Gusto People Advisory Training Recap

Did you ever consider that payroll can improve the employer/employee relationship?  I bet not.  Recently the Accountfully team gathered to take part in a hugely beneficial training led by, Gusto to learn just that - and more. 

The training certified our team members as Gusto People Advisors and offered CPE credits to those who participated.  The focus was on the employee lifecycle, ways we can understand and support each, and the ways Gusto provides services and tools for each stage.  Not only did it help provide more tools for our team members when it comes to communicating with our clients about payroll, it was fun, engaging and interactive.  We got a lot out of this day, so we figured we would share the details surrounding the newly added People Advisory tools we have.

What Is a People Advisor?  What Can They Do?

Disclaimer:  this doesn't mean your accounting team will now double as HR, but it certainly helps bridge the gap by knowing where to send our clients.  People Advisors are accountants who combine financial expertise with people-focused advising to help you support your team.  We use smart, modern software (aka Gusto) to support your company's payroll, employee benefits, and people-operations needs.  

Some of the things a Certified People Advisor can do:

• Align your people strategy with your business strategy:
• address headcount, best employee types (contractor, full time, etc.) for your goals, understand law changes and government relief opportunities.

• Help set your team up for success:
• help align your business with HR resources like onboarding processes/checklists, new policy updates, employee handbooks, etc.
• recommend modern time tracking solutions that integrate with your payroll, like Harvest.
• Show you where to find benefits for your team:
• we can recommend resources to find the right amount of benefits for your team based on your budget and goals.
  

Support For An Important Asset of a Business:  Its People

Accountfully, and most of our clients use Gusto for their payroll needs.  We appreciate their tech savvy features, and their easy to use platform.  Another aspect we enjoy is the people-centric focus.  We learned the employee lifecycle, from onboarding and beyond, and ways we can help support each with Gusto features and tools.  This ranges from the level of benefits a company should use, to employee surveys, and more.  The focus was on the employee, and how they need to be supported and nurtured with the best outcome in mind.  

When we better understand the employee lifecycle over the course of their employment; what they need, when they need it, and why it is important, we can better advise our clients on which way they need to go to support their workforce goals.  For example, benefits.  When you understand the costs, as well as the impact to employees, you can offer expertise to a client seeking to grow and retain a team.  Using the analytics Gusto provides, and matching the data to the goals the client has can be a great start to accomplishing goals for hiring, retention, and boosting company morale.

How To Properly Communicate

In addition to all of the fun tools, analytics, and advisory teachings, we also got a solid dose of how to be a better communicator.  Seeing as communication is always at the forefront of business and personal relationships, it can never hurt to improve it.  We learned methods and techniques to better communicate with clients and assess where they need our help.  Once you can better understand the client’s pain points and goals, you can start brainstorming solutions.  We learned tools to use to make the accounting side of payroll processing more efficient, and the interpersonal tools to help clients better take care of their team.

The Main Takeaways

Accountfully team members now have another skill set to add to their tool kit - people advisory, and it was led by a modern payroll company, Gusto.  We learned how to better support our clients by practicing:

• Proper communication techniques.  We now have a better understanding and new methods to assess a client's challenges and brainstorm solutions, using the tools Gusto provides.
• Understanding the employee lifecycle and how payroll affects each part.  We can now address important areas a client needs to consider when taking care of their workforce.  
• Understanding the tools and analytics available to employers.  We have a better understanding of the analytics, tools, and KPIs that we can use to help a client assess their employee mayoral and efficiency, and set measurable goals.
• Deeper understanding of the payroll compliance/ technical aspects.  We leaned more about the classic things associated with payroll like taxes, reporting, and compliance.

As a newly trained group of People Advisory Certified accountants, we are excited to engage our clients with a deeper understanding of payroll from a people focused perspective. 

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If a team of well rounded people-focused accountants sound like your kind of team, we are here to help.  Tell us a bit about your business, and we will gladly chat more to see if outsourced accounting is a good fit for your business goals.