Hiring Your First Finance Employee – When, Who and What to Think About.

Hiring your first finance professional is a critical milestone for a growing business.

As your organisation expands, accurately understanding your finances becomes increasingly complex and even more essential. The problem many of our clients face when they reach this milestone is that they are in new territory when employing a financial specialist and are naturally worried about making a mistake. It’s an important decision, but while every situation is different, there are some core things to think about.

When should you look to hire your first financial employee?

Initially, outsourcing your accounting services is the most practical solution for most businesses. However, as your company grows, financial tasks such as cash flow management, forecasting, tax planning, and compliance obligations become more frequent and considerably more complex. One clear red flag moment is when these responsibilities and regulatory requirements frequently impact your strategic decisions. If they are demanding consistent, dedicated, and focused attention, then you should probably be looking at hiring someone to help reduce the impact this can have. We see a lot of businesses that didn’t recognise the point where they needed to have the conversation about a finance employee. The result of that can be a desperate need to hire someone to avoid a problem and allow the management team to focus on their real roles and skills.

Speaking of red flag moments, the above scenario probably means you missed one earlier. If you do see that the financial side of the business is being neglected or slipping, it’s probably time to do something about it by hiring someone.

All that said, it’s still a big decision, so if you think you are ready to employ someone, or you see that on the horizon, have the conversation with us so we can start to get the ball rolling for you.

Who should you recruit?

Even without having a finance background yourself, you can help with identifying the right candidate by focusing on your key needs:

• Qualifications: Look for candidates with recognised credentials at a suitable level. If you are not sure what qualifications are needed for the role, we will confirm that as part of the initial discussion.
• Experience: Prioritise appropriately. Do you specifically need candidates with relevant industry experience?  Would a familiarity with managing financial growth and transitions be a benefit, perhaps? How about particular regulatory knowledge? It’s also very important not to add requirements for specific experience when a more general level of knowledge would do. Similarly, consider if the employee could grow their skills over time. Try to look at this impartially and make your criteria as wide as the role will allow.
• Soft Skills: What sort of person do you want on the team? Do they need to work primarily in a team environment, for example? Are they expected to work self-directed, or will they be directly managed?

The right person is just as important as the right skills, so who you hire is almost always about more than just the basic job role. One of the main reasons businesses work with a recruitment partner is to avoid getting the wrong team member. Therefore, the more we know about who you need, the better our initial filtering process. Deciding the ‘who’ part of who you want to hire is worth the time and effort it takes.

What to think about

One thing that is sometimes overlooked is the impact a new hire can have on your understanding of the business. So, when bringing in a new finance professional, expect that your own financial outlook might shift. They could find anything from discrepancies to unexpected new insights. This new perspective can really be a golden opportunity to refine your financial strategy. We all need to know the numbers, particularly in tough markets, so your new finance person could well be a valuable asset or sometimes even a wake-up call if you are off beam with your finances.

It’s also very important that you are clear about the duties and what the new hire can expect to be dealing with. If you have neglected financial records, for example, and the new employee is unaware of that, it can cause a real problem. Most candidates will accept and even welcome a challenge, as long as they are not surprised by it. Sadly, when the job role is not what they expected, it can result in early departure and an unintentional bad hire. Proactive hiring and transparency about the role will help mitigate that risk and promote stable financial operations for your business.

Avoiding a bad hire matters!

A bad hire can be costly, so getting the process right is vital. Again, we can help refine this for you to avoid making a poor hiring decision.

The cost of a bad hire for a financial position is estimated to be between 30% to 50% of the employee’s annual salary. It sounds a lot, but remember that those costs include:

• Lost productivity
• Lower morale and higher employee turnover
• Regulatory fines and compliance issues
• Disruption in financial operations and strategic planning
• And, of course, the direct financial cost of the employee

The reason we want to focus on the ‘who’ early is to ensure that you:

• Clearly articulate job responsibilities, required qualifications, and expected competencies in your job description.
• Highlight your company culture and values to attract suitable candidates.
• Ensure effective candidate evaluation, broaden access to talent pools, and align hiring decisions with your strategic goals.

In the end, we are all looking to ensure your new finance hire supports your company’s long-term growth and stability.

Creating an effective job description

The job description part of the employment process is possibly one of the most undervalued elements in getting the right team member. How you present the role, your business and your culture all have a huge impact on the candidate.

• Clearly articulate the role and primary responsibilities.
• Explicitly outline required qualifications and desirable experience.
• Define expectations related to financial reporting, technology proficiency, and analytical abilities.
• Highlight your company’s culture and core values to attract candidates who align well with your ethos.

A good job description can be the difference between the right candidate applying or passing on the opportunity.

Should you go it alone or talk to a recruitment specialist?

This is a good question and probably one that is right at the forefront of your thinking. So, let’s get to the heart of the matter. The bottom line is, like any business or service, specialist recruitment partners only exist because they work. If it were easier or safer to DIY employ someone, it’s what every business would do. They don’t because a specialised recruitment agency significantly reduces the likelihood of hiring errors. While you can never be 100% certain something won’t go amiss with a new employee, the chances of that are significantly reduced with a knowledgeable recruitment partner.

Expert recruiters provide:

• Highly skilled assessment of candidate qualifications and relevant experience.
• Broader access to qualified talent pools.
• Professional guidance on identifying candidates who fit your company culture and strategic goals.

Just as importantly, when you are at the watershed point of needing a financially focused employee, you could well be in uncharted waters and at best unfamiliar ones. Collaborating with recruitment professionals streamlines the hiring process, saving valuable time and financial resources while ensuring your initial finance hire meets your business’s strategic and operational needs. Without us, you are adding a lot of variables into the mix that simply don’t need to be there and could be very costly to your business.