Finance Recruitment: Finding Scarce Financial Talent With a Targeted Approach

Why finance recruitment often gets stuck fishing in the same pool

Many teams start in a familiar way: they post a vacancy, search their own network and set LinkedIn filters. That's understandable, but it often surfaces the same names. As a result, finance recruitment quickly becomes a repeat of previous searches. In a tight market, that's unhelpful, because it mainly makes you visible to candidates who are already approached often. If you want to find financial talent that isn't actively applying, you need to look more broadly and think in terms of sub-markets rather than a job title in isolation.

Scarcity in the finance job market is also unevenly spread. Hiring a controller in London and the South East calls for a different approach than filling the same role in a region with fewer large employers. Seniority weighs heavily too. A mid-level financial controller with Exact experience forms a completely different search market from an experienced finance manager with international reporting lines. That's why it helps to first work out which segment the role really belongs in, before you start approaching candidates.

Where scarce financial talent tends to sit

Experienced finance professionals often work at accountancy firms, corporates, shared service centres, scale-ups and sector-focused finance teams. Exactly where someone sits depends heavily on the role. When recruiting a business controller, you're often looking at production, logistics, retail and other environments where analysis and advice come together. If you're looking for a financial controller, you're more likely to look at organisations with month-end closes, consolidations and tight reporting processes. When hiring an accountant, practices, compilation work and audit environments play a bigger role. Hiring a finance manager, on the other hand, more often calls for attention to teams where people management, reporting and change management come together in one role.

Why experienced finance professionals often don't respond actively

Many strong candidates are passively open to new roles. They don't apply spontaneously, but they are open to a serious step if the content is right. That's why finance recruitment often works better through a personal approach than through a job ad alone. This group wants to see quickly what the assignment is, who the role reports to, how much responsibility comes with it, and why their background is a logical match. A generic message or a broad pitch usually lacks that clarity, which is why a response never comes.

How finance recruitment differs by role

Finance recruitment isn't one uniform market. The differences between roles are large enough that you need to adapt your search strategy to them. That applies to recruiting a business controller, searching for a financial controller, and hiring an accountant or a finance manager. The titles sometimes look similar, but the content, the career path and the motivation clearly differ. That's why selection needs a different approach too.

Recruiting a business controller calls for a different search logic

A business controller usually operates close to the business. The role often revolves around planning, analysis, forecasting and advising managers. That's why you search here not just on title, but also on experience with budget rounds, commercial steering, supply chain, production or performance measurement. When recruiting a business controller, it's important to check whether someone has genuinely worked in an advisory capacity, doing more than just producing reports. Approaching finance professionals on LinkedIn works better in this case if you name that advisory role explicitly.

Searching for a financial controller is more often about reporting, closing and control

With a financial controller, the emphasis tends to sit more on the accounting cycle, month-end close, consolidation, compliance and internal controls. Systems knowledge is often extra important in this role. Think of SAP, Oracle, AFAS or Exact, for example. If you're searching specifically for a financial controller, pay close attention to process discipline, reporting and the complexity of the organisation. Someone from a small local team doesn't automatically fit an international structure with group reporting and tight deadlines.

Hiring an accountant calls for a different background and career route

Hiring an accountant works better if you understand when someone is open to a move. Many accountants look towards industry when they want more ownership, more calm, or a broader remit. It also matters whether the candidate has mainly done compilation, audit or advisory work. The type of clients matters too. An accountant from an SME practice tends to judge a role differently from someone from a large international firm. That's why the approach for this role needs to be more specific than for other finance roles.

Hiring a finance manager means searching for end responsibility

A finance manager usually has a broad role. People management, reporting, process improvement, cash flow management, the annual accounts and alignment with the board or holding company regularly come together here. That's why you search differently than for a specialist controller role. When hiring a finance manager, it helps to establish clearly how many people someone has managed, how the reporting line runs, and whether the position is about growth, professionalisation or change. That context often determines whether a candidate sees the move as a logical step.

What to search for in finance recruitment beyond the job title

Job titles in finance are often too broad. A business controller at one company is strongly advisory, while the same title elsewhere mainly covers reporting and analysis. That's why finance recruitment works better when you always link the job title to the context. The real match usually sits in the sector, the company size, the systems and the change agenda behind the vacancy.

Combine title with sector, company size and systems knowledge

Don't just search on 'business controller', 'financial controller' or 'finance manager'; always add context. Think of production, retail, healthcare, logistics or professional services. Then look at the scale of the organisation. A candidate from a shared service centre tends to work differently from someone at a local SME. Systems knowledge sharpens the search further. SAP, for instance, tends to fit more complex processes, while systems like AFAS or Exact tend to appear in other environments. This makes your shortlist usable faster and cuts out a lot of noise.

Link the role to the real change agenda

The content of a role only becomes clear once you know what genuinely needs to happen. Is it about growth, professionalisation, an ERP implementation, an integration after an acquisition, or building a team? Each of these challenges calls for a different kind of experience. Someone can look good on paper but fit less well in practice if the current change agenda doesn't match their previous roles. That's why it helps to write out the brief in plain language first, and only then build your search around it.

