Deloitte Survey: Talent Shortage Drives CFOs to Deeper Involvement in Recruitment Processes
Deloitte's latest survey shows that a shortage of finance and accounting talent is driving CFOs to play a larger role in recruitment. 34% of finance leaders say they have expanded their involvement in hiring, and 35% are supplementing their workforce through cross-departmental secondments and external staffing agencies. 79% of CFOs plan to use generative AI over the next two years to close skills gaps, but employees show resistance to new technology. Additionally, 44% of CFOs are concerned about increased workloads for existing staff, 42% worry about weakened institutional investor confidence, and 41% are concerned about declining board trust.
Key Findings
- The shortage of finance and accounting talent has become one of the biggest human capital challenges facing CFOs. An article published by Deloitte on April 28 points out that some finance executives are therefore taking on greater responsibilities infinding and recruiting employees.
- This increased involvement is part of a broader strategy to strengthen teams. Citing data from its Q1 2025 North American CFO Signals survey, Deloitte said about one-third (34%) of finance leaders reported playing a larger role in the recruitment process, while another 35% said they were borrowing employees from other departments and using external staffing agencies to identify candidates.
- Given CFOs' deep understanding of finance department operations, their more hands-on involvement in recruiting makes sense. Deloitte wrote in the report: "This hands-on approach—where the CFO acts as the chief human resources officer of the finance department—may help finance executives place the right people in the right roles."
Deeper Analysis
The dual pressures of a wave of retirements among Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) and a declining willingness among younger generations to enter the profession are pushing various parties to relax CPA licensure requirements in order to attract more talent into the accounting industry. As previously reported by CFO Dive, at least11 states have passed legislationeliminating the "150-hour rule"—a requirement that effectively forced candidates to complete a fifth year of college before obtaining licensure.
Meanwhile, finance departments are increasingly turning to technologies such as automation and artificial intelligence to fill skill gaps. The Deloitte report (led by executives including Steve Gallucci, national managing partner of the U.S. CFO Program) shows that nearly eight in ten (79%) of surveyed CFOs said they are "likely" to use generative AI in the next 24 months to "bridge skill gaps."
However, the Q1 survey also revealed potential challenges: 48% of CFOs said employee resistance to using new technology was the biggest obstacle to meeting executive leadership expectations.
Additionally, CFOs expressed deep concern about the impact of talent shortages on existing staff and the company. Among concerns related to the talent pipeline, the most prominent was increased workload for existing employees (cited by 44% of CFOs), followed by concerns about declining trust from institutional or private investors (42%), and weakened financial confidence among boards of directors (41%).
Deloitte commented: "Such consequences could put CFOs in a difficult position." The report also noted that only 15% of respondents said their organizations had not experienced a shortage of accountants or other finance talent.
Notably, this article focusing on CFO human capital shortage challenges did not include respondents' views on the overall economic outlook—which is typically a regular component of the quarterly survey. Last month, a Deloitte spokesperson said that because the economic environment had changed since the survey was conducted in February, the company had decided at that time not to release the traditional report. Deloitte did not respond to further requests for comment regarding this report.
In contrast, