Financial Controllers Sit in Two Camps

Bianca Luck • May 19, 2019

I’ve been recruiting on behalf of Financial Controllers for many moons.

You typically fall into two camps when it comes to managing the crazy stress of financial year end:

  • You recruit temporary staff
  • You don’t recruit temporary staff

All businesses are different. I get that it’s not always black and white. But here are some of the trends I’ve experienced working with both camps.

You recruit:

  • Proactively start the recruitment process in May to ensure you recruit the ‘cream of the crop’ of temporary talent
  • Provide a clear buffer between the start date and project deadline to allow time for the temporary person to thrive
  • Reduce team stress and create a happier team culture
  • Work less overtime
  • Spend more time working on the business strategy
  • View the additional cost as an investment rather than an expense

You don’t recruit:

  • Always have a mountain of work pending, number crunching slaves to financial year end pressures
  • Are stressed out and have higher employee attrition rates
  • Less patience with your team
  • Spend less time profile building, adding value and driving strategic direction
  • Often less inclined to be earmarked for a promotion

Am I biased? Probably.

But I see firsthand the smart Financial Controllers embedding contractors into their business and as a result driving their competitive edge. They’re already working with me to recruit the cream.

So, what are you doing to drive your competitive edge?

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