Shortlisting the right FD or CFO & what to look for

As the business landscape changes, the role of Finance Directors (FDs) and Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) is also evolving. These financial leaders are no longer confined to traditional number-crunching roles but play a pivotal role in shaping a company’s strategic direction and financial health. To ensure you choose the right FD or CFO for your organisation, it is crucial to understand the evolving demands of this position and identify the competencies that will drive your company’s success.

Hopefully, at this point, you will probably have already developed a job description and documented the key competencies you want from your new Finance Director or CFO so the next part is deciding how to test for it.

One of the initial steps in the selection process is to review the candidate’s Curriculum Vitae (CV). In many cases, FDs and CFOs provide comprehensive CVs that highlight their professional journey. A thorough CV examination can provide valuable insights into a candidate’s qualifications and experiences.

Most Finance Directors and CFOs document in detail their last few roles and list their main duties, responsibilities and achievements. They tend to name their employers and more often than not they will include a narrative of what the organisation does, where it operates and the scale and size of the organisation. All of the above will help you assess if they have the right skills and experience to warrant an interview.

We have developed a Finance Director and CFO assessment framework which can be downloaded below and your recruiter should follow this when assessing candidates during the shortlisting process.

We advise the key areas to consider are:

• Circumstances
• Sector
• Scale
• Business Structure
• Geographical Markets
• Development Potential
• Operational Capabilities
• Technical Vs Strategic
• Leadership Qualities

Download our Finance Director assessment or CFO assessment plan which will explain the above experiences and competencies in more detail to help you know what to look for when assessing Finance Director or CFO skills.