How to hire financial staff for their potential

How can you recruit early-career talent when they don’t yet have proof of experience?

How do you assess talent and fit when you receive a CV without much, if any, work experience listed?

It’s a pressing question given the skills gap keeps on growing. AAT’s Filling the Gap report recently revealed a third of businesses (34%) are struggling to recruit for finance/accounting roles.

Over the years we’ve approached expert accountants, bookkeepers and recruiters on how they find the right early-career talent. Here’s what they’ve had to say.

Find the right culture fit

Amy Carter, Development Manager, Kirk Newsholme said recruitment in early careers is about making sure that candidates are a good fit for the firm.

Kirk Newsholme has links with local schools and colleges, and runs an annual “Insight evening” where potential employees can meet staff, ask questions and get a sense of what a career in accountancy could look like. The firm uses the night to identify potential hires, too.

“Ultimately, we want somebody who’s got a little bit more than just technical skill – we want a bit of personality as well. And I think that’s why it’s important to have met these people several times across the year.”

“Identifying candidates who have the same values as our firm is essential in gaining a new long-term member of the team. For us, it’s about personality and whether they will slot well into a team and get along with people. Our interviews are predominantly about gauging the ‘fit’ of the person for us and our clients.”

Look for transferable skills

Jez Brooks, Early Talent Manager at Moore Kingston Smith: “It’s absolutely not about experience. Instead, it’s competency-based, it’s strengths-based, it’s about transferable skills. So we’re still looking for team building, relationship building, communication, willingness to learn. We also want drive and a passion for the subject, the company and the industry.”

Duncan Crooks, Head of Talent Acquisition Manager, Price Bailey: “Price Bailey is subject-agnostic. Yes, it’s great if applicants have accountancy, maths or economics A-levels, but it’s not the be-all and end-all. Candidates don’t need to start talking about balance sheets and cash flow in the interview; they just need to show they’ve got a strong academic level that they can build upon with soft skills.”

Peter Wood, Chief Strategy Officer at Spectrum Search: “When I consider hiring new recruits for the finance function in a small business, my focus is not solely on traditional accounting qualifications. Instead, I emphasise the importance of digital literacy and strategic insight. In the current business landscape, an accountant’s ability to leverage technology effectively is as crucial as their fundamental financial skills. This means a candidate’s readiness to adopt new technologies is a key indicator of their potential to contribute significantly to the business.”

Annabel Allen, Learning and Development Specialist (Finance), Network Rail: “I would say ability to work in a team is a big thing, to demonstrate collaborative skills. Then I would say the passion for the scheme and for the industry.”

“A natural skill for finance is good but that doesn’t necessarily mean you have to be a maths genius. It just means that you’ve got that financial flair in the way you think.”

Recruitment methods to help find your people

Arjun Kumar, Founder, Taxd: BPP handle the advertising for us through Indeed and apprenticeship job boards. For us, this works really well as it takes a lot of time out of the hiring process. We review the CVs and handle it from the interview process onwards.

Alyson Maguire, Practice Manager, Simpkins Edwards: We work closely with Exeter College, a local further education provider, to find talented individuals who are genuinely eager to learn and grow. This partnership means we attract apprentices who share our values and are committed to building a career in accountancy.

Spencer Harrison, Head of Learning and Development, EG Group: Harrison and his team have prioritised in-person recruitment strategy using an assessment centre that focuses on developing rapport and engagement with candidates.

“There’s an introduction to the business, and the key stakeholders within the team and so on. Then the psychometric testing. Finally, we move into what is essentially a soft skills assessment in terms of interface with other people, personality skills, problem-solving in a realistic environment, presentation skills, social interaction and so on. And there’ll be group tasks,” he said.

And, rather than throwing people together at random, each team is created based on the previous test results. “That’s so we can see how people will respond to each other, or how someone more capable will work with someone that’s perhaps less capable.”

Cat Hall is Content Specialist at AAT.