11y
Thank you for your comments; we appreciate any opportunity to find improvement in the work we are involved in. I would like to respond to some of the cons on your list to see if I can provide an employer outlook on the items you have mentioned (hopefully in a constructive and as non-biased as possible).
Negative tone at the top: Our CEO is very passionate about growing the Now CFO brand/client base, and unfortunately that passion can be relayed as frustration when things go unfavorably or when mistakes are made – I have found it best to separate the message from the messenger. This company is a home grown business to now over 100 employees, that passion is both our greatest strength, and at times our Achilles heel.
Uneducated sales force: this is a work in progress, all of our business development representatives have their bachelor’s degree, and largely they have communication degrees. The challenge and benefit is they are not accountants but relationship focused people (extroverted not introverted). Additionally this position is also a support role because closing the sale and growing a practice is ultimately the Partners responsibility, with their accounting background being balanced out by an energetic communications degreed professional. I believe that our sales force could be portrayed as uneducated due to their lack of financial/accounting background, that learning curve is less steep than trying to find an extroverted accounting professional interested in business development.
Poor communication from management: I would also add that our internal employee to employee communication needs effort as well; we hold process improvement calls with all middle management to address these issues. We have implemented an intranet website with training and communication tools which has largely been ignored by employees, this has been a large focus of resources and effort to implement, but we are committed to improving.
Benefits: Our benefits are comparable to companies double our size, but like Jell-O – there’s always room for more, as we continue to grow we will continue to invest in our employee benefits. Currently we offer 7 paid holidays, two weeks’ vacation/sick time + schedule flexibility, 401(k) – not yet matching, health insurance (HSA or HMO), dental, vision, and other supplementary options like life, AD&D, short/long term disability.
Being “home grown” means we for the most part have tried to figure it out when we get there. We are in the stage of needing real processes and resources to ensure we are meeting client and employee expectations. However this means we need problem solvers and communicators to join our team to sincerely effect additional change.
