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Tighter control over headcount does not mean finance hiring has to stop. It just means the case for each hire needs to be examined more closely. This increased scrutiny comes at a time when employers are already reviewing workforce decisions in response to rising employment costs, economic uncertainty and changes introduced through the Employment Rights Act. As organisations prepare for a greater focus on workforce governance and people processes, hiring decisions are increasingly being viewed through a wider business risk lens.
It is important to understand which roles and capabilities you cannot afford to leave unfilled, while considering cost, capability, delivery and retention risk together. That means building a business case around what it will cost to hire, and what it will cost not to.
A strong case for a finance hiring decision starts with the business requirement, not the vacancy. What specifically needs to change as a result of this person joining?
The answer might be stronger financial control, meeting reporting or regulatory obligations, improving forecasting, supporting an ERP transformation or giving commercial teams better financial insight.
Not every vacancy has the same business value. Replacing somebody because their position previously existed is different from demonstrating that the organisation needs a particular capability to deliver an agreed outcome.
The strongest cases connect the role directly to business priorities and separate essential requirements from desirable ones, preventing job specifications from becoming unnecessarily restrictive.
Salary is usually one of the clearest costs within a headcount decision. The cost of leaving a role vacant can be much less visible. Who absorbs the workload if the hire is delayed?
A Financial Controller vacancy could push operational responsibilities upwards to the Finance Director or CFO. An unfilled FP&A position could limit forecasting capacity at the point leaders need better insight. A shortage of technical accounting expertise could increase pressure around reporting deadlines.
Persistent vacancies or excessive caution around finance hiring can also increase workloads for existing teams, divert senior leaders into work below their intended level and place retention at risk. Greater scrutiny is only valuable when it leads to a better decision; it becomes counterproductive when uncertainty is allowed to continue without a clear assessment of the consequences.
The Employment Rights Act has also increased focus on how organisations manage employment decisions throughout the employee lifecycle. While stronger processes do not remove the need for good judgement, they reinforce the importance of making well-considered finance hiring decisions from the outset. A clearer role scope, realistic expectations and robust assessment process can help organisations reduce avoidable risk once someone joins.
Establishing that a capability is essential does not automatically mean creating a permanent position. Assess permanent, interim, contract and project-based options against the underlying business requirement. What capability do you need, for how long, and what workforce model best reflects that requirement?
While a long-term need for financial leadership, control or business partnering may justify permanent recruitment, a transformation programme, year-end requirement, remediation project, systems implementation or period of change may be better supported through interim, contract or project-based expertise.
Instead of forcing every need into a permanent-versus-no-hire decision, leaders can consider the most commercially appropriate way to access expertise. This can make finance hiring discussions more productive.
A role can make complete sense internally and still be difficult to recruit externally thanks to persistent finance and accounting talent shortages. But, hiring expectations still need to be tested against reality.
Before approval, understand whether the proposed salary, remit, seniority and experience requirements reflect the talent market. Otherwise, a seemingly well-controlled headcount decision can result in a search that runs for months without producing the right candidate.
This is particularly important as finance roles become more specialised. There is growing demand for future finance skills spanning data analytics, governance, risk and strategic decision-making, while the impact of AI is also reshaping the skills employers need.
However, there is little evidence AI will replace finance jobs. ICAEW research found that 68% of mid-tier accountancy firms in the UK expect AI to reduce demand for some early-career accountants. However, 83% agreed this would not directly result in fewer roles overall, suggesting that the shape of demand is changing rather than disappearing.
The picture also varies considerably by location. In the UK, 34% of UK businesses struggle to fill finance and accounting positions however London-based roles continue to command premiums, despite cities within a two-hour commute offer competitive packages capable of attracting talent.
In the US, both tax and accounting workforces are very hard to hire nationally. Large metros including Atlanta, Nashville and Dallas-Fort Worth show strong competition for accounting professionals, while midsized markets including Richmond, Hartford and Cleveland face particular pressure for tax talent.
Current insight into candidate availability, compensation, competing opportunities and likely recruitment timescales should therefore form part of the hiring decision itself, rather than being considered only after approval.
Additional governance should improve finance hiring decisions. It should not create unnecessary delay. If a role protects reporting deadlines, supports transformation or fills a significant technical gap, the time needed to secure that capability becomes part of the commercial calculation.
Multiple approval stages, changing requirements or long gaps between interviews can create a different type of risk, where organisations lose available candidates while the operational problem that prompted the search remains unresolved.
Hiring teams should therefore establish the urgency of the requirement early and agree the approval route, decision-makers and recruitment process before approaching the market.
The final test of whether an accounting or finance hire is worthwhile is if there is a clear expected outcome. What should be different six or twelve months after this person joins?
Clear outcomes create a stronger business case and a better hiring process. They inform the job description, interview questions, assessment criteria, onboarding and probation.
For one role, success could mean shortening the month-end close. For another, improving forecast accuracy, delivering a systems implementation or giving business leaders better commercial insight.
Defining those outcomes before approval means the organisation is investing in a result rather than simply filling a desk.
Not every finance vacancy warrants approval. The Employment Rights Act is prompting organisations to review how they recruit, manage and retain employees, but avoiding risk cannot mean avoiding hiring altogether. Greater headcount control should help organisations distinguish between desirable additional resource and capability with a clear commercial or operational case.
Making that distinction requires more than an internal budget calculation. You need current information on talent availability, recruitment timescales and salary benchmarks to understand whether a role is realistic, urgent and commercially justified.
Goodman Masson works with employers to bring that market perspective into finance hiring decisions, helping leadership and Talent teams assess where capability is most critical and how best to access it.
Download our report The New Hiring Risk for a wider look at how employers can balance stronger hiring governance with the need to secure critical skills.
Or contact Goodman Masson for support with your Accounting & Finance recruitment requirements.
Learn how to make finance hiring decisions that balance business needs with talent availability, costs and the risks of leaving critical roles unfilled.
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