Hiring skilled finance professionals in the UK feels tougher than ever. Skills shortages, shifting regulations, and relentless competition mean hiring managers face steep challenges. Get a single hire wrong, whether it’s an accountant, auditor, or FP&A analyst, and you risk compliance breaches, project delays, and ballooning costs.
This article gives you a practical, data-driven playbook to build a strong finance recruitment strategy. You’ll learn how to benchmark salaries accurately, tap targeted sourcing channels, apply screening best practices, and keep your top hires engaged long-term. Along the way, we’ll share templates and tools you can use today to streamline job descriptions, run technical assessments, and strengthen your employer brand in finance. Whether you’re an in-house HR professional, a recruitment process outsourcing partner, or a hiring manager, these tactics will help you attract, hire, and retain the finance talent you need.
The UK Finance Recruitment Landscape
Skills Shortages & Regulatory Pressures
The demand for finance roles - management accountants, financial controllers, treasury analysts, and internal auditors - is skyrocketing. The FCA’s scrutiny, new IFRS standards, Basel III/IV capital rules, and evolving tax regimes all drive hiring needs. Many organisations struggle to find candidates who combine technical know-how with up-to-date compliance expertise.
Job openings linger longer than expected, costing time and money. Meanwhile, applicants often juggle multiple offers. Without precise market salary benchmarking and a strong employer brand, you risk losing talent to competitors who move faster or promise better work-life balance.
Key Roles in Demand
- Management Accountants: Responsible for budgeting, forecasting, and variance analysis. Typical UK salaries range from £45k to £65k.
- Financial Controllers: Oversee month-end close, statutory reporting, and internal controls. Salaries usually fall between £65k and £90k.
- Treasury Analysts: Manage cash flow, liquidity, and risk. Expect salaries from £50k to £75k.
- Internal Auditors: Evaluate governance, risk, and controls. Salary bands start at £40k and can exceed £70k for senior roles.
Salaries fluctuate with sector, company size, and location. London-based roles often command a 10–20% premium. A targeted salary benchmarking exercise helps you stay competitive, control budgets, and reduce offer rejections.
Building an Effective Finance Recruitment Strategy
Craft a strategy around four pillars: market salary benchmarking, targeted sourcing channels, screening best practices, and strong employer branding.
Market Salary Benchmarking
Use industry guides from ACCA, CIMA, and recruiter surveys. Supplement with real-time data from LinkedIn Talent Insights and niche job boards. Create a dynamic spreadsheet that tracks:
- Base salary bands by role and location.
- Bonus structures and benefits (pension, health, wellness).
- Total compensation packages.
Update your benchmarking quarterly to reflect inflation, market movements, and regulatory changes. This ensures your offers strike the right balance: attractive enough to win top talent without overshooting your budget.
Targeted Sourcing Channels
LinkedIn & Finance Communities Advanced search filters and LinkedIn Talent Insights let you find candidates by skills, certifications, and companies. Join ACCA/CIMA forums and finance-focused social media groups to share content and job openings. Engage with potential applicants through thought leadership posts that highlight your finance team’s achievements and culture.
Niche Job Boards & Specialist Agencies Platforms like eFinancialCareers and Reed Finance cater specifically to finance roles. Post your job descriptions and use paid highlights to stand out. Partner with boutique agencies that specialise in roles like treasury or audit. They have deeper networks and can speed up your search process.
Screening Best Practices
Technical Assessments & Case Studies Online accounting tests and financial modelling exercises help measure candidates’ technical skills objectively. Use timed, role-relevant tasks, such as building a simplified P&L forecast, to see how they think under pressure.
Behavioural Interviews & Soft-Skills Evaluation Use the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) to assess cultural fit and communication. Ask about past experiences: how they handled tight deadlines or complex regulatory changes. Evaluate teamwork, adaptability, and attention to detail, crucial traits for finance roles.
