How To Attract Top Accounting and Finance Professionals

Having trouble keeping your internal departments fully staffed with accounting and finance professionals? You aren’t alone. Good professional talent is not easy to find. In recent staffing surveys of the most difficult jobs to fill, accounting and finance professionals continually rank high, even ahead of infamously underserved career fields like nursing, information technology and engineering.

According to payscale.com, the median salary for a mid-career senior financial analyst in the D.C. area is $81,579, while even an entry-level accountant will command upwards of $50,000 in the District. Money matters for financial professionals: it’s their work, it’s what they live and breathe every day, and they know their value. High salaries are a must to attract and retain top talent.

Related: 6 Hiring Trends in Accounting and Finance

But as with many motivated, high-value professionals, base salary and benefits aren’t absolutely everything. Financial professionals crave job security, the chance to work for a well-performing company with strong leadership and most of all, opportunities for career advancement.

 A company interested in high-level financial talent should be proactive in creating the type of company where such professionals want to work. Keeping your own employees happy and motivated creates a situation where they’re willing to refer competent colleagues.

Mentorship programs can have multiple positive effects on your finance hiring. In addition to building strong relationships and facilitating better communication between employees and supervisors, which improves efficiency and bolsters retention efforts, they more adequately prepare younger workers for advancement. Showing that your company is committed to internal promotion is hugely attractive when courting new hires.

The top financial workers also want to be rewarded for good performance beyond just their base salary. This can mean a comprehensive system of bonuses or advancement opportunities tied to meeting certain goals. It could also mean priority for highly coveted assignments in different divisions or new geographical locations. This commitment to recognizing excellence offers a challenge to those who desire one, and shows to current and potential employees that your company values the people who work hard and deliver positive results.

Sparks Group has consistently been rated as one of the top accounting and finance recruiting firms and staffing agency in DC, MD, VA and NC, and has been the choice of over a quarter of a million job seekers. Find out today how Sparks Group can help your company locate the professional talent it needs.