How to hire a right CFO for the job?

How to hire a CFO for the job is a question all business owners should ask themselves before employing someone for a position with enormous financial responsibility. Once you understand how business growth also plays an important role in seeing business level up, it’s time to think about the characteristics that make a good Chief Financial Officer. Understanding the role of the CFO and the benefits they provide to your business is crucial to knowing what type of attributes and the qualifications applicants require to successfully carry out their daily tasks.

What are the responsibilities of a Chief Financial Officer?

The main responsibilities of a CFO are to:

• Optimise the company’s financial performance (ROI)
• Cashflow forecasting vs expenditure
• Financial reporting
• Streamline financial operations from payroll through to fund allocation
• Form and support a trusted financial team (depending on the size of the company)

The right CFO for hire with hands-on experience can provide invaluable insights on profitable activities and areas where there’s potential to make savings. Being placed within your day-to-day operations, they can be more in tune with what’s going on around the corner.

Recruiting the right CFO for hire

When you’re ready to begin the search, you’ll want to hire someone with a long history of financial experience. While clearly, it may be advantageous to employ someone who has already worked within the same industry, someone who has diverse experience across several different fields can bring a fresh perspective and the ability to find new and exciting ways to grow the business financially.

If you are undertaking the recruitment process yourself, there are several things to consider before hiring the right CFO. Ask about the relevant experience, a time they may have made a mistake and the process they took to overcome it. Situational questions will help you determine their confidence and determine how they would navigate everyday challenges.

1. Qualifications

The right CFO will have the foresight to predict financial management problems before they occur and plan a way to counteract them but they will also need to be able to:

• Effectively communicate the financial status of the company to management and shareholders
• Confidence in their decision-making abilities
• Ability to be able to forecast cash flow and provide insight on how the current economy affects the business, as well as establish a way forward for wealth creation.
• In-depth knowledge of financial obligations and laws relevant to the industry
• Experience in risk management
• Ethics

2. Do a background check

Because the person you employ is in a highly trusted role, you may want to go to the extra effort of acquiring referees, checking testimonials including a full background check and/or police check. Double-checking a potential CFO’s qualifications can help prevent falling a victim to crime such as a Gold Coast business that discovered their CFO had stolen more than $1.3 Million.

3. Outsource the recruitment process

Taking the time to recruit the right person for the position can be time-consuming, however, you can benefit from outsourcing this task to a firm that can align the right people with your company’s goals and vision.

4. Outsource the position of CFO

If you are worried about the cost of hiring a CFO, many part-time options provide you with the in-depth knowledge and experience of financial leadership without the cost of adding a full-timer to your team. Often the outsourced CFO is will also be working with other companies, so you have the flexibility to step hours up when things are busy and reduce your commitment during quieter times like Christmas holidays.

How we help you to hire a CFO?

Whether you have a team of 20 or 200 employers, we can find the right CFO for the job to help you look to the long-term for wealth creation and solve the day-to-day financial challenges. Not only can we provide someone who can easily integrate within your team, but we can ensure you can have an employee who has the experience to also become part of an executive team or sit on advisory boards.

To learn more about how we can assist you in your business, contact our team today.