Finding the right fit

If you have recurring back pain, would
you go to a general practitioner or
would you go to a back specialist?
Likewise, if a company needs to hire a forensic accountant or other financial
specialist, it should not outsource the task
to a generalist search firm. A more logical
approach would be to partner with a service firm dedicated to financial staffing to
complete the hiring process.

“Make sure you find someone who specializes in the area of expertise that fits
your needs,” says Robert Gaglione, the
managing director of Skoda Minotti
F
inancial Staffing. “A ‘one person fits all’
search process simply does not work.”

Smart Business spoke with Gaglione to
learn more about the value of working
with financial staffing specialists, what to
look for when hiring them and what benefits accrue from doing so.

Why should a company delegate the financial professional hiring process to an outside
firm?

The hiring process for a financial specialist is conducted most effectively by
someone who is well versed in that specialist’s field. Turning the selection
process over to experienced specialists
saves the company time, money and
effort. It also results in the hiring of the
candidate whose credentials best match
the company’s needs, culture, etc.

What can a financial staffing specialist add
to the hiring process that a company’s own
personnel cannot?

For one thing, staffing specialists look
beyond a candidate’s tangible assets.
Generalists are very good at determining
some of those intangibles, such as why a
person might be a good personality fit for
a large company but not for a small one.
But, when it comes to the details of a particular position, staffing specialists have
an edge.

For example, if a company is looking for
a Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) professional,
staffing specialists who have worked with
SOX for years can get into the specifics with candidates during interviews. A generalist firm might not be able to do that.
Remember, people can put whatever they
want into their resumes, but interviewers
have to go beyond those ‘bullet points’ to
identify who the best qualified candidate
for a job may be.

Specialists can also write and place the
ads for jobs with more specificity, and follow up on them administratively. Plus,
they can recruit people who are not even
looking for jobs because of their extensive contacts in the specialty. In short,
they epitomize the old saying, ‘time is
money’ as far as clients are concerned.
Financial staffing specialists save them
both — in large quantities.

What criteria should a company consider
when selecting a financial staffing firm?

The companies that really get it right —
and the ones that have the lowest amount
of turnover — are the companies that
match their financial staffing firm with
their own goals. One criterion for a company is to seek referrals from trusted
sources that have had good experiences with a financial staffing firm. Also, find a
firm that specializes in the specific area of
expertise for which the company is hiring.
A final criterion is to partner with a
staffing firm that has a quality process in
place. For instance, avoid a firm that takes
a job order and simply feeds candidates
whose names are taken from a database
that has been in existence since the invention of the abacus. Look for a service firm
that wants to interview the client to determine the exact tangible, intangible and
technical parameters of a search, and
which selects and presents candidates
based on them specifically.

How does a staffing firm differentiate
between A-level and lower-tier financial specialist candidates?

The firm looks at a variety of qualifications, starting with knowledge of the field
and technical expertise, schools and certifications, and where the candidates honed
their skills. For example, financial professionals who have worked in public
accounting tend to have more diverse
experience than their counterparts who
have not.

Generally speaking, the analysis goes
well beyond the candidates’ skill sets.
Proficient financial staffing specialists
look at the candidates’ exposure to different companies, different processes, different IT structures and different industries.
They look closely at the candidates’ experiences in looking at how different companies have done different things. The
candidates’ diversity of experience are
key factors in the selection process.
People who have done more and been
exposed to more tend to be more promotable — and are exactly the types of
candidates financial staffing specialists
are best qualified to present.

ROBERT GAGLIONE is the managing director of Skoda Minotti Financial Staffing. Reach him at [email protected] or
(440) 605-7295.