Headhunter Fran Moisa shares key tips for employers looking to hire their next CFO

Undeniable, recruitment drives at C-level positions are long and complex and requires a level of thoroughness that can overwhelm many employers.

Ultimately, senior management work closely together to set strategy and oversee proper implementation of an organisation’s goals, requiring heightened levels of synergy and trust among an organisation’s C-level staff.

Honing into major points of consideration for employers seeking to hire a Chief Financial Officer (CFO), seasoned headhunter Fran Moisa took to LinkedIn to share her insights:

Define the type of CFO you are looking for

Here, she asks employers to consider the nature of the organisation:

“Is it a start up CFO, a technical CFO, a growth CFO, a M&A CFO?

“It’s important to define the most pertinent focus of the role so you can get the right person for your needs and they , in return, can do their best work for the business.”

Define the achievements that the new CFO should reach in the first six months

Ms Moisa points out how important it is for employers to have a clear idea of what needs to be achieved, so that interviews can be structured efficiently and in line with understanding of a candidate’s skills.

Here, Ms Moisa adds that employers “can assess whether the challenge in front of them [the candidate] is in line with their expectations and skills set.

Assess your bottlenecks / challenges

The importance of understanding bottlenecks, challenges and shortcomings within an organisation’s financial division is essential, she says. 

“It could be that you are more manual than automatic, or have a backlog, or are short staffed – whatever it is, identify the key challenges and make a plan on how the business will overcome those.

“Use these to bring in the CFO up to speed and to assess their comfort and willingness level, reducing the risk of them leaving sooner than anticipated because they walked in blindly into something they were not aware of”