CFO Guide to Hiring Top Finance Talent: 4 Critical Non-Financial Skills

Companies face increasingly competitive markets in which those who connect their data, people, and cash across key business functions are coming out on top. This includes connecting the finance function.

McKinsey & Company describes finance leaders on the leading edge of this trend as “guardians of enterprise value creation, demonstrating stewardship of their own spend by lowering absolute costs and shifting work towards more value-added activities.” It notes that going forward, successful finance organizations will accomplish four things:

• Find efficiency opportunities
• Help manage company data
• Strengthen enterprise decision-making
• Reimagine the finance operations

As a CFO working toward these goals, you need to hire and retain top finance talent. Of course, those professionals still need the requisite financial skills. But you need to look beyond that for candidates who also bring four critical non-financial skills to the table.

1. Complex Problem-Solving

In the past, finance job requirements primarily focused on problem solving skills related almost exclusively to numbers: Things like solving routine and complicated mathematical problems, developing intricate spreadsheet formulas, analyzing financial data, and following accounting principles.

These skills are certainly still important. However, today’s finance organization needs people who can simultaneously handle them and step out of that insular box of traditional financial systems and routine processes to analyze real-world and real-time scenarios, draw conclusions, and recommend solutions that support the enterprise agenda and strategy.

2. Creativity

Imagination, innovation, and vision aren’t just for marketing and product development anymore. In order for the finance department to successfully transition toward value-added activities while connected finance tools automate many of its routine tasks, it will take personnel who are willing and able to seek:

• Ways to streamline processes
• Ideas for improving financial and reporting accuracy
• Suggestions for supporting other departments and business functions
• Plans for providing useful insight to the board and C-suite

3. Coordination and Collaboration

Everything in business is interconnected today, which means that the finance department works in close contact with those beyond its doors. The CFO needs a staff equipped to:

• Translate financial jargon into laymen’s terms
• Provide exceptional customer service
• Build strong relationships with internal and external customers
• Work together toward a common goal, whether on an individual level with a customer or colleague or on a group level as part of a project or relationship

4. Comfort with Big Data and Connected Tools

Finally, considering the ever-increasing amount of useful data being generated by organizational systems, CFOs need finance professionals who understand the importance of that data and are able to mine and analyze it to advance the company’s strategy. As a result, they must be prepared for and comfortable using connected finance tools as an integral part of their jobs.

Can Your Company Attract Top Finance Talent?

Just adding these non-financial skills to your job requirements doesn’t completely solve the CFO’s hiring dilemma. To attract today’s most talented financial professionals, you need to showcase something, too—a modern workplace that uses today’s most advanced financial technology, such as an AI-embedded cash flow performance platform.

Find out how you can begin your finance transformation today by requesting a demo from Tesorio.