One fifth of accounting managers intended to hire due to expansion or acquisition in the next 12 months, but almost half were impeded by a lack of skilled candidates, particularly in business partnering.
Such was the finding from specialist financial recruitment firm, Marks Sattin, which found only a quarter of the 400 hiring managers surveyed believed they had implemented business partnering “very well”, with almost half saying just “okay”.
Meanwhile, 16 per cent said “not very well”, and 11 per cent had not adopted business partnering at all.
The research found cultural and organisational challenges were a bigger obstacle to business partnering than a skills shortage, with employees often against change.
“If your accounting team is going to be interacting with other departments then you need to have the other departments in the interview and selection process,” Marks Sattin director, Ieuan Williams, said.
“Only a quarter of those surveyed believe they are succeeding at business partnering.”
Majority of accounting managers (70 per cent) hired by consulting other departments. Of those who hired with business partnering in mind, 60 per cent included members of other departments in the interview process, while 20 per cent did so only sometimes.
“Candidates seeking new roles would do well to come prepared with examples and be able to demonstrate an understanding of how their role fits in with and adds value to the rest of the business,” Williams said.
