Finding the right Finance Director can be tough. For such a crucial position, you want to make sure that the candidate you hire has the right experience, and all the right Finance Director skills.
But what do you need to look for? How do you identify the very best Finance Directors? How do you know which candidates will be able to take your business to new heights? What do you need to consider first?
Here we will take a look at some of the essential Finance Director skills you should look for when conducting your recruitment process.
So What Skills Does A Finance Director Need?
We all understand that successful Finance Directors need to have a strong skill set. But the question remains; exactly what skills does a Finance Director need?
To succeed at Director level, candidates need to have a broad skill set. It needs to encompass many executive level abilities, accompanied by strong experience at senior level. But what are the key skills of a Finance Director?
Transferable Skills
Transferable skills are perhaps the most important feature of any Director-level candidate. Though the phrase may seem a bit vague, this refers to the general executive skills that are required of every senior role.
One of the most vital transferable skills that Finance Directors need to have is business and commercial acumen. This is otherwise known as business savvy.
By having a strong capability to understand and deal with senior business situations and decisions, those with strong business acumen will find themselves a viable candidate for a range of senior roles, including Finance Director.
This means that regardless of industry background and experience, your candidate should have strong executive business skills to thrive in your business.
Excellent Financial Skills
For Finance Director roles, one of the most important aspects of business acumen for candidates to possess is financial literacy. Your FD candidates should have an excellent understanding of finances, of course. This should include forecasting, planning, budgeting, investing, assessment, and various other finance-related skills.
The ability to forecast finances is essential to planning for the future. In addition, budgeting is a vital function of the FD role. This means your candidates should have no problem handling large financial management tasks.
You need to be sure your finances are being managed and distributed to the right places. This is also why strong communication and decision-making skills are a must. You need to be able to trust your Finance Director to make informed decisions and manage each department’s finances reliably. They should be able to assess your business and plan based on these reliable assessments.
Remember, a Finance Director is a vital part of your business. Even small mistakes can have severe consequences. That’s why you can’t afford to appoint a candidate who isn’t perfect for your position.
Strategic Ability & Analytical Mind
The ability to strategise is essential for Director-level roles. This is especially true for finance based roles, where the future of your business’s finances are on the line. Strategising is the key to financial success. You need to make sure your candidate has the ability to formulate complex strategies with the aim of improving financial management and maximising productivity.
In addition, an analytical mindset is necessary to develop and implement these strategies. Successful strategy development needs to be backed up by insightful analysis. If your Finance Director can’t conduct useful analysis, their strategies and plans might not be up to scratch.
Leadership Skills
As with any Director-level role, leadership and management skills are essential. Being a Director means you take on the responsibility for the entire department and often more.
It’s not enough to be able to manage yourself and thrive as an individual, you need to be able to help others thrive as well. They need to have excellent communication and relationship building skills.
Look for candidates with proven experience managing groups of people and leading teams to success.
Quantifiable statistics serve as reliable evidence that your candidate has experience achieving results both individually and as a team leader.
Market Knowledge & Awareness
Though perhaps not essential, it’s still very beneficial for Finance Directors to have a good existing knowledge of the market they’re going into. If your candidate already has strong experience working in your industry, they have a good knowledge base to build off in your role.
High-calibre Finance Director candidates will be able to quickly pick up market knowledge of both your own market, and others. This leads to a strong market awareness, which is essential for senior finance roles.
Technical Knowledge
A good amount of technical knowledge can be gained when moving into a new role. But it’s still important that candidates have a good existing base of technical knowledge.
Technical knowledge includes a strong understanding of the laws, rules, and regulations that dictate how both the Finance Director and other members of the business operate day-to-day. Your FD will be responsible for managing and distributing all your businesses finances in accordance with regulations.
Legal guidelines can get complex at the top end of the business, so your candidate needs to be technically knowledgeable and reliable.
Self-sufficiency and Independence
Finance Director roles tend to include a high level of autonomy. This means that ideal candidates for the position need to be able to motivate themselves and take the lead on their own to find success. Your candidate should thrive in autonomy and be excited by the opportunity to take the lead.
Competitor Analysis
The Finance Director position involves having an excellent knowledge of your own business. It also involves knowing your competitors inside and out.
A strong understanding of competitors and the wider market can be a huge advantage. The ability to accurately analyse competitor businesses and apply findings to your business is incredibly useful for a Finance Director.
Financial Director Skills From Background
Many of the skills that are vital for successful Finance Directors can be gained from experience. That’s why hiring a candidate with the right experience is essential.
So what backgrounds and experiences should you be looking for in your potential Finance Directors?
Of course, the best Finance Directors are those who have extensive experience in the role. You should look for candidates who have multiple years of experience as a Finance Director. Even better if they’ve been a Finance Director for more than one business, with multiple years in each.
It’s important to consider the risk of institutionalisation. Candidates who have spent their entire career in one business may become set in their ways and struggle to adapt to a new business culture and structure. This shows a blatant lack of transferable skills, as their skills are too business/industry specific.
But this doesn’t mean you should outright avoid candidates with experience of one business. It simply means that in this case, you should be extra careful to identify transferable skills. Skills that say that they’ll be able to perform successfully in your Finance Director role as well as their current one.
However, if the candidate has the right transferable skills, you may consider hiring someone who hasn’t directly operated as an FD, but has extensive experience in a similar senior role.
The Key Skills Finance Director Candidates Should Possess
All in all, you should aim to hire the best Finance Director for your business. The best candidates don’t just have the right skills and experience, they’re the right fit for your company.
Cultural fit is one of the most overlooked aspects of senior recruitment, yet it’s one of the most important. If your candidate is set to be a leader in your business, they need mix well in the business environment, with employees, and the rest of the business’s leaders. If they don’t they won’t be reaching their full potential.
In fact, having the right cultural and personality fit can sometimes make up for certain lack of industry experience or skills. Think about this; would you rather hire a candidate who had experience as an FD in your sector, but didn’t fit your company culture at all? Or would you rather have a candidate who had experience as an FD in another industry but looked to be the perfect fit to lead your business.
It can be easy to get too caught up in industry experience. Remember that with high-quality senior candidates, the main skills and abilities needed to succeed are transferable. Does your candidate have strong FD experience? Do they have the ability to fit into your business with ease? Chances are they’re capable of adjusting to and picking up the nuances of your industry very quickly.
Of course, this all works on a case-to-case basis. You shouldn’t assume that candidates with FD experience will be able to transition successfully. But at the same time you shouldn’t assume they can’t.
The bottom line is; Always look for key senior business skills. Don’t just ignore candidates without the exact industry experience you might be looking for.