Example of a search brief in plain language

A usable brief might look like this: find a business controller within a 45-minute commute of Utrecht, with SAP experience, work experience in production and at least three years' experience in an advisory role. This makes immediately clear what the search is actually about. For teams who want to turn this into a concise list with clear match reasons, AI sourcing for finance profiles can help enormously. It supports searching in plain language, building scorecards per candidate, and sharpening hard requirements.

• Hard requirements: experience as a business controller, commutable distance to Utrecht, SAP experience, production environment and at least three years in an advisory role.
• Nice-to-haves: experience with forecasting, alignment with management, international reporting lines and process improvement.
• Exclusions: no interim candidates, no candidates who mainly work on a project basis, and no candidates without a demonstrable advisory role towards the business.

This makes the brief extremely concrete. From there, you can assess per candidate which points genuinely line up well. A scorecard helps you back up your choices, but it never replaces the recruiter's judgement. That human insight remains essential, since motivation, timing and context can never be fully captured in a tick-box list.

Finance recruitment needs a first message with real substance

Many outreach messages in finance recruitment look strikingly similar. A candidate reads about 'a great opportunity in a dynamic environment' and doesn't feel any particular pull to respond. This happens because the message gives no concrete information about the role or the specific reason for the match. Finance recruitment works far better when you show that you understand the substance of the role, and explain why the candidate's background fits it so logically. That makes the message come across as more credible, and considerably raises the chance of a reply.

What a good first message should include

Name the team, the assignment, the level of responsibility, the reporting line, the location and the reason the candidate's background is a good fit. Keep it short and transparent. A candidate should be able to judge, in a few sentences, whether this is a step up, a logical sideways move, or a comparable role at a different organisation. So write, for example, that someone reports to the CFO, manages two people and is responsible for the month-end close and process improvement. That makes clear in one go exactly what the role involves.

What you're better off leaving out

Clichés such as 'dynamic', 'the glue of the team' or 'a great opportunity' rarely get you anywhere. They don't make the role any clearer and simply carry no substance. An overly personal opening also often backfires if it comes across as insincere. If you act as though you know someone's entire career inside out, while you've only glanced briefly at a profile, it quickly feels contrived. A level-headed approach works far better than an overly enthusiastic pitch.

How to use a single concrete observation well

One relevant observation is often enough. Think of specific experience in a production environment, a recent move from accountancy, or knowledge of a particular system. Then link that observation directly to the role you're offering. In the Manpower case study, you can see how you move effectively from a shortlist to personal outreach, while keeping your own tone and style. This case shows a targeted way of working and, of course, offers no blueprint with a fixed outcome for every search.

A strong first message might read: 'I saw that you're currently working in a production environment and have worked extensively with SAP in the past. That's why I immediately thought of you for this business controller role in the Utrecht area. The team consists of four finance colleagues. You'd report to the finance manager and work closely with the operations department. The emphasis in this role is firmly on forecasting and advising the business. If this profile broadly fits your ambitions, I'd be happy to talk you through the vacancy briefly.'

Topics like salary and flexibility absolutely belong in the conversation, but they're usually not the main focus of a first point of contact. Good candidates generally want to find out first whether the substance of the role is genuinely interesting. Once that interest is sparked, the rest usually comes up much faster and more smoothly afterwards.

What finance recruitment costs, and when doing it yourself makes more sense

The choice between bringing in an agency or building an internal process is, at its core, a classic make-or-buy question. It comes down to quality, speed, ownership and repeatability. Sometimes using an agency fits better, but in other cases sourcing financial talent yourself is smarter, for example because you search for similar roles often and want to build the knowledge internally. It's therefore worth looking carefully, case by case, at what the best route is for you.

Indicative fee for a finance recruitment agency

A common market indication for the fee charged by a finance recruitment agency sits around twenty to twenty-five percent of the candidate's gross annual salary. This is a useful guideline, but certainly not a rule set in stone. Specific agreements, guarantee arrangements, sector focus and the exact level of service vary considerably by agency. So always look beyond the fee alone, and critically assess how well the proposed approach fits your type of vacancies.

What else to look at

Also factor in aspects such as vacancy volume, available internal time, tooling, expected time-to-fill, knowledge building and the repeatability of the process. Does your team search for similar roles several times a year? Then an internal process can become considerably more valuable over time. You build up your own targeted experience with search logic, selection criteria and effective outreach. For anyone who wants to weigh up different approaches calmly side by side: comparing recruitment outreach methods can help you judge which approach best fits your own team and preferred way of working.

• An agency tends to fit better for a one-off search, a highly specialist profile, limited internal capacity, or a confidential search.
• Searching yourself tends to fit better for several similar vacancies a year, heavy active LinkedIn use within your own team, the need for a consistent tone of voice, and a strong wish to keep knowledge and follow-up in-house.

