Roles in the finance industry are not what they used to be. The adoption of fintech (financial technology) and continual digitization of the industry have made it challenging to find suitable talent with the right skills. The good news is the following finance recruitment tips make it possible to hire the right talent for your business.
In this article, we will explore the challenges of recruitment in finance. We’ll also offer strategic tips for accounting and finance recruiting so you can improve your organization’s hiring process. This insight will help you attract the right finance talent for your business.
Why is Recruiting in the Financial Services Industry So Challenging?
Many industries need help attracting the right talent, but recruiting in the financial services industry has unique challenges. Between steep competition and exponential growth, financial services managers struggle to find candidates with the right experience. Many businesses in the financial services industry face challenges in recruiting employees, including banks and mortgage lenders.
In a recent PwC HR Technology survey, 58% of finance organizations mentioned the need to find, attract, and retain top talent, with 42% of those concerns centered around improving the employee experience. It’s no longer applicants who need to impress financial organizations. Instead, financial institutions need to adjust their recruitment strategies to attract a better talent pool.
Competition is Steep
One reason why recruitment might be challenging for this industry is role competition. The financial services industry is rapidly expanding, creating a surplus in job openings. Faced with intense competition from the fintech industry and other sectors, finance candidates have more role options available.
Technology is also continually evolving within the industry-leading to a need for more candidates with the right skill sets. Research from the Korn Ferry Institute predicted that by 2030, the global financial talent shortage could reach 10.7 million people due to the widening skills gap.
Hence, finance prospects who do have the right skill sets will be in high demand. Never forget that your organization isn’t the only one ramping up recruitment in finance — you’ll be going up against many other companies fighting for the best employees.
It's Growing, Fast
Since 2020, the financial services sector has been one of the fastest-transforming industries to continue servicing their customers. According to RSM US, in 2021, the industry saw an average private equity increase of 114% from the previous year. This growth can largely be attributed to the greater use of fintech services.
Investments in financial software in the SaaS space outpaced all other SaaS investments from 2016 to 2022, resulting in higher demand for the industry job market. Jobs in the finance industry are expected to grow by 10% by 2026, says the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The Talent Pool is Global
Unlike some industries, the talent pool in the financial industry is global. Highly skilled finance professionals in the United States can be pulled toward all corners of the world, especially when given a more lucrative offer.
This challenge has been even more prevalent in previous years. Working from home solidified the fact that candidates can work from anywhere. More flexible work schedules translate into more opportunities and options for skilled job candidates, making recruiting in financial services more challenging.
The candidate pool is now borderless, but that doesn’t equate to bad news for your company. You can also use the global talent pool to your advantage by recruiting remote workers.
What Effective Finance Recruitment Looks Like
Despite the challenges, securing the best prospects for your finance organization is possible. To do so, you must pay attention to the current job market. Moreover, understanding candidate desires is the key to an effective recruitment strategy.
Potential candidates now seek more than just a good company that pays well. They also want to work for an organization that provides better work-life balance, remote working benefits, and inclusivity. If your company offers these, you’re already one step ahead of the competition.
Below, we outline some of the most effective accounting and finance recruiting tips to improve finance staff hiring. Leveraging these finance recruiter tips will assist in attracting prospective applicants to their organizations.
Create an Attractive Brand
Millennials and Generation Z now make up most of the talent pool you’re aiming to recruit. What used to constitute an attractive brand for Baby Boomers and Generation X staff no longer attracts the newer generation. Therefore, creating an engaging brand for your banking and finance recruitment strategy is crucial.
An attractive brand to these two generations includes:
These generations also have different expectations regarding how they prefer to work. Remote working, or the choice to work from home, has become a critical requirement for candidates, with 60% of employeees working remotely or in hybrid. As a result, 74% of managers said their department offers work-from-home options, and 86% said this strategy enabled them to hire strong job candidates.
Tap Into the Soon-to-Be College Graduates Pool
Recent graduates are an excellent resource for finance hiring. It’s a mutually beneficial situation — they need a job, and plenty of entry-level positions in the finance industry exist. By intercepting them just before they graduate, they have a job secured right after finishing school.
This tactic saves you time finding candidates during your finance department recruitment process. It also enables you to spend less on a quality candidate and train them to your company’s standards right out the gate, which is a win-win scenario.
One way to tap into this resource is by implementing a graduate recruitment strategy within your organization. Finance companies are known to be among the largest employers of entry-level candidates. Having a graduate recruitment strategy in place will streamline the recruiting process and also retain them.
Studies show that 25% of fresh graduates quit their first job before the one-year anniversary mark. One of the factors that cause this is a need for more skill or confidence in retaining the position. Another is misaligned job expectations. Setting clear job expectations in your graduate recruitment strategy and providing adequate training to prepare them for career advancement will significantly help retain fresh graduates so you don’t have to go through the entire recruitment process again.
Incentivize Employees to Refer Candidates
One of the best ways to bring new blood into your organization is by creating an employee referral program. After all, the best people to introduce new employees to your organization should be the ones that already know your company’s brand identity well. On the plus side, you will get candidates who can already communicate well with your existing team.
Through incentivization, your existing employee base will be more driven to refer strong candidates, so both parties will benefit from the recruitment. This program also lessens the burden on recruiters to source suitable candidates.
Let Candidates Know You Value Soft Skills
One of the biggest misconceptions is that employees in the finance industry don’t require soft skills. After all, it is a job revolving around numbers, not people, right? On the contrary, soft skills are relevant in all companies, as they foster a healthy, communicative work environment.
Promoting your company as one that values soft skills will set it apart from other finance companies, making your brand more attractive to potential finance talent. Some examples of soft skills include:
Assert Your Company as an Inclusive Workplace
Finance recruits in the Millennial and Generation Z age group want more than just a regular company as an employer. Nowadays, employees want to work in a place that values diversity and inclusivity as their careers become an extension of their values.
Hiring diverse employees is no longer enough; your organization should also seek to empower their career progression. This approach is a great way to prove your commitment to promoting diversity and inclusivity within the workplace to your staff and future candidates. Working towards a diverse and inclusive environment will also benefit your company in the long run.
How APS Can Help With Financial Services Recruitment
Now that we have provided you with strategic finance recruitment tips on improving your corporate finance recruitment process, let’s discuss how a workforce management solution can help you implement it. APS provides HR software for finance companies, which includes our recruiting and onboarding solution. APS Hire can help your company recruit candidates, track applicants, and hire qualified finance talent in one centralized location.
APS’ recruiting and onboarding software can help you automate the following tasks:
- Optimized job postings with detailed job descriptions.
- One-click mobile application integrations with sites like Indeed and ZipRecruiter so qualified applicants can apply to work for your company.
- Streamlined interview scheduling within the software that syncs with major calendars like Google and Outlook.
- Text recruiting to schedule and confirm interviews for quicker response rates.
APS also provides an all-in-one cloud-based technology platform, making the switch to remote working accessible. With the APS payroll and HR platform, finance staff can access all necessary documents in an all-in-one system, effectively negating paper-based processes.
With all the parameters surrounding recruitment in the finance industry, now’s the best time to apply these finance recruitment tips to your recruitment process and invest in cloud-based workforce management software. Equip your finance organization with the right tools to automate your HR and payroll processes, and you will be able to focus on quality work that drives your company’s purpose.
