Some hiring challenges are common to all industries, like keeping pace with evolving technology and coping with talent shortages in a competitive job market. The finance and accounting industry, however, has its own unique set of challenges that competitive organizations must grapple with to remain successful in an uncertain economy. In this post, we’ll review and discuss ways to overcome those challenges.
Top Challenges When Hiring Accounting and Finance Professionals
1. Members of Gen Z make up a growing segment of the workforce, but they’re hard to come by in the accounting industry
Gen Z comprises people born between roughly 1997 and 2012. They’re expected to overtake Baby Boomers in the workforce any day now. By 2030, they’ll account for 30% of all U.S. workers.
The influx of fresh talent should be a good thing for firms looking to attract new candidates, right? But not so fast—in the accounting field, members of Gen Z are one of the smallest segments of the workforce. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, workers between the ages of 20 and 24 account for less than 5% of accountants and auditors nationwide. In the workforce as a whole, this number is about 9%.
The finance industry trend of difficult Gen Z hiring is compounded by the fact that a large segment of the workforce is retiring in droves. According to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, or AICPA, 75% of its members were eligible to retire as of 2020.
How to overcome it:
If companies want to achieve longevity, they must emphasize initiatives to recruit—and keep—the under-30 workforce. The upside is that this population group values many assets the financial industry has to offer candidates, including job security and financial stability. These selling points should be highlighted in Gen Z recruiting materials.
2. The rapidly changing technology landscape has created an unprecedented accounting skills gap
In years past, bookkeepers kept the books, auditors conducted the audits, and CFOs oversaw the company’s financial planning. Thanks to the rapid evolution of technology, though, the roles are rarely so cut and dry in today’s workplace.
Modern jobs in finance require more than just the ability to crunch numbers—we have apps that can do that for us, after all. Companies are looking for financial professionals who can draw deep meaning from financial data, analyze it in new ways, and apply AI to leverage it in a broader business context. This requires an amalgamation of knowledge that spans the areas of business management, operations, data science, machine learning, automation, and more—skills that most existing financial professionals haven’t had the time or resources to acquire.
CEOs are feeling the pressure of the skills gap. In a mid-2024 PwC Pulse Survey, CFOs identified hiring people with the right skills as their top organizational priority, with 52% calling it a high priority. Similarly, a 2024 industry-wide survey asked CPA firms about their biggest organizational challenges. The results were broken into segments based on firm size. Every segment besides sole proprietors named staffing as one of their most pressing concerns.
How to overcome it:
The skills gap makes it all the more important to build a strong employer brand that’s attractive to the best and brightest minds in the business—but it’s about more than attracting new talent. These numbers point out a growing need for employee development initiatives to expand and advance the skills of your existing team members.
3. The industry has an image problem
Though it might be a trite stereotype, the stuffy, suit-wearing image of the financial services industry is a stereotype nonetheless. There are certainly many firms that still adhere to a no-nonsense, traditional corporate culture. In a talent market that remains competitive, this image is an issue.
More than ever before, the best candidates crave flexibility, and today, that largely means the ability to work remotely at least some of the time. The good news is that the industry is making strides in this area; before COVID, less than a third of financial services firms had at least 60% of their workforce working from home one or more days per week. Now, that number has risen to more than two-thirds.
Employees also want meaningful working relationships with their higher-ups—something that hasn’t typically been a priority in the rigidly structured world of finance. In fact, in some cases, positive managerial relationships can be a stronger selling point than money—and can convince candidates to stick around longer. According to BuiltIn, 58% of employees say they would stay at a lower-paying job if it meant working for a great boss.
Even wardrobe isn’t off-limits among the sticking points for discerning candidates, especially younger ones. In a UK study, workers were asked whether employers should be able to set and enforce a workplace dress code. Eighty percent of respondents said yes–however, 60% of the people who said no were under the age of 35.
How to overcome it:
While the suit-and-tie standard for Wall Street firms probably will not disappear anytime soon, many accounting and finance organizations can—and perhaps should—consider loosening the tight corporate reins in favor of a less humorless, more flexible, and thereby more attractive company culture.
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4. There are major, burnout-inducing crunches regularly
It’s no secret that accountants pretty much want to pull their hair out during high-stress periods like tax time and month-end close. During the heaviest weeks of tax season, accountants regularly cite working 70 or 80 hours a week, surviving on little sleep, gaining weight, and neglecting things like exercise and healthy eating. According to a University of Georgia study, a whopping 81% of accountants said closing out their company’s books disrupted their lives at least once within the last 12 months, and 43% said it had happened three or four months.
And while the “busy season” isn’t quite as dramatic for every role in the finance industry, the related stress touches most roles in some way or another. Though the tax crunch comes with the territory, the industry’s irregular, high-stress, busy season can be a major turnoff for candidates choosing between a job in accounting or some other parallel field.
Employers note its impact on hiring; in the AICPA survey of top organizational challenges we mentioned earlier, the field’s seasonality and “workload compression” were among the biggest issues CEOs cited as concerns.
How to overcome it:
So, what can be done to overcome the hiring challenges surrounding such an inherent part of the industry? Hiring managers can play a key role in helping organizations create a proactive culture of fighting tax-season burnout.
Use volume metrics from prior years to predict workloads and ensure adequate staff are in place—and fully onboarded—before the first of the year. Consider non-traditional employees like part-timers to support your full-time staff during the busiest periods. Use freelancers to fill gaps and balance labor hours during the height of the tax crunch, keeping a close eye on the hours logged by staff.
When you instill such initiatives as part of an active approach to fighting burnout and package them with other mental health benefits, like programs to help employees cope with stress, they can be a selling point in your employer brand and a tool in your arsenal for hiring accountants.
5. AI is transforming the way tasks are performed
AI is radically reshaping how business is conducted, which means the demands on finance and accounting staff are becoming more complex. With a decreased focus on tasks that now can be automated, there’s a greater need for financial professionals who can think strategically, drive data-based decision-making, and optimize technology budgets. In terms of hiring, this means cutting and pasting the same well-worn job descriptions you’ve been relying on for years will no longer net you the skills you need.
How to overcome it:
Companies must reimagine financial roles, considering the interplay between human and machine contributions to overall output. Roles that were once primarily analytical may now require a more creative touch as organizations seek out novel ways to leverage AI to achieve goals.
Related: Everything You Need to Know About AI Recruiting Techniques
Overcome Financial Services Recruiting Challenges by Turning to the Experts
To help attract Gen Z workers, plan for staffing succession, source for niche skills, and other financial recruiting industry struggles, enlist the staffing professionals at 4 Corner Resources. We’re experts at hiring accountants, auditors, controllers, payroll staff, and other specialized roles to cover all of your finance needs.
Whether you’re looking for temporary help to get through tax season or searching for the right individual to join your accounting team full-time, we’ll tap our vast talent network to match the right candidate with your role. We understand that job success is about more than just skills; the perfect candidate possesses the right mix of technical expertise and culture fit to ensure long-term satisfaction for you and the employee.
Let us start looking for your next great hire today. Contact us now to start the conversation.
