Eleven percent of CFOs plan to hire extra accounting and financial staff in the second quarter of 2008, while 4% plan to reduce personnel numbers and 72% of executives have no changes planned, according to the Robert Half International Hiring Index.
Of the CFOs who plan to hire more staff, 73% cited business growth as the reason, while 14% identified rising workloads as the motivating factor.
“Business expansion is fuelling the need for additional finance and accounting personnel at all levels,” says David King, executive vice-president with Robert Half International. “To attract top talent, companies are enhancing their salary and benefits packages and expediting their hiring procedures to ensure candidates are not lost to competing offers.”
Executives in the professional and business services sectors are the most optimistic about hiring. Seventeen percent of CFOs from these sectors plan to do more hiring in the second quarter. The manufacturing sector is also looking to enhance its workforce, with 15% of CFOs in this industry indicating new staff on the horizon.
The report is based on interviews with more than 270 CFOs from a random sample of Canadian companies with 20 or more employees.
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