In Pursuit of Profit
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Have you noticed a significant rise in controller job openings these days? We have! In fact, over the last year, we have worked with more companies looking to hire a financial controller than ever before. But, why? Are controllers resigning en masse, leaving vacant roles in their wake? No. despite all the publicity around “The Great Resignation,” existing controller jobs are largely not opening up due to turnover. Instead, they are mainly appearing at organizations where controller roles have not previously existed. Since the pandemic there has been an increased need for experienced financial leadership. More organizations are creating financial controller positions to meet these new needs. As a result, accounting recruiters began unofficially calling 2021 “The Year of the Controller” as it drew to a close. And by the time 2022 started, the moniker had stuck, carrying over to this year as well as the recruiting push continued strong. Let’s look at what is driving this hiring trend, what should be included in a controller role, and how to hire a controller. “Start with the core of the onion.” This is a mantra I use when talking to hiring managers about who they want for their job opening. This means starting with their most ideal candidate and working through different profiles. Most hiring managers are looking for either the next “up and comer” or someone who is established and has a solid 20 years left in the tank. As we work through candidate profiles, inevitably the recommendation is to always hire the person who can add the most value in the position. In the world of non-executive accounting and finance recruiting, the ‘core of the onion’ answer is never “I’d love someone who is late in their career.” There is often a stigma attached to late-career candidates that is uneducated at best, and at worst tantamount to ageism. But late-career candidates should be considered equally with all other candidates. Understanding why first starts with thinking about a professional’s career trajectory. This is a common story we hear: “We’ve been searching for an accountant for months and just can’t find anyone!” Clients that come to us with this story are usually weary and desperate for help in finding the right candidate for the specifics of their role. Often times work has been piling up and employee morale is down as other staff tries to cover the gaps. It is at this point that hiring managers begin to wonder if they should settle for less than what they were looking for, using the old “someone is better than no one” rationale. However, under-hiring for a role is often more costly than continued hiring delays. One of the most common questions we hear when talking to prospective clients is “How do I know if I have the right accounting team in place?”
Now, the underlying questions wrapped in this broader question can vary to include things like:
If you are wrestling with these same types of questions, use this guide to determine if you have the right accounting team in place to move your company forward: A guest post from Jen Girard at CFO Selections We get this request all the time. A small non-profit needs to hire a new Finance Manager. Sometimes they call this person a CFO or Controller, but whatever the title, the role is a Superhero who wears multiple costumes and does it all! How do you find (and afford) this person? Find out how other non-profits are doing it: 12/13/2021 Do You Need an Ecommerce Accountant?Are ecommerce accountants different than regular accountants? Should you have an accountant that has previous ecommerce experience for your online business? These kinds of questions are becoming increasingly common with the dramatic rise in ecommerce business. In 2020 alone US ecommerce grew by more than 32% as traditional brick-and-mortar companies made the transition online and new ecommerce businesses started up in record numbers. Pre-pandemic many companies successfully used job boards like Indeed to hire high quality accounting and finance candidates. Due to their heavy advertising during this time, what I like to call the “Indeed Effect” emerged. Companies turned to job recruiting boards like Indeed, ZipRecruiter, and LinkedIn in droves to meet their recruiting needs. Like you, I was seeing the impact of this first-hand: many companies in need of external recruiting help were quickly, easily, and cheaply able to find highly qualified candidates by posting an ad on an online job board. And as time went on, the results got even better as job board technology continued to evolve. The big names in recruiting became extremely transformative to the hiring process during this time, continuously refining their technology to improve the search process. As a result, even recruiters like myself benefitted from the phenomenon, often receiving high quality applicants to our job posts as well. Using these tools became an integral part of our recruiting process. Fast-forward almost two years and the tide has almost completely changed. 11/22/2021 Networking Tips for AccountantsNetworking is usually a prescriptive topic. Resources will tell you what to do in concrete terms, like practice your elevator pitch, make eye contact, and send a follow up email after meeting someone. And while these tips are not bad advice, they do not address the underlying question of, “Why are you networking?” As a result, they are very little help because they provide obvious advice that even entry-level professionals already know. They also fail to customize the provided advice for a specific industry or individual. So, instead of being redundant and just providing the same information that you can get anywhere online, we wanted to put together a resource that would actually help accountants to network with other accounting professionals. We asked our team how they network these days, and these are their top tips: When your controller leaves, the logical next step is to find someone to fill the vacant position. Right? Maybe not. Simply hiring another controller may not actually be the best decision for your business. We work with companies everyday who are looking for accounting and finance leadership roles and it is not uncommon to have clients tell us they need a controller and then listen to them define the role only to discover that what they are looking for is a different position entirely. Now, some organizations we work with are, in fact, in need of a controller. However, others have needs that better align with more senior financial leadership like that of a CFO, while others have requirements that fit better with a mid-level management accounting position. Instead of jumping right into hiring a controller, take the time to understand what kind of role will be the best fit for your company. After another difficult year, savvy employers have come to realize that supporting their office staff needs to be a top priority to combat labor shortage woes as financial uncertainty continues. With 85% of employees open to new job opportunities (even if they are not actively looking), employers understand how important it is to proactively work to retain employees. As the year comes to an end, organizations are asking themselves, “How can I support my accounting and finance staff next year?” |
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