It’s easy to feel unsure about the job market these days—should you be optimistic or worried?
By some measures, things look great! Hiring is surging, with U.S. employers adding over 311,000 jobs to their payrolls in February 2023. Even though that’s a slight dip from January, the unemployment rate is still near its lowest point since 1969, at 3.6 percent.
But if you dig deeper—especially when it comes to knowledge workers and the startup scene—the picture gets a lot more complicated.
For example, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) role is expanding, with more responsibilities and new skills required. Like many executive positions, technology is reshaping the CFO’s daily work, and just budgeting for IT has become a major challenge for both startups and large companies.
As a result, CFO tenures are getting shorter—even as salaries climb—because companies and CFOs are both adapting to this “new CFO mandate.” On one side, business leaders are seeking financial managers who fit their current needs better than traditional hires. On the other, CFOs are quick to move on when a more attractive or rewarding opportunity comes up.
Even outside the CFO role, employers are feeling the pinch for financial expertise. About 90% of the 6,000 accountants and auditors surveyed by Casewire in February said that finding the right talent is their fastest-growing challenge, especially as they adopt more cloud services, data analytics, and business intelligence tools.
This trend fits right in with the bigger story of the Great Reshuffle, where new ways of working are forcing employers to rethink not just how and where work gets done, but who does it. If you’re in the startup or tech world, you’ve probably seen this firsthand—the competition for talent has never been fiercer.
So how can startups find the right talent in today’s market?
Look inside before you look outside
According to Boast AI’s Head of Talent and Development, Anadri Chisolm-Noel, companies should start by looking at the talent they already have before opening up critical roles to outside applicants.
Chisolm-Noel explains, “But nobody’s perfect! It’s important to look at the potential of someone already on your team, and really think about what it would take to help them become the perfect fit for a given role.”
Chisolm-Noel adds that there may be people on your team who already have 75 percent of the skills needed for a more senior position. With a bit of mentoring or by enrolling them in a course, they could become the ideal candidate faster—and with less investment—than hiring someone new from scratch.
It often comes down to companies only “looking for unicorns,” Chisolm-Noel says, with employers overlooking relationships or connections that could pay off with a little nurturing.
“We’re always searching for the unicorn—especially during interviews—but unicorns are extremely rare, just like in the startup world. I don’t think we need to put that kind of pressure on the hiring process, but we often do,” Chisolm-Noel continues.
If you’re still struggling, broaden your search
Founders also need to look beyond their usual “talent pools” if they’re having trouble finding the right fit. For example, many founders rely on a local university or institution and regularly tap into those networks to fill immediate roles. While that’s a great resource, it can also be limiting.
One of the best things about remote work is that expertise can come from almost anywhere. Geography matters less for many roles, and people no longer need a traditional college or university background—anyone can take online courses or training to level up their skills in today’s market.
As for keeping talent, even as tenures get shorter? Chisolm-Noel says it’s all about creating experiences that make people want to stay.
“Investing in your people and giving them opportunities to grow is a constant need for every generation. If you create experiences that make people hesitate to leave, they’ll stick around.”
On the flip side, with so many options available, people are simply more mobile in today’s market, Chisolm-Noel confirms.
This is just the beginning of how founders can make sure they’re finding the right people for their team. There’s no one-size-fits-all strategy—every startup is unique when it comes to the people who can help them succeed.
Want to learn more about finding and keeping top talent? Join #InnovatorsLive on LinkedIn every Friday at 12 PM ET/9 AM PT, where we invite experts to share their hard-earned insights on helping startups find the talent they need to thrive.
