7 Tips For Finding Top Finance Talent

Your hiring decisions will make or break your business. There’s a significant difference between landing a great finance candidate and landing an average one. One candidate has the potential to be a game changer, while the other may cost you in terms of lost profit, salary, and time.

Whether you’d like to believe or not, just 25 percent of your hires will be top performers at your company. This reality, coupled with the saturated candidate market, has created a serious challenge for those looking to fill positions within finance departments and the finance sector as a whole. So how can you be certain you’ve properly set your candidate radars to shield your company from any candidate who’s less than great?

Strategy and luck will certainly help you find top finance professionals, but the following tips can also work to improve your sourcing, recruiting, and hiring efforts:

1. Develop a “most wanted” list. If you’re hoping to gain the attention of some of the top innovators in the finance industry, it’s best to begin building connections early. Put together a definitive list of 10 or more finance professionals you’d love to see at your company. The better relationship you have with these individuals, the more likely they are to consider your offer when it arises.

2. Amp up your employee referrals. The benefits of referrals are endless when it comes to the speed-of-hire, overall employee retention rates, and fit for corporate culture. If a lot of your current hires came from a referral system, it’s time to ask yourself: Are these employees truly top performers at your company? If you’re uncertain of this answer, it may be time to take your referral program back to the drawing board.

One way to boost your referral program: expand the network of people you offer referral rewards to. Take it outside of your company to trusted former employees, clients, and vendors. Qualified talent can come from any direction. Leaving all networking paths open will only increase your chances of landing your next game-changing finance professional.

3. Spark awareness with a challenging task. Driving interest in your employer brand -- especially from top must-have employees -- takes more than the standard set of recruiting efforts. Companies across all industries can engage potential hires with tasks to find the right match prior to moving forward in the hiring process.

Quixley, an app search engine company, created a game on their website for potential hires. The Quixley challenge allows potential candidates a chance to participate in a unique task, one of which was to fix a programming bug in less than a minute. The candidate wins $100 and a chance to interview with the company.

Let your potential hires participate in a challenge related to their potential position. Develop a unique problem and ask them to solve before they can move forward. Go even further by keeping your hiring challenge open even when you’re not seeking to fill positions. This will allow you to keep your talent pipeline open and flowing at all times.

4. Make a commitment to training young talent. Top finance professionals all got their start somewhere -- someone gave them a chance. Sure, inexperienced young talent may be a costly investment, but today’s young professionals are tomorrow’s industry leaders. Get your hands on them before anyone else does by making a company-wide commitment to building successful training programs for talented employees at the start of their careers.

At Edward Jones, they attribute their outstanding training programs to be one of their top recruiting strategies. By offering a training program, you will draw in talented prospective hires through your eye for growth and retention. Access young talent early by hiring new additions to the industry. Build a successful training program to breed success.

5. Make a worthy offer. What does your company offer that your competitors don’t? Create a list of the best reasons top-notch employees should work for you and not your competitors. Get insight into what your current employees -- especially your top performers -- love most about working for your company. Is it your phenomenal corporate culture? What about your benefits? Competitive offerings will give you the leg up on the competition and send you to the top of the list for finance professionals seeking out great companies.

6. Look right under your nose. If your company is successful, it’s likely ripe with talented employees. In fact, many companies are making the change toward keeping their hiring efforts internal. Don’t make the mistake of hunting elsewhere for a great hire when you may have the perfect candidate for a position already working for you. Ensure your pipeline of talent is also active within your company.

7. Build a candidate pool through reputable job websites. Job websites aren’t just for getting the word out about your job listings, they’re also the perfect place to maintain your candidate pool and employment brand. For example, say 200 applicants apply for your position. While only 20 match your criteria, you’re left with roughly 180 candidates who might be the perfect match for another position that arises within your company down the road.

Your company deserves top-performing employees. Be sure to analyze the who, what, why, and how of your current top-notch employees to continue landing outstanding additions to your finance team.

What’s the best way to land top-performing talent for your company?

Skiddy von Stade is the founder and CEO of OneWire, the premier destination for employers to connect with high quality finance talent. Connect with Skiddy and OneWire on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.