 50% longer to do something based on their technique. So you know, as an experienced accountant, you can go the long way to get a result, or you can take two or three steps and get there very quickly. And it's just the experience that you have in getting to the point very quickly and you need to pass that on to them. They don't know that. They just bring their baggage with them from the previous firm that they've worked with and often you've got to get that out of them. And if they're a minder and finder, then it's a different technique to train them, because it's more about interpersonal skills.

Ed Chan:

So you have to, you know, work with the senior client managers on how to communicate with the clients. And I'm not talking about speaking English, I'm talking about being able to communicate to the client at their level. And often when you get in front of clients, they're at different levels of knowledge and you can, you know, with someone that's financially literate, you can use terms like can I have a list of your debtors and can I have a list of your creditors. But if you're talking to a tradesman who doesn't understand the financial language, then you've got to use language like, can I have a list of the people that owe you money? Or a list of the people that you owe money to? And if you can communicate and connect with them at their level own money too and if you can communicate and connect with them at their level, you're at a heightened level of connection with your clients. And, as I said, our business is about people and connecting, and communicating with people. And if you can't communicate, then you're not going to be suited for a senior client manager.

Ed Chan:

So the the training for a senior client manager is different from a senior production manager. So the senior, the senior client manager. You're looking for that connection with the clients, that ability to have rapport, instant rapport. The likability factor you know people, you have to be a likable kind of a person and and the people person you know that. That's right at the top and the. The things you look for are different for the different roles in this, in this deep and narrow team.

Ed Chan:

What we recommend and and how you approach it depends on that and also it depends on how large your business is. Now, if you're small, you've got to do that. It's hands-on training from yourself. But if you've got a large organization, then your senior production manager should be doing the training for the grinders under his or her team, and then the senior client manager should be doing the training for the assistant client manager for the communication skills and their interpersonal skills.

Ed Chan:

So it just depends on those categories. But at the end of the day you've got to look for, you know, if it's an experienced person, first three months, whatever they're like that first three months, they're going to be like that for the next three years or 30 years. If they stay there, they're going to be like that for the next three years or 30 years if they stay there, and then, and if it's a graduate, you want to see, you want to see an improvement every day and they're, they're, you know the trend lines going upwards and you need to see that, otherwise it's best to move them on a look, I'm just going to add a couple of quick things.

Jamie Johns:

Particularly with the grinders, the way that you see that they improve is through their review points. So what you never want to do is just say, oh, it's quicker to do it myself, as much as humanly possible. And I often get this question well, how do I know they're improving? Well, you'll only know if they're improving if you do review points. And then over time, their review points become less and less and less um. And you know, I remember my experience when I started as an accountant, you know, and, and there was a couple of really good firms that I worked for and I knew that I was progressing because the review points got less um. But you're not going to know that, you're not going to know that review points will be less if you continually you know, oh, it's quicker if I just do it myself, I'll fix their mistake. Don't fix their mistakes, let them fix their own mistakes. So I'd only add that.

Jamie Johns:

And then what Ed said about the finders is I've trained senior client managers and trained assistant client managers and I'll always double back the meetings with the clients so that they can see my interpersonal skills. They can see how I handle a particular client, whether it's a doctor or whether it's a tradie, and even phone calls. A lot of the time, when I'm training a client manager, I will chime them in to the phone calls. I will chime them in to the phone calls and they'll mimic you and they'll watch you. But you've already hired them for that likeability factor and the people skills that Ed said. Then you just need to fine- tune and tweak their skills so that they can do their role. So yeah, just to add a little bit there.

Brenton Ward:

Thanks for tuning in. If you liked this episode, please remember to subscribe and leave us a five-star review. A little bit there.