How to retain your senior finance talent in the current climate — Zanda
The Great Resignation
We all know that the last few years created a big shift in the business world and we are now hearing more and more about “the great resignation”. But what does this mean for startups?
Well, it was mentioned recently that 75% of all CPAs are expected to retire in the next 15 years and this is leading to a shortfall in talent and a massive war on talent, specifically, when it comes to senior finance leaders. So, with that in mind and the tightening of budgets ahead of 2023, there is an increasing need for organizations to think of different ways that they can develop and fast-track their existing talent to take up those senior roles in the next few years.
For example, this could be through external training with organizations like GrowCFO, who can upskill finance leaders to become industry-ready CFOs, through their Future CFO programme!
You also want to start thinking about your pipeline and talent strategies to bring on the next generation of finance leaders. We all know that Covid has led to an increase in people moving jobs, Forbes Magazine mentioned the other week, that there were 44 million people that moved jobs in the US last year, compared to 32 million in 2019! So, there is a lot more expected from candidates now, in terms of flexibility, competitive compensation packages and overall well-being benefits. The new generation is coming into the workforce and are expecting a better work-life balance, compared to a few years ago.
So, to hopefully win this war on talent, you need to analyze and invest in your businesses culture, employee well-being and sense of belonging, otherwise they will go elsewhere to seek what works for them.
The importance of your finance function in a recession
The importance of financing and accounting teams is strong right now, I’ve experienced three recessions previously and just like then, the need for a good CFO/Head of Finance is key to managing the business out of this tough time. This means that the demand for finance and accounting leadership is not going to change during budget cuts — the Bureau of Labor Statistics mentioned that there is actually going to be a growth of 7% between 2020 and 2030 in the need for strong finance and accounting talent.
However, coupled with the great resignation, the talent pool will be competitive and it is obviously going to be a battle for those that don’t tackle certain issues.
So the question is, with these particular headwinds how can firms retain and acquire the talent required to help to evolve their finance and accounting department?
Professional Advancement
One of the main reasons candidates leave their current job is because they don’t feel like they’ve got much more development to do at their current organization, they feel like they’ve reached a ceiling.
One of our biggest pieces of advice to organizations when it comes to improving their culture is to implement a certain career trajectory for every person within your organization. I appreciate that some people work for small organizations but don’t let that be a blocker, you may not be able to promise promotions as there are not many layers for title progression, so instead give them small goals, that once completed, they will feel valued and as if they are developing and contributing to their own career and the business. Be honest about how individuals are contributing to the overall value proposition of the company if they smash these milestones. Build that career advancement plan and communicate properly from day one, so your team members don’t leave your business thinking they reached the ceiling.
Fill workforce gaps with technology
There is a lot of emphasis now on things like compensation packages, benefits and work-life balance, but however great your offering is, there is still going to be an issue of skills gaps, especially within technical and finance roles, as there is a massive shortage of talent there.
So, what is your talent strategy like now? Can you invest in particular ATS systems that will create that pipeline for you, so that you are proactive with that talent strategy as opposed to reactive? And what could you do externally as a brand and as an organization, to make sure that you are the employer of choice for future talent?
The other thing we’ve noticed is, a lot of the CFOs that we place are quite open and flexible on being hands-on and scrappy, which is needed as a lot of the organizations that we work with are very early stage. However, when the business grows you need to think about how you can optimize technology to ensure that the CFO is best utilized and kept motivated for the long run.
What I mean by that is, is it worthwhile for that CFO to be doing credit collections, issuing invoices, to be doing certain repetitive admin tasks, when really what they are good at is opening doors commercially and growing the business globally? You don’t want them to feel underutilized, in which case, the business should have hired a Head of Finance or Controller instead. Combat this by mapping out what each role looks like for the first 6–12 months and then working backward from there to establish what you need. Then if you find you need a CFO but have repetitive admin tasks to be completed, you can automate them and this will improve retention and efficiency!
Employee engagement
The last point is placing a premium on employee engagement — this is discussed a lot in the remote/hybrid conversation about how do you keep individuals connected to culture if they aren’t in an office. We are finding a lot of people are coming to us leaving for that reason, and some organizations are nailing it and some are still improving and adding to their remote culture.
So, how can companies address that? What can they do from an incentive perspective? What can they do from a communications angle to improve that piece? Don’t get stuck between two avenues, dedicate time to make sure everyone is on the same page and schedule in-person meetings once a month or on a biweekly basis, as well as having daily check-ins and rewards, even if it is remote.
In reflection, next year will be tough but finding synergies in terms of upskilling your existing team, clear company culture, career trajectory, employee engagement, work-life balance and effective communication is the key to retaining your valuable talent!
This article is taken from ‘Why your finance team is leaving and what you can do to stop it’ a VantagePoint event that Zanda Co-Founder Dav Masaon presented on. You can watch the full event here.
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Photo by LinkedIn Sales Solutions on Unsplash
Photo by Barney Yau on Unsplash
Originally published at https://www.zandasearch.com on November 28, 2023.
