Tips to Find and Place Candidates in Finance

Finance Candidate Sourcing

Sourcing during a skills shortage may feel like an impossible task, but with the right approach, you can improve your sourcing results for even the toughest roles. In this new weekly blog series, you’ll find relevant stats and tips for industries where talent is often high in demand but short on supply, like tech, business services, and manufacturing. 

Recruiting in Accounting/Finance/Insurance at a Glance

If it feels like every good candidate in Accounting/Finance/Insurance has been discovered by the time you find them, it might not be in your head—the industry is the second most serviced industry by recruitment agencies —after technology—and finance and accounting roles are the second most placed, as well.

This competition may explain why recruitment professionals working in the finance industry are so likely to name the skills shortage as a top challenge. Sixty-five per cent of recruitment professionals who service this industry said the talent shortage was their top challenge—only industrial/manufacturing staffing firms were more likely to do so. Are you feeling the squeeze? Here are some tips to help you find and place qualified candidates in the finance sector.

Finance Candidates

Solve Scarcity with Compensation—Expert Tip from CareerBuilder

The easiest way to help solve talent scarcity is to increase compensation. We have found that job postings with higher salaries attract more and better candidates. For a given job title, a 10 per cent higher salary attracts seven per cent more candidates.

Go Beyond the Surface

Accounting/Finance/Insurance is the second most served industry after Technology—which means most roles will have a lot of competition. Consider starting on page 30 of your next LinkedIn candidate search. The people on the first three pages will be constantly inundated with recruiting emails. You’ll still find candidates that meet your search requirements—they simply may not have all the keywords you’re searching for listed in their profile.

Don’t Forget About References When Sourcing Candidates—Expert Tip from SkillSurvey

Great people know other high-performing people! References are your already vetted candidates’ managers and peers: otherwise, they wouldn’t be listed. Plus, they’re likely to be in the same industry or your desired job role–a bonus for those hard-to-fill positions.


Want more sourcing tips? Read Source Code: Tips to Find and Place Candidates for interesting findings on the candidate acquisition landscape and sourcing tips that work.

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