3 Keys to Hiring Accounting and Finance Talent in a Tight Market

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Contributed by Bridgepoint Consulting

If your company has been on the hunt for new hires lately, you know firsthand how tight today’s candidate market can be. The shortage of qualified candidates is particularly acute in accounting, where 30% of companies have unfilled full-time positions, but 72% of recruiters say they’re having trouble finding qualified candidates to take on those roles.

What’s causing the talent shortage in accounting, and what can you do about it? To find out, we sat down with Kristi Kershaw, Director of Professional Search at Bridgepoint Consulting’s headquarters in Austin.

What’s behind the accounting hiring shortage in the Austin market?

Over the last several years, Austin has become a huge attraction for a variety of companies. We are seeing more companies relocate their headquarters to Texas – for instance, from California – because they find it a more affordable place to operate. As a result, we are experiencing a shortage of access to local talent because many of these companies are not relocating their existing talent to Texas. In addition, we are also seeing more finance talent in the Austin market, as opposed to true operational accounting talent.

You’ve also said baby boomers are contributing to the workforce shortage as they begin to retire in large numbers. What can companies do to prepare for that shift?

You can learn to work with different types of candidates who have different needs. Flexible schedules, vacations and other benefits are often more important to millennials than to baby boomers, who tend to be more tightly focused on salary and working up the ladder.

Millennials are also strongly motivated by the desires to belong and to make a difference – so attracting these candidates is often less about offering a prestigious job title than it is about providing the opportunity to become part of a company with a strong, values-driven culture.

And that leads to another important trend: the value of thinking outside of the box.

Read the rest of 3 Keys to Hiring Accounting and Finance Talent in a Tight Market on the Bridgepoint Consulting blog.

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