What cost-cutting initiatives have you been part of?

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This is a very straightforward answer that can be successfully answered by anyone who has had any job in any field. Draw on personal experience of cutting costs whether it was at the fast food place where you worked during high school or cutting costs in your own budget to ensure timely bill payments.

If you have accounting experience with cutting costs, this is the perfect place to demonstrate that knowledge.

"I've never cut costs in a specific accounting role, but during college when I worked as a team leader at the local Starbucks, I was able to cut waste costs by 25% by buying reusable cups for the employees since they were allowed three free drinks a day. By using reusable cups, waste dropped 25% that quarter."

"When I worked as a Business Analyst for my last company, we were outsourcing auditing expertise to a company that was constantly trying to find ways for us to spend more money. When I realized we were spending a million dollars a year on a team that did minimal work apart from running a few queries and providing advice, I started educating myself on query management. I quickly proved to my manager through parallel testing that I could do the work and we could eliminate that expense for the company. We saved the company one million dollars a year by handling control and queries in house."

"I've been able to present cost-cutting suggestions many times to my previous employer. The one that I feel had the biggest impact was when I suggested additional warehouse staff. We had three various shifts and still averaged 100 hours of overtime per week. I suggested to my employer that we hire one more warehouse employee for each shift and keep hours to 120 regular vs. 100 hours of overtime pay, which was time and a half. This recommendation saved the company $31,000 per year. They implemented this change across 15 warehouses the following year, amounting to nearly half a million dollars in savings per year."

Anonymous Answer

"During my time at a renewable energy firm, monitoring cash levels was always an issue and we had to do more with less. Every week, I produced a cash forecast and this cash forecast was used to identify the priority payments made those weeks.

From time to time, we would find something that we were paying for that was not providing any real added value and we would eliminate those costs. Some of which included storage, software costs, over-provisioning for office supplies, and even employees whose tasks or roles could be reassigned to address critical business needs.

I must say the most difficult part of that role was having to lay people off."

Chad's Feedback

Laying off staff is never easy, but is an unfortunate reality when a company is reducing costs and identifies roles that can be eliminated. Your example relates directly to the question, and the interviewer will be assured of your experience in this area.

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Anonymous Answer

"Downsizing physical facilities and staff."

Jaymie's Feedback

Can you give more context and details? What was your role? How did you make decisions and recommendations? Did you work as part of a team? What was the outcome? Interviewers will want specific details that showcase your knowledge, skills, and abilities.