Accounting professionals are in demand in today’s talent marketplace, largely because of the significance of the projects they manage and the sensitive nature of the financial documentation they oversee. With so many accounting disciplines, accounting recruitment can present challenges for organizations.
While many accounting professionals are versed in multiple disciplines, most companies seek specialists to lead their accounting teams and drive critical initiatives. For example, a private equity firm may pass on a series of highly qualified technical accountants in search of a high-caliber private equity accountant.
To ensure businesses find qualified candidates or job seekers find their next opportunity, expert accounting recruiters take it to the next level, leveraging their industry expertise to find quality candidates and clients who closely align with their client’s needs.
What Does An Accounting Recruiter Do?
Some accounting recruiters have direct accounting experience. Their ability to speak to the technical aspects of the role helps them identify strong candidates in the accounting recruitment process. Aside from evaluating candidates from a technical standpoint, recruiters are also tasked with gauging candidates’ leadership potential and their ability to complement the company culture.
They analyze each candidate’s level of proficiency. They can accurately assess how quickly someone under consideration can progress through onboarding, acclimate to the new role, and begin driving initiatives within the organization. Recruiters will also evaluate candidates based on their ability to work with auditors and implement systems that build the foundation for strong business accounting and corporate finance departments.
Accounting recruiters bring their industry insights to the accounting recruitment process. They can help companies establish recruiting goals, including the level of seniority needed for the role. An experienced accounting recruiter can quickly determine when a client’s hiring budget isn’t aligned with its goals, and make budget or strategy recommendations accordingly.
Understanding How Finance Recruitment Agencies Work
High-Demand Accountants and Their Distinct Characteristics
Private equity funds, hedge funds, asset management firms, and other similar institutions often seek senior-level managers. These companies are looking for accounting professionals with a few years of experience working in alternative investments, financial services, and public accounting environments.
In addition to possessing the required technical expertise, senior managers at this level are more likely to seek new roles with defined, long-term growth opportunities, which many firms are happy to provide. These individuals can be trained and developed internally, allowing them to naturally grow into senior leadership roles such as controllers or department directors.
Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) are accounting professionals who have been authorized to practice public accounting in a specific state. Firms often prefer candidates with their CPA certification and experience in public accounting. That experience exposes candidates—particularly younger professionals—to a variety of industries and financial processes. For these reasons, it’s highly recommended that aspiring accountants obtain their CPA certification and begin their careers in public accounting roles to increase their employment potential.
Accounting recruiters will also recognize ambitious candidates who embrace challenges and are excited about leadership opportunities. Recruiters and hiring managers may seek out younger candidates who adopt an entrepreneurial mindset and are willing to take on new projects that are slightly out of their realm of expertise.
Recruiting In-House vs Using a Recruiter
Recruiting agencies often have access to key resources and insights that can help expedite or enhance recruitment cycles, saving time, money, and stress in finding the ideal candidate for a role.
Agency recruiters usually have access to an extensive network of clients and candidates. They typically work within a team structure, with many of their colleagues specializing in specific areas of accounting. With each team member having developed relationships with hundreds of candidates, an agency recruiter’s candidate pool can include thousands of warm, referable leads. This is also true on the client side. Because agency recruiters are constantly meeting with clients to assist them with searches, they also have the best access to market insights and job openings that may not be available to the public.
Compensation packaging and negotiation is another area where agency recruiters can enhance a company or job seeker’s recruitment cycle. An agency recruiter, based on data pulled from similar recruitment cycles, can immediately develop a candidate profile complete with an estimated salary and benefits package.
Where Do The Big Four Accounting Firms Recruit From?
Benefits of Leveraging a Recruitment Agency
When companies leverage recruiting agencies such as Daley And Associates, internal employees can focus their efforts on other critical tasks while still having the option to provide input and feedback about active searches.
Recruiting agencies that provide full-scale recruitment services remove the complexity that can stem from filling accounting vacancies within an organization. When working with an agency, a hiring manager meets with a dedicated recruiter who then develops a candidate profile that is distributed to the agency’s recruiter network.
The agency oversees candidate outreach and interview preparation. In this stage, a strong recruiter will be as transparent as possible with both the hiring manager and candidates regarding expectations about the opportunity and company culture. This ensures trust and alignment throughout the cycle. It also allows the hiring manager and internal staff to focus on selecting their ideal candidate rather than sifting through thousands of applications.
An additional unique benefit of partnering with a recruiting agency is access to the passive market. This encompasses candidates who are not actively searching for a new role. These candidates are often high-performers who are passionate about their work and relatively content in their current positions. They may, however, entertain the possibility of a new opportunity if it piques their interest and aligns with their expectations.
How Accounting Recruiters Help Save Time & Money
Any hiring manager who has onboarded a misaligned employee will tell you—bringing the wrong people into your organization is costly. Likewise, for candidates who are actively engaged in job searches, spending time applying to positions, networking with company personnel, and interviewing with firms is time-consuming and often frustrating.
Companies and candidates who partner with recruiters will likely recoup their investment with more efficient searches that lead to ideal hires who are more likely to stay with the company for the long run.
Companies may find accountants who fit their candidate profile and align with their budgets faster than they would by running the recruitment cycle in-house. While they may pay a fee to place senior staff roles and C-suite members, they will likely find quality candidates interested in long-term opportunities when they work with an agency. These candidates will augment financial growth, build teams, and meet or even exceed the firm’s expectations.
Candidates will be connected to hiring managers with job openings that aren’t listed on sites such as LinkedIn or Indeed. By targeting these opportunities and networking with key decision-makers, these individuals can expedite their job searches and secure ideal roles within reputable organizations.
5 Qualities All Top Accounting and Finance Recruitment Agencies Have
About Daley And Associates
For accounting recruitment and placement, the Daley And Associates team brings the resources and industry expertise that clients and candidates need to accelerate their searches.
Our relationship-first approach to our partnerships with our accounting and finance institutions is what fuels the Daley And Associates difference. Whether placing a temporary contract role or a long-term executive position, we prioritize our client engagements and communication to ensure alignment. After developing a detailed understanding of our clients’ business models, we take the time to learn about the blockers and obstacles they have faced in previous accounting recruitment cycles.
Contact us to learn how Daley And Associates accounting recruiters can augment your search efforts!
