There is no doubt that hiring in accounting and finance right now is harder than ever before. And yet, despite today’s challenges, companies still need CFOs, which means that simply going without a CFO is not an option.
So, how do you overcome today’s hiring challenges to win the talent war? When you are hiring a CFO, it is going to be important that you focus on finding someone that meets all of your most critical needs first, before trying to check any boxes on your wants list. While this may seem like obvious advice for organizations that are keenly aware of the difference between their wants and needs for the role, many companies struggle to draw a distinction between the two. To complicate matters, what may be a need for one organization might be a want for another even if both are in the same industry or business stage. Even within a single organization what may have been considered a nice-to-have the last time the role was vacant could very well be a must-have this time around.
Let’s take a look at some of the criteria that organizations use to determine their needs and wants when hiring a CFO: