Employers and hiring managers across all industries are feeling the pinch of historically low finance and accounting talent availability, and find themselves forced to make adjustments to hiring strategies, and, in some cases, corporate structure. Those adjustments have manifested in various ways, according to the specialized needs of each sector, and in response to the unique composition of each labor market.
How have engineering firms been dealing with the new reality?
We asked Aston Carter Practice Lead Todd Kappelmann, a licensed CPA with Big Four experience who’s been placing talent in the engineering sector for over a decade.
Roles In Demand
Engineering tends to rely on contract-based accounting with a heavier than usual emphasis on the receivable/billing side, as well as a wide variety of project-based accounting for daily operations.
Fulfilling these high-demand roles has been a challenge, but Kappelmann says the labor market may not be as tight for firms that are willing to adjust their expectations. Both skillsets, according to Kappelmann, “Are also present among talent from other service sectors, such as construction and software, where basic tasks are fairly similar to the engineering field from an accounting standpoint.”
Adjusting to the Market
Unsurprisingly, most major industry-agnostic trends in finance and accounting staffing have found echoes in the engineering field. The nationwide tendency towards upward adjustment of compensation packages, downward adjustment of job requirements, and/or increased emphasis on employee retention, perks and workplace culture have all found their way into this sector.
Some engineering firms have taken an even more specialized approach to the usual playbook. “I worked with one firm that was struggling to find billing analysts, even after offering higher salaries,” says Kappelmann. “So they added new levels to their operational structure, and found they had greater success hiring at the billing assistant level, then training staff in those roles to fulfill billing analyst and project accounting positions. At the same time, they offered new middle management layers to their current staff, which helped with retention.”
Where Experience Wins
All hiring managers prize industry-specific experience, and for good reason. Not only do experienced professionals help save costs on training programs, but they also self-select for interests and skills that align with the demands of the particular industry. But with the finance and accounting labor pool being what it is, it’s worth taking a step back to ask exactly how industry-specific experience matters.
In engineering, says Kappelmann, “There are a lot of technical skills that are important, but even more important is the ability to communicate with the foremen, managers, and other very smart people who actually implement engineering projects.”
This makes perfect sense for two reasons. One is that regardless of technical experience, some amount of learning curve for finance and accounting talent in the sector remains at a near constant due to a uniquely high variance in accounting methods from company to company, or even project to project. Another is that engineering talent has long faced its own severe shortage, and the potential fallout that arises from poor communication skills between accounting staff and engineers can represent a greater opportunity cost in this sector than elsewhere.
Building a Winning Strategy
Leveraging market knowledge is the key to fulfilling needs in a labor environment where ideal candidates are less available than ever.
Adjustments are a necessity for everybody, but the ideal strategy can only come from understanding of what adjustments will best fit both company needs and the specific features of a specialized labor pool.
“For me,” says Kappelmann, “placing finance and accounting talent in engineering firms right now is more about finding the right person than the right particular industry background.” By knowing what soft skills are most critical to success in the field, and having the ability to filter for them, experienced staffing partners like Kappelmann are able to help engineering firms adjust expectations and find best-fit talent in places where competitors might not be looking.
Does your staffing partner have the specialized knowledge to help you build an ideal hiring strategy? If not, contact Aston Carter now to find out how to match your resourcing needs with available talent.
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