The finance hire that becomes urgent six months too late

The most costly finance hires are not always the most senior ones.

Sometimes, they are simply the hires a business waited too long to make.

Finance teams rarely become overstretched overnight. More often, the warning signs appear gradually: reporting takes a little longer, senior finance leaders become more involved in operational work, forecasting becomes increasingly reactive, and processes that once worked well begin to strain as the business grows.

Individually, these issues may not seem significant. Together, however, they can indicate that the finance function is beginning to outgrow its current structure.

The warning signs often appear before the vacancy

One of the clearest signals is reporting becoming slower or more difficult as the business grows.

What was manageable when the organisation was smaller can become increasingly complex as transaction volumes rise, new business units are added, or regional operations expand. The finance team may still produce the numbers, but more time is spent assembling and reconciling them rather than interpreting what they mean.

Another signal is when the CFO, Finance Director or even CEO begins carrying too much operational finance work.

Senior finance leaders should naturally remain close to the numbers. But when a growing proportion of their time is spent resolving routine issues, chasing information or compensating for capability gaps further down the team, the cost is not simply additional workload. It is the strategic work that is no longer receiving their attention.

When FP&A becomes backward-looking

FP&A can provide another useful indicator.

In a well-supported finance function, planning and analysis should help management understand what may happen next and what decisions could improve the outcome.

When capacity becomes stretched, that balance can shift.

More effort goes into explaining last month's performance, while less time is available for scenario planning, forecasting and decision support.

The numbers are still being produced — but finance is increasingly describing the business rather than helping shape it.

Growth can also expose inconsistencies

As organisations expand, different teams, entities or markets can gradually develop their own ways of working.

Reporting definitions may vary. Controls may be interpreted differently. Processes that were once informal can become difficult to manage consistently across a larger organisation.

At first, these differences may appear manageable. But over time they can create inefficiencies, reduce visibility and increase dependency on individuals who understand how everything fits together.

This is often the point at which businesses begin looking for someone with stronger regional, controllership, transformation or finance leadership experience.

The challenge is that the need may have existed months earlier.

The cost of waiting until the hire is urgent

Once a finance hire becomes urgent, the recruitment decision changes.

The business has less time to assess the market, consider alternative team structures or wait for the strongest candidate. The immediate operational problem begins to influence the hiring timetable.

That does not mean organisations should hire at the first sign of pressure.

It does mean that finance leaders should distinguish between a temporary increase in workload and a more fundamental change in what the business now requires from its finance function.

Several warning signs appearing together can be particularly important:

• reporting cycles are becoming progressively harder to manage;
• senior leaders are absorbing work that should sit elsewhere in the team;
• FP&A is increasingly backward-looking;
• processes or controls are becoming inconsistent across teams or markets;
• important knowledge is concentrated in too few people; and
• business complexity is increasing faster than finance capability.

By the time all of these become obvious, the organisation may already be several months behind the point at which it should have started assessing its options.

The better question

The question therefore may not be:

“Do we urgently need to hire someone?”

A better question is:

“Is the finance function we have today still the finance function the business will need six months from now?”

Strong finance hiring decisions are often made before the vacancy feels urgent.

Understanding how the market is changing — the skills available, the capabilities becoming more valuable and the type of finance leadership similar organisations are building — gives employers more time to make that decision well.