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There’s a proven formula for hiring the best talent for companies, big and small. Follow these tips to bring aboard only the best.
Regardless of the size of your company, recruiting well means attracting and retaining top talent. It also means understanding the importance of team culture, as well as the difference between the traits you want in a candidate, and those you need. While technical skills and experience may be important, leadership qualities are often just as critical.
Whether your company is the biggest business on the block, or a small start-up destined for great things, there’s a common formula for hiring top talent. These financial recruitment tips will lay the foundation for you to secure the best hire for your organization.
Separate your wants from your needs
You and the other stakeholders in the hiring process need to clearly identify, and establish consensus around, your “must-haves” in a candidate. What’s more, you have to distinguish these from your “nice-to-haves.” One of the biggest mistakes companies make when recruiting talent is to set unrealistic or needlessly stringent requirements for the position. Like an over-the-top supervillain, they end up demanding the impossible (even though a shark with laser beams is clearly not in the budget!).
But a candidate is more than a laundry list of qualifications; they’re a combination of unique skills, experiences, and personalities. The sum may be greater than the individual parts you’re looking for.
Know which qualities will drive the most value for you at the position, so that when you have to make the “imperfect” choice – as you will – you’ll know what’s important to look for in a candidate.
But a candidate is more than a laundry list of qualifications; they’re a combination of unique skills, experiences, and personalities.
Hiring for junior vs. hiring for senior positions
There’s a world of difference between hiring an intermediate resource versus a senior resource or leader. On the one hand, technical skills tend to be of greater significance for hiring more junior talent. For these kinds of roles, you want to make sure your new employee is capable of filling the role – that they know their way around an Excel spreadsheet, etc.
When you’re hiring for more senior positions, technical qualifications are still important, but they will probably take a bit of a backseat to other kinds of considerations. For these kinds of senior and supervisory roles, you’ll want a candidate who has more than just the know-how to do their own job; they’ll need other intangible qualities, like leadership abilities and communication skills, to make sure the people under them do their jobs, too.
Hiring with a view of team dynamics
Don’t just hire for fit with company culture – hire for fit with team dynamics. This is an important point to note. Companies will often underestimate the importance of hiring for team fit. But successful recruiting requires that you carefully and closely evaluate the dynamics and relationships on your team. After all, we’ve probably all seen what happens when a hire who doesn’t belong with the others is brought in; even the most successful teams can be derailed by one mismatched personality.
Ask yourself: how do your people interact with each other? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the players involved? A successful hire will offer a complimentary skillset and personality that meshes seamlessly with the rest of the team.
But successful recruiting requires that you carefully and closely evaluate the dynamics and relationships on your team.
Look for proven winners
Last but not least, look for people with a track record of success. You want someone with the Midas touch, someone who’s turned everything they’ve been handed into gold. Past behaviour, after all, is a great predictor of future success – or failure.
Typically, successful people will continue being successful, since they’ll have the discipline and focus to keep reproducing their previous results. Proven winners see opportunities; they create plans to achieve goals and don’t leave much to chance. Those are the kinds of hires you want on your staff, to raise the bar for the rest of the team.
These four financial recruitment tips will help your company identify what to look for in a prospective candidate, no matter how big or small your operation may be. Paying heed to this advice will help you to add an asset that can enhance the performance of your team, drive revenue, inspire success in others, and achieve your company’s larger objectives. What more could you ask for?
Got any expert advice to share about hiring accounting and finance talent for organizations big and small? Share your financial recruitment tips in the comments!
Let us know what you think! At Clarity Recruitment, we’re always interested in hearing from accounting and finance professionals like yourselves, who are ready for new, exciting opportunities that can take their careers to the next level. And be sure to follow us on Twitter (@clarityrecruits) and connect with us on Facebook for more great tips and advice!