More applicants, harder decisions: Finance recruitment in 2026

In our previous articles, we explored the capabilities modern finance functions need to support growth. This article addresses the practical challenge of how you identify and secure those capabilities.

With vacancy numbers falling and more candidates available, on paper, securing the right talent should be getting easier. But it remains a challenge. While the business leaders we speak with are overwhelmed with applications, they’re still struggling to secure the capability they need. The challenge they face has shifted from generating applicants to making better hiring decisions.

Modern finance requires hybrid capability — combining strong financial control with forecasting, commercial insight, technology, data and leadership. The difficulty for employers is that these strengths do not always sit neatly within traditional finance job titles or career paths.

More applicants do not close the capability gap

Totaljobs reports that job applications have increased by 16%, while the number of interviews candidates need to secure a role has risen by 18%. Its Spring/Summer 2026 survey also found that skills fit remains the most frequently cited hiring challenge.

This creates a deceptive picture for business leaders. The important question is not how many people applied; it is how many can deliver the outcome the business requires.

A larger applicant pool makes recruitment look easier. However, it makes accurate selection more time-consuming and difficult.

The right finance talent may not be actively looking

Totaljobs reports that 84% of UK workers are open to a new opportunity. However, only 18% are actively looking, while 66% are passively open to the right move.

This distinction matters. A recruitment campaign based solely on applications provides a view of who is looking, rather than who may be best suited to the role.

If your shortlist only contains people who applied, your business may be making a business-critical finance appointment from a fraction of the talent pool.

The active-passive distinction matters. The passive market includes the high-value finance professionals who are performing well, remain engaged in their current organisations and will only consider moving for a sufficiently compelling opportunity.

However, they only respond to personalised, multi-touch engagement. This is why internal talent teams, relying on job ads or generic outreach alone, struggle to reach them.

Engaging these people requires a targeted search, a specialist understanding of the finance market and a credible explanation of why the opportunity is worth considering.

Hiring well depends on getting the right people to talk to you. Passive finance talent will talk to a known, trusted, finance specialist who is contacting them as part of a carefully targeted headhunt approach.

Finance candidates are scrutinising opportunities more carefully

ACCA’s Global Talent Trends 2026 research found that more than half of finance and accountancy professionals expect their next career move to take them outside their current organisation. This creates a clear retention risk for employers, but it also shows that finance professionals remain ambitious and mobile.

At the same time, economic uncertainty is making candidates more cautious and selective. Totaljobs reports that four in five workers now place job security ahead of career progression. Finance candidates are therefore looking beyond salary and job title. They want to understand the condition of the business, where it’s heading and the reality of the role. Why is the appointment being made? Is there genuine progression or simply a larger workload? How much autonomy will the successful candidate have? What will the key stakeholders expect?

These questions become even more important in private-equity-backed, founder-led and rapidly scaling businesses. A promise of equity, progression or exposure to transformation is not enough. Candidates want to understand the value-creation plan, the investment horizon, the leadership culture and whether the finance function has the resources to deliver what is being asked of it.

Securing the right person depends on more than presenting the role. Employers must examine their proposition honestly, address any weaknesses and give candidates a credible account of the opportunity, expectations and risks.

The fact that finance professionals are open to moving does not mean they are easy to convert.

Setting realistic role requirements

Greater candidate availability can tempt employers to add more requirements to the brief because they assume a softer market gives them greater choice. This can produce unrealistic profiles: a Financial Controller who must also be a systems architect, data analyst, commercial business partner, transformation leader and potential future CFO, for example.

Before approaching the market, employers should distinguish between the capabilities required from day one, those that can be developed and those that should sit elsewhere within the finance function. An unrealistic brief will deter strong candidates and make objective assessment almost impossible.

Creating a competitive and credible process

Greater candidate availability does not remove competition for high-impact finance talent. The best command a premium. Even when we have benchmarked salaries, businesses we’re working with have had to be flexible to secure candidates with scarce or in-demand capability.

Salary transparency also matters. Totaljobs found that 80% of workers avoid applying for roles without salary information, while 83% say its absence negatively affects their perception of the organisation. For confidential or senior appointments, publishing a precise salary may not always be appropriate. However, candidates will still expect an honest conversation about the range, bonus, benefits, equity and progression.

The decision-making process should be equally clear. A six or eight-week process involving repeated interviews may feel thorough internally, but to a strong candidate it can indicate uncertainty or stakeholder misalignment. Employers should agree the brief, assessment criteria, decision-makers and timetable before approaching the market. This enables them to move decisively when the right person is identified.

Speed should not replace rigour, but unnecessary delay can mean losing the preferred candidate to a better-prepared competitor

Mitigating risk

In an uncertain economic climate, where businesses are making fewer appointments, each finance hire carries greater weight.

The most widely cited UK statistic for a failed hire (REC: 2017), puts the cost at three times the role’s annual salary. While the research predates the current market, the scenario-based methodology is pertinent. The cost of getting a finance appointment wrong extends well beyond the recruitment expenditure itself. A poor appointment can weaken reporting, slow decisions, undermine confidence in the numbers and place additional pressure on the wider team.

The longer a critical role lies vacant also carries risk. Essential work is delayed, absorbed by overstretched colleagues or pushed back to senior leaders who should be focused on strategic value creation. Over time, this inevitably affects control, insight, pace and morale

The objective is not simply to hire quickly or minimise cost. It is to make a well-informed appointment that adds value by providing the capability the business genuinely needs.

To understand today's finance capability risks and their potential impact on your business, download the risk map below.

Finance capability risk map 2026 

In brief

The hiring market has changed, but the finance capability gap has not. Today’s market offers employers more candidates, but not necessarily more of the right capability.

As we have seen in Closing the finance capability gap: How to recruit for what’s coming next, leadership teams must be clear about the outcomes the role needs to deliver, the capabilities that are genuinely essential and what will persuade the right person to move. They must then assess beyond job titles and qualifications, present a credible opportunity and be prepared to move quickly for the right candidate.

More choice does not automatically produce a better appointment. Competitive advantage comes from knowing precisely what the business needs and running a recruitment process capable of identifying and securing it.

To receive articles like this direct to your Inbox

Subscribe  to our mailing list

• Transformation
• Leadership
• Business growth
• Finance Recruitment