In a recent episode of Move Like This, Ashley Kostos, sales manager at Accountests, joined host Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk to discuss how data-driven assessments can help accounting firms improve hiring, retention, and career development. With staffing shortages and high turnover plaguing the profession, tools like skills and personality tests offer a clearer picture of candidates’ real-world capabilities, moving beyond resumes and interviews to assess true readiness.
Accountests’ assessments, developed specifically for the accounting field, evaluate technical skills, software fluency, and key personality traits like ethics and resilience. Firms can use these insights not only to make better hiring decisions, but also to identify training needs and map out meaningful career paths. The Pathway to Partnership report, for example, benchmarks employees against leadership traits to support long-term development.
Kostos and Ruszczyk emphasized that these tools also promote fairness by reducing bias in hiring and promotion. Instead of relying on instinct or familiarity, firms can make decisions based on data—particularly important for supporting women and underrepresented professionals. As Kostos noted, assessments aren’t barriers but growth tools that show where to invest in your people—helping firms build stronger, more resilient teams.
Key Takeaways:
- Use skill assessments during hiring to confirm candidates have the technical capabilities they claim, especially for roles requiring specific knowledge like preparing financial statements, using QuickBooks, or consulting with business owners.
- Administer the same tests to all candidates applying for the same role to ensure fairness, reduce bias, and remain compliant with EEOC standards.
- Leverage assessment results for onboarding and training, not just hiring. Use identified skill gaps to build tailored development plans from day one.
- Incorporate personality assessments to evaluate traits like ethics, emotional stability, and relationship-building, all of which are critical success factors in accounting firms.
- Routinely re-administer personality assessments every few years to track development and adapt growth plans as people and teams evolve.
- Use assessments to remove unconscious bias from promotion decisions, especially when identifying leadership potential or partner-track readiness.
- Invest in data-driven decision-making across the employee lifecycle, not just because it improves performance, but because it signals to candidates and employees that their growth matters.
We are pleased to partner with CPA Trendlines for podcast distribution now too. Anyone can listen to the episode, but you need to be a subscriber to watch the video version. Check it out here!