Closing the capability gap: How to recruit for what's coming next

Throughout this series, we have explored how the finance function is transforming. This requires different people doing in different work in different ways. Where new capability is needed, for many businesses, it means reassessing how they hire.

Transformation demands people who can think, not simply do. The traditional interview — centred on past responsibilities, task lists, and rear-view competency questions — must be augmented. 

ERP modernisation, cloud migration, predictive forecasting, anomaly detection… these are continually evolving. Hiring someone because they’ve used System X or Tool Y is becoming increasingly meaningless. Hiring someone who can learn any system quickly is the goal.

To create a future-ready finance function, capable of digital transformation, integrated planning, AI enabled insight, and strategic value creation, requires a more comprehensive process.

Yes, experience still matters and technical credibility remains essential. But neither tells you enough about how somebody will respond to the challenges your business is yet to face.

The hiring gap

EY’s Global DNA of the CFO Survey (June 2026) states that fewer than 15% of the CFOs surveyed say their teams are highly adaptable, proactive learners or confident with new technology. And they are all reporting the same hiring challenges:

• Digital acumen is uneven even among experienced hires
• Scenario modelling, integrated planning, and data interpretation require conceptual thinkers, not process followers
• AI enabled workflows demand people who can question outputs, challenge assumptions, and understand risk
• Transformation requires adaptability, not just technical proficiency
• High growth environments expose hidden capability gaps that job descriptions never reveal

The finance function built for growth needs people who can operate in ambiguity, connect dots across the organisation, and learn faster than the environment changes. As such, thinking, not past experience, has become a key differentiator.

The capabilities that now carry a premium

As routine activity becomes increasingly automated, value is shifting towards the distinctly human capabilities required to interpret, challenge and act. These include:

• Analytical reasoning and judgement
• Systems and commercial thinking
• Learning agility
• Constructive challenge and influence
• A curiosity and growth mindset

So how do you recruit for these in-demand people?

Start with the desired outcomes

Traditional recruiters often talk about ‘fit’. We would argue ‘add’ is the better word. As we discussed in The CFO can't do it alone: Building a high performance finance team (part 1), senior leaders must first identify what the finance function needs to deliver over the next three years. Once the required outcomes are clear, leaders can then define the technical, cognitive and behavioural capabilities needed to deliver them.

‘Fit’ should not mean conformity. The question is whether the candidate can contribute and ‘add’ to the team, while working productively with the people around them.

Thinking in action

A traditional interview can reward confident storytelling and well-rehearsed examples. It does not always reveal how somebody will perform in your environment. Structured business scenarios and work-related exercises can help provide a clearer view. The objective is not to catch candidates out or demand an instant ‘correct’ answer. It is to understand how they frame a problem, what information they seek, which assumptions they test and how they communicate their reasoning.

Useful interview questions might include:

• You inherit a fragmented forecasting process that produces little confidence across the business. What would you want to understand before making changes?
• An AI-supported analysis identifies a risk that contradicts the team’s experience. How would you validate the output and decide what action to take?
• A proposed investment appears financially attractive, but you believe the operational assumptions are weak. How would you challenge it?
• Sales and operations disagree about the cause of falling margin. How would you establish what is happening and bring the teams towards a decision?

The skill is in looking beyond the answer. Does the candidate clarify the objective? Do they identify missing information? Can they separate fact from assumption? Do they recognise commercial trade-offs? Can they explain complexity clearly? How do they solve problems?

Build on experience

Hiring for thinking does not ignore experience. It examines that experience more closely. This means drilling down into a candidate’s decision-making process:

• What assumptions did they challenge?
• Which options did they reject?
• What resistance did they encounter?
• How did they bring others with them?
• What would they do differently now?

It is about augmenting “Tell me about a time when…?” style questions with future focused “Talk me through how you would…” type approaches.

As humans, we learn most from our failures. Ask candidates to talk about theirs. What did they learn? How did it help them develop?

Combine evidence, assessment and judgement

No single interview question or assessment tool should determine an appointment. It’s about building an evidence-based case to supplement your judgement.

When a failed hire can cost a business up to three times a role’s annual salary, senior finance recruitment poses a significant risk for a business. As such, senior leaders should approach it with the same due diligence as a capital investment.

Depending on the level of the appointment and the risk to the business, a robust selection process should draw on a combination of elements. These can include a structured interview, a realistic business exercise, a relevant technical assessment, psychometric profiling and carefully tested references. Whatever the combination of approaches, each element should be linked to the outcomes and capabilities defined at the start.

For senior appointments, we’re seeing an increasing use of assessment and profiling in the selection process. They provide valuable insights into how somebody processes information, communicates, makes decisions and responds under pressure. They also offer value beyond selection — informing onboarding, identifying early development priorities and helping the new hire build productive relationships.

The objective is not simply to identify the strongest candidate. It is to identify the person most likely to succeed in achieving specific outcomes, in your particular team, in your particular business.

Recruitment process checklist

• What must this appointment enable the business to achieve?
• Which capabilities are missing from the current finance team?
• Does the process test judgement or merely reward interview performance?
• Will this person complement the team rather than replicate it?
• How will the assessment insight inform their first 90 days?

In brief

Recruiting based on how people think is not about lowering the technical bar. It is about raising the commercial one.

The strongest appointment is not necessarily the candidate with the standout CV. It is the person with the technical credibility, judgement, learning agility and influence to help build the finance function the business will need next.

That requires more than a conventional interview. It requires a recruitment process designed around future outcomes, supporting evidence and the specific capabilities already present — or missing — within the team.

The goal is to recruit the person who can contribute best to building what is coming next, who can embrace, adapt to and thrive in uncertainty.

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• Transformation
• Business growth
• Assessment and profiling
• Finance Recruitment