Employer Branding for Finance Roles
Showcase your compliance expertise, career paths, and commitment to work-life balance. Use employee testimonials, short videos or quotes to bring your finance team’s culture to life. Share thought leadership content on tax updates or IFRS changes to position your company as a knowledge leader. A strong employer brand helps you attract passive candidates who may not be actively job-seeking but value professional growth.
Retaining Top Finance Talent
A hire is only as good as your ability to keep them engaged and growing.
Competitive Compensation & Benefits
Beyond base salary, offer: performance bonuses tied to clear KPIs; enhanced pension contributions; and flexible reward schemes like health stipends or wellness allowances. Transparency around pay and benefits fosters trust and reduces turnover risk.
Career Development & Mentorship
Create structured progression plans with defined milestones and timelines. Pair high-potential hires with senior finance mentors who provide guidance and support. Offer stretch assignments, cross-functional projects, and regular feedback sessions to fuel continuous growth.
Flexible Working & Wellbeing
Adopt hybrid or fully remote policies where feasible. Provide mental-health support through Employee Assistance Programmes and wellbeing allowances. Celebrate a healthy work-life balance by normalising reasonable hours and discouraging after-hours messaging.
Recognition & Performance Management
Launch quarterly awards to spotlight outstanding contributions. Use peer-nominated recognition platforms for day-to-day appreciation. Set clear, measurable KPIs and review them in regular one-on-ones to keep goals aligned and progress visible.
Building a Strong Finance Culture
Host cross-functional projects that bring finance closer to sales, operations, and IT. Hold monthly town halls to share financial insights and celebrate wins. Run knowledge-share sessions where team members present learnings from courses or conferences. A collaborative environment boosts engagement and retention.
Implementation Toolkit for Finance Recruitment
Equip your team with these ready-to-use tools:
Salary Benchmarking Template
A pre-formatted grid to capture:
- Role titles and levels.
- Base salary bands (min, median, max).
- Bonus and benefits fields.
- Total compensation calculations.
Use conditional formatting to highlight roles outside your budget or below market median. This visual cue lets hiring managers adjust offers quickly.
Sourcing Channel Checklist
A step-by-step guide covering:
- LinkedIn advanced search setup.
- Posting to finance-specific job boards.
- Agency brief templates.
- Referral and alumni outreach scripts.
- Social media post calendar.
Check off each channel as you go. Track metrics - response rates, time-to-interview - to focus on the highest-performing sources.
How Signet Recruitment and Retention Can Help
Signet Recruitment and Retention delivers end-to-end finance hiring solutions:
- Tailored Talent Strategies – We work with your finance leaders to map skills gaps, craft precise job descriptions, and design bespoke sourcing plans.
- Deep Finance Networks – Our proprietary database and specialist partners give you access to passive talent in areas like FP&A, audit, and treasury.
- Salary & Benefits Benchmarking – We provide custom compensation reports aligned to your sector, size, and location.
- Screening & Assessment Expertise – Benefit from our in-house technical tests, case-study evaluations, and behavioural interview protocols.
- Onboarding & Retention Toolkits – From contract negotiation to 30-60-90 day plans and mentorship pairing, we help you integrate and engage new hires.
Partnering with Signet streamlines your finance recruitment, reduces time-to-hire, and boosts candidate quality, so you can focus on driving business growth.
Conclusion
A strategic, data-driven finance recruitment process is no longer optional; it’s essential. By benchmarking salaries, targeting the right sourcing channels, and applying robust screening practices, you reduce hiring risks and attract top talent. Coupled with strong employer branding and engagement initiatives, these steps help you build a finance team that fuels your company’s success.
Use the provided templates to kickstart your hiring toolkit. Track your metrics (time-to-hire, source ROI, retention rates) and refine your approach over time. When the stakes are high, partnering with a specialist recruiter like Signet gives you deeper market insight, faster candidate access, and ongoing support from offer to onboarding and beyond.
Ready to elevate your finance hiring? Reach out to Signet Recruitment and Retention to secure your next finance leader.
