You heard it straight from the recruiter’s mouth: Companies with diversity programs enjoy a competitive advantage when it comes to recruiting top talent.

An overwhelming majority—nearly nine out of 10 executive recruiters—thought effective diversity programs provide a more robust talent pool.

According to Korn/Ferry International’s Executive Recruiter Index, more than two-thirds (68%) of executive recruiters thought executive leadership should be driving an organization’s diversity efforts, followed by the board of directors (13%), human resource department (11%) and diversity committee (8%).

Source: Korn/Ferry International, www.kornferry.com.

Even small businesses that have been victims of employee fraud are failing to put proper systems in place to prevent future occurrences, according to a Sage Software survey conducted by M/A/R/C Research. The findings suggest proper use of accounting software may be a valuable weapon in a company’s fraud-prevention arsenal.

The survey found that 21% of small businesses did not have a system in place to prevent employee fraud and another 13% didn’t know if they did or not. Furthermore, about a quarter of companies that have suffered fraud losses in the past have not established preventive measures. Twentyeight percent of small businesses that responded to the survey said they had been victimized at some time by employee fraud.

Of the respondents that had internal control systems in place to prevent fraud, 47% were using their accounting software as a fraud-prevention tool.

Source: Sage Software, www.sagesoftware.com/newsroom/news/index.cfm.

Despite worries about the economy, last year donations to public charities exceeded $300 billion for the first time.

A report from the Giving USA Foundation estimates charitable giving reached $306.4 billion last year, an increase of 3.9% from the previous year (though only a 1% increase when adjusted for inflation). Every type of public charity saw an increase in donations—the first across-the-board increase since 2001.

The foundation attributes the increase in 2007 to stock market performance in the first half of the year and increases in corporate and personal income.

Source: Giving USA 2008, www.givingusa.org.

In a recent survey by Accountemps, half of CFOs polled said interpersonal abilities are the most important communication skills for accounting and finance professionals.

Other in-demand communications skills include:

Presentation and public speaking ability—17%

Negotiation skills—16%

Writing ability—12%

Source: Accountemps, www.accountemps.com.

When it comes to information security know-how, many internal auditors said they wouldn’t make the grade.

The 2008 Internal Audit Capabilities and Needs Survey from Protiviti found that among internal auditors, the top technical competencies in need of improvement were ISO 27000, enterprise risk management (ERM) and fraud risk management (FRM).

Chief audit executives constituted more than a third of the 516 audit professionals who participated in the study. CAEs also named ISO 27000, the certification standard for information security developed by the International Organization for Standardization, as their top competency in need of improvement, followed by COSO and FRM.

ISO 27000 was not listed in the 2007 Capabilities and Needs survey. Bob Hirth, executive vice president of global internal audit solutions for Protiviti, said in a release, “An ever-increasing reliance on IT-generated data and the plethora of data security breaches are contributing to the need for internal auditors to enhance their skills in this critical area. Clearly, more organizations view themselves vulnerable to such risks and are relying on internal auditors to help mitigate and monitor them.”

Source: 2008 Internal Audit Capabilities and Needs Survey, www.protiviti.com/go/2008capabilitiesandneeds.

It’s now easier for tax practitioners and taxpayers to make changes to installment agreements, thanks to the addition of several new features to the Service’s Online Payment Agreement application.

The interactive application now allows:

Individuals to revise due dates and payment amounts on existing agreements.

Individuals to revise existing regular and direct deposit installment agreements and extensions to those agreements.

Tax practitioners with valid authorizations to use either the signature date found on their approved Form 2848, Power of Attorney and Declaration of Representative, or the caller ID as an alternate way to authenticate when requesting agreements for clients.

According to the IRS, more than three-quarters of taxpayers eligible for an installment agreement can establish one using the online application, which has been used by more than 30,000 taxpayers since its launch in October 2006.

Source: The IRS, www.irs.gov.

“We cannot audit our way to full compliance. … We need to supplement our efforts with new tools, such as more information reporting, soft notices and self-correction options for taxpayers.”

—IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman, July 18

Source:The IRS, www.irs.com.

The number of outstanding small business loans between $100,000 and $1 million increased by almost 32% between June 2006 and June 2007, according to the Office of Advocacy of the Small Business Administration.

The study, Small Business and Micro Business Lending in the United States for Data Years 2006–2007, found that the total number of small business loans (including those under $100,000) increased by 15% while the total dollar value of loans increased by about 8%.

All of these were higher rates of growth than over the June 2005 to June 2006 period.

Source:Office of Advocacy, SBA, www.sba.gov/advo/research/sbl_07study.pdf.

It may be easy to get a message across in your native tongue, but there are numerous hurdles and risks to overcome when you’re asked to deliver your message in another language.

Susana Baumann, director of LCSWorldwide Language and Cultural Services, shared her tips for successful translation projects with the Oklahoma Society of Certified Public Accountants.

Baumann suggests the following steps when preparing a project—particularly marketing or branding materials— for translation:

Remove regional or common expressions from the text.

Review and finalize the text before sending it to a translator.

Prepare a glossary for a consistent translation.

For more tips on translation preparation and steps to follow when choosing a translation service provider, see Baumann’s article, “¿Habla Español? When New Business Depends on It,” at www.oscpa.com/includes/showwire.asp?i=564.

Source: OSCPA, www.oscpa.com.

More job-seekers lie on their resume than you might expect, according to a CareerBuilder.com survey of more than 3,100 hiring managers and 8,700 workers nationwide.

While only 8% of workers admitted to bending the truth, nearly half of hiring managers reported they caught a candidate lying on a resume. The most common resume lies reported were:

Embellished responsibilities (38%)

Skill set (18%)

Dates of employment (12%)

Academic degree (10%)

Companies worked for (7%)

Job title (5%)

What happens when fact turns out to be fiction? Almost 60% of hiring managers who caught a candidate in a fib said they automatically dismissed the applicant.

Source: www.careerbuilder.com.