EXCLUSIVE: More than half of UK finance leaders fear a lack of new hires

57% of UK finance leaders said they are worried about a potential lack of new hires as businesses continue to struggle with recruiting talent, according to the survey commissioned by accounts payable automation provider Yooz.

Finding people with the necessary skills (40%) was the biggest concern - more so than wage demands (39%) and flexible/home working preferences (37%).

A lack of skilled accounting and finance professionals is becoming a bigger issue in the industry, with accounting understaffed by as much as 22% in the UK.

The survey also listed the top skills of the modern-day CFO, with cost management (13.21%) coming out on top ahead of people management (12.15%) and communication (11.98%).

Talent acquisition was ranked one of the least important (8.38%) along with CFOs being an environmental leader (8.18%) and an entrepreneur (6.44%).

Laurent Charpentier, CEO at Yooz, said: “We already knew that there was a significant skills shortage in finance and accounting, but rather than closing the gap, it seems to be widening at a scarily rapid pace.

“Businesses are struggling to fill critical roles at a time of economic uncertainty, while employees can almost pick and choose who they work for. Businesses need to make themselves more attractive in order to attract new hires and retain existing talent in finance. This includes better benefits/perks, remote/hybrid working, graduate programmes, and the technology that can help decrease the amount of time they spend on painstakingly manual and time-consuming tasks."