During the Busy Season at the beginning of the year, many fiduciary companies sink into work. In this blog post, fiduciary company executives get practical tips on how their team can manage year-end closing and day-to-day operations in the coming quarter without night shifts and (too much) overtime.
Annual financial statements, tax optimisation and analyses: The beginning of the year is often associated with a heavy workload for fiduciary companies. What can fiduciary company managers do to prevent their team from drowning in work and burning out? Many industries with seasonal staff shortages work with freelancers and temporarily employed professionals. However, given the persistent shortage of skilled workers in the Swiss fiduciary sector, it may be difficult to recruit suitable and available fiduciary professionals in a hurry. Below are three more practical ways your fiduciary can mitigate the impact of the skills shortage and avoid staff shortages and recruitment stress during the busy season.
Leaders should fiduciary their staff more and delegate more
The first thing to remember is that as a leader you don’t have to carry the whole workload alone. Give your employees more responsibility and freedom now so that they can develop properly, acquire new know-how and take work off your hands in hectic times. You are not the only one to benefit from this: It contributes to the motivation and willingness to perform of many employees if they can develop and contribute in the workplace. At the beginning of the busy season, get an overview of how busy individual team members are and who might have capacity for additional tasks and could relieve you. Digital collaboration tools help with time management and the fair distribution of tasks. Reward good performance and helpfulness.
Especially before and during the busy season, however, you should be careful not to overburden your team. Regularly inquire about the well-being of your employees and make sure that no one is overworking for a long period of time. According to occupational psychologists, the first signs of excessive stress are persistent headaches, fatigue and exhaustion, irritability, mood swings, concentration problems, nervousness and an increased susceptibility to infections. If you recognise these signs in your employees or in yourself, you should find a solution in the medium term to reduce the workload in your team.
Automating repetitive tasks saves time and allows more focus
Fiduciary software allows you to not only better distribute work during the busy season, but to reduce it. Outsourcing routine activities to fiduciary software and a stronger focus on the core business significantly relieves fiduciary companies and can also take the pressure off you to expand the operational team for new projects or to immediately replace clerks after a termination. A fully automated accounting solution without software breaks completely eliminates the need for manual data entry, reducing the effort involved in accounting to control tasks. Conventional fiduciary solutions do not offer any relief in this area, as in most cases they only digitally map the previous processes and accordingly still require manual work – and thus eat up time that you could invest more sensibly, not only in the busy season.
What requirements does a fiduciary software have to fulfil so that it can make your everyday work more efficient throughout the year? The software solution must be able to relieve your team of as many routine tasks as possible, such as document extraction, reconciling sub-ledger entries or creating reports on company key figures. Central processing, management and storage of documents is another must. The fiduciary software should bring together all important data on a secure and stable platform that meets the highest data protection standards. User-friendliness is also becoming increasingly important: The current and next generation of fiduciaries no longer wants to struggle with partially digitalised solutions. Processes should function seamlessly and run via a single platform that is intuitive to use.
With the Swiss Fiduciary software Accounto the work is not simply digitised, but fully automated. Arrange a free live demo here and experience how and experience how your fiduciary company can significantly reduce the time spent on repetitive tasks.
A strong employer brand helps to retain qualified fiduciary professionals
A good employer brand makes a company more appealing to both your employees and potential applicants. In a fiduciary company with a constructive working environment, employees are more likely to recommend their employer to other professionals. So work actively throughout the year to create an open and productive corporate culture. Be responsive to your employees and support them as much as possible in their daily work. Even in hectic times like the upcoming Busy Season, proactively offer help in case of problems. Communicate openly and be transparent when it comes to the company’s goals and development. Express appreciation towards your employees. Show with words and deeds that your employees play a leading role in the company.
In addition to actively shaping the corporate culture, the use of innovative software solutions and tools in fiduciary companies has also become an important factor in workplace design. Fiduciaries of generations Y and Z in particular no longer want to deal with partially digitised solutions and software disruptions. If you can offer fiduciary talent meaningful work instead of repetitive tasks – thanks, among other things, to fully automated fiduciary software – this will help you retain skilled workers who are struggling in the labour market. With a strong employer brand and the right working environment, you can count on motivated and loyal employees for the next busy season.
Reading Tip: In this blog post, you will learn how your fiduciary company can recruit and retain sought-after fiduciary professionals in the labour market.