When an agency makes sense

Bringing in an agency is often practical when you need extra capacity quickly, or when filling the role internally proves difficult. This applies, for example, to a confidential replacement, a search for a very niche profile, or a situation where the hiring manager wants fast results while the team is stretched for time. At moments like that, you're mainly buying speed, experience and focused execution power.

When sourcing financial talent yourself becomes more attractive

Sourcing financial talent yourself becomes genuinely interesting once you fill similar roles more often and want to keep more control over quality and follow-up. As you learn internally which search terms work well, which profiles respond faster, and how to recruit finance professionals effectively with a message that fits your own organisation's identity, you optimise the process. Over time, this makes hiring faster and considerably more consistent. For many companies, this is an important reason to build part of finance recruitment fully in-house.

How to make finance recruitment repeatable without becoming impersonal

Finance recruitment doesn't have to become impersonal when you tighten up the process a little. Quite the opposite: for scarce roles especially, a consistent way of working pays off. It means you lose far less quality during the critical phases of the search, the approach and the follow-up. The core of a good approach is actually surprisingly simple. You first decide who's a good fit on substance, then you test the actual match per candidate, then you send a short, personal message, and finally you manage follow-up and responses with real care.

From shortlist to personal message and follow-up

A workable flow always starts with a targeted shortlist based on the hard requirements and desired extras. Next, you carefully check per candidate whether the proposed role is genuinely a logical next step for them. Once that's clear, you write a personal message sharing one specific observation from the profile, combined with the key facts about the vacancy. As soon as a reply comes in, you schedule the follow-up straight away and set clear reminders to stop good candidates slipping unintentionally out of view. For agencies who want to make this process more consistent, Elvatix for recruitment agencies shows how you can structure sourcing and outreach within an agency context, straight from your own LinkedIn account.

Why follow-up often makes the difference

Many excellent candidates don't respond straight away to a first approach. Don't read that immediately as a firm no; timing often simply plays a big role. A short follow-up that adds just a bit of extra context works far better in cases like that than mindlessly sending the same text again. Add, for example, a brief note about team size, the level of decision-making authority, or the specific growth stage the organisation is in. This often gets a good conversation going after all, simply because the candidate now has enough information to genuinely judge the value of the step.

Human oversight remains essential

Using a scorecard is a powerful way to explain choices transparently to recruiters, hiring managers or agency owners. It lets you see at a glance why a candidate does or doesn't fit, and exactly where there's still room for doubt. Even so, human oversight always remains indispensable. Things like context, personal motivation and the natural logic of a career can never be fully captured in a mathematical model or a static checklist. A tight process is therefore meant purely as powerful support for the recruiter's human judgement, and never as a blind replacement for it.

Frequently asked questions about finance recruitment

Where are the best candidates for finance recruitment usually found? That depends heavily on the specific role. Accountants, for example, often work at accountancy firms, or are just entering the orientation phase for a move into industry. Financial controllers, by contrast, are more often found at large corporates, international organisations and central finance teams. Business controllers tend to turn up more often in production, logistics, retail and other sectors where they operate very close to the business. Finally, finance managers are mostly found in roles where people management and driving change go hand in hand.

How does hiring a controller differ from hiring an accountant? When recruiting a controller, you generally pay more attention to experience with reporting, analysis, forecasting, various software systems and collaboration with the business. Hiring an accountant instead? Then the focus sits much more on the specific practice background, the type of clients, the choice between compilation or audit work, and finding the perfect moment for a move. Precisely for these reasons, both the search terms you use and the content of your first outreach message differ fundamentally.

When is searching for a financial controller harder than recruiting a business controller? This depends entirely on the region, the sector, the systems knowledge required and the seniority level. A financial controller with extensive consolidation experience and advanced knowledge of one very specific software package can be extremely scarce. In other markets, recruiting a business controller is considerably harder instead. This is often because the ideal combination of convincing advisory skill, a solid financial base and the ability to work smoothly with management is only available in very limited supply.

Is using an agency always faster than sourcing financial talent yourself? Certainly not. Sometimes yes, particularly for highly specialist or strictly confidential assignments. In other cases, you're faster yourself, especially when your internal processes are already well organised and you regularly search for similar roles. The eventual time-to-fill always depends on focus, available capacity, the quality of the search and the way you approach candidates.

How can you successfully recruit finance professionals without sending generic LinkedIn messages? Choose a short, concise message with genuine substance. Name the assignment, the make-up of the team, the reporting line, the location, and always give one concrete, personal reason why you think the candidate's background is such a good fit. This makes your outreach feel credible straight away, and the candidate immediately understands why you specifically want to start a conversation with them.

Discuss which approach fits your team and vacancy volume

If you're regularly looking for good controllers, accountants or finance managers, it's worth choosing your hiring approach very deliberately. Sometimes bringing in an external agency is the best choice. In other cases, you're much better off with your own hiring process, for example because you want to build lasting knowledge and keep a structurally stronger grip on the quality and follow-up of talent. Want to critically test this choice against your team size, your vacancy volume or your current way of working? You can easily book a slot via talk through your finance recruitment approach. Think of it as a logical next step towards an in-depth conversation about the route that best fits your team.