Search Frustrations of Treasury Managers
01-02-2021 | Treasurer Search |
Sometimes it’s good to check if your assumptions are right. We think we know what the bottlenecks are in finding treasury employees. But what do treasury hiring managers experience in their search? We created a survey and this is to inform you about the results. This survey is not so much about our services but about recruitment processes in general. Of course we use the results to check if we do a proper job.
We identified four important client employee groups that are included in treasury recruitment. The first is the hiring manager, for instance the group treasurer. She might include treasury staff members, the direct colleagues who will work with the new employee. This is the second group. The third group consists of HR specialists and internal recruiters, the fourth and last are group finance leaders like a CFO. The first two groups responded well so we will focus on their input.
The following statements summarize what treasurers tell us about recruitment for their team:
- “I have a good understanding of my organisation, the tasks and what candidates should bring”
- “Screening CVs and doing interviews I can do well but I would appreciate some support”
- “Both quality as well as quantity of the candidates presented is often not sufficient”
- “In most cases the recruitment process takes too long”
This is input we can work with. It emphasizes the importance of us doing thorough and continuous market research: who are the treasury experts, where do they work, what are their contact details, what is their search status? So as soon as the search starts, we are prepared. This is the biggest taks of half of our team. Building a presentation is often a matter of days or a week. But also, where are the bottlenecks in an average search process and what can we do about these? My personal observation is that this often is caused by hurdles in the coordination between groups. And to conclude, of course we will also create content that will help our clients in cv screening and interviews.
We will continue the survey and ask non-treasurers for their input. We expect they will need different support. What might be interesting and cannot be put in a short survey is the opinion of treasurers about the treasury expertise of their HR counterpart. Or what HR experts think about the interview skills of treasurers. A quick self-assessment only goes so far…
Informing each other about processes and frustrations remains important. As external recruiters we notice that each of the four groups mentioned needs different input. And the groups need to communicate among each other, as one can notice with input like “HR often confuses treasury with general finance” and “job titles do not tell the full story, look at the tasks”.
Let me conclude with what can frustrate us as recruiters. In the text box there were requests like “high quality treasurers with some experience” or “extrovert treasurers”. This reminds me of my time working in Germany. My recruitment colleagues would sigh and say their client instructed them to find a “eierlegende Wollmilchsau”: a pig that lays eggs, brings wool and milk. We can only do so much and luckily we can help most.
What does frustrate you in finding treasurers?
