CFO or Chief Financial Officer is the C-level position of a company who has the responsibility of managing finances, keeping records, reporting finances, managing risks, managing financial planning and taking decisions.
Though hiring a CFO and hiring an accountant or bookkeeper is not the same thing. An accountant or a bookkeeper may keep records and handle the finances of the company. But the CFO is a step higher. The CFO makes fruition to the company by analysing the market and taking decisions on the financial grounds. You can click for more info on the best CFO recruitment agencies.
Here are Some Best Practices To Be Followed While Hiring a CFO
Hiring an Executive Search Firm
It is a very good practice to hire an executive firm because it takes the responsibility of selecting the best candidate as CFO of your company. This process saves your money as well as time. They are professionals and know the best way to hire a CFO as they are aware of the current market well. You can convey your requirements to the hiring firm. They will find the best fit candidate you can appoint. Moreover, they have the best knowledge of conducting the interview and how a CFO should be. They also have a pool of candidates and among the large number, they select the CFO. And during that time you can focus more on thriving your company. So firstly taking the help of the hiring or search firm is an easy way to distribute your burden.
Using your Business Network
If you don’t want to hire a search firm to work as a middleman to recruit in your company, then you can do the job yourself also. It may take more time and effort but there is a chance of having a better interaction between you and can test his abilities closely. To do that you should start from your business networks which must be strong enough. If they cannot directly help they also can approach others to fill your CFO position. You can also advertise on social media like LinkedIn.
Clear the Vision About Hiring
In the beginning, know your company very well. So that you can hire the perfect Chief Financial Officer. Though this job is CEO to have deep knowledge about your company. Though the CEO does not know about the finances if it falls in somebody else’s region of a job but they help with their best to guide the CFO according to the company for better flourishing.
While on the other side CFO should follow the way his or her company’s finances work. If they implement their own ideas which do not fit with the company strategy, no matter how efficient the CFO is, the business is going to face immense loss. So these are the key points to discuss while hiring.
Keeping the Updates of the Current Industry
While you need the Chief Financial Officer for your company, you must be updated about the current industry to search for the candidate. Keeping this track, you can also find candidates who have been laid off from their job but are the perfect fit to be appointed in your company as the Chief Financial Officer, which helps both the candidate and the growth of the company.
Consider All The Options
Analysis firstly that if your company needs a full-time or a part-time candidate as a CFO. If the requirement is higher than appointing a part-timer and referring the work to an outside firm is not a good idea. You must identify the workload and if more workers are needed to handle it. Create tough and unusual questions making different scenarios to determine if your expectations are realistic or not. And be flexible to change the description of the job to find the best fit for it.
Past Experiences and Achievements
For a CFO it is very essential to remodel the financial structure of a company. They also must associate the CEO with financial controls of the company. Data analysis should be conducted to make a proper financial strategy. The CFO should be focused enough and ready to take on a challenge for reaching an aim.
The previous experiences and achievements are very crucial as it is a matter of finance. Ask for the achievements the candidate made before and also check in their LinkedIn profile. Then hire them for your job.
Communication and Network
A CFO must possess the potential of conveying conversation efficiently. From seniors to Chef level employees and junior managers, CFOs have to narrate the business performances and strategies. For being a successful CFO, it is important to
A CFO must possess the potential of conveying conversation in an easy way. From seniors to Chef level employees and junior managers, CFOs have to narrate the business performances and strategies. For being a successful CFO, it is important to build good communication or else the financial skills will be of no value at all. And CFOs are members of Certified Public Accountant, where investment consultants, lawyers, auditors are members also. The group advice of all these professionals helps make your company more successful. Consider these points before hiring the CFO.
The Questions You Should Ask the Hiring CFO
During the interview, you must ask certain questions to the candidate for hiring for the position of CFO. Like how to determine an investment is right for your company? What are the unique strategies he or she is going to make? Where can he or she take the profit of the company? How to forecast the development of company revenue? What will be a successful budget? You can analyse the answers to conclude whether they can manage the finances or not.
Conclusion
Unlike taking other post’s interviews, taking an interview of C-level candidates is different. You need to have immense knowledge about financial controls. If you cannot do it yourself, take the help of hiring agencies to select the best candidate as the financial growth of your company mostly depends on the CFO. You can click for more info on the best CFO recruitment agencies.
Author Bio:
Sunny Chawla is a Managing Director at Alliance Recruitment Agency. He specializes in helping clients for international recruiting, staffing, HR services and Careers advice service for overseas and international businesses.
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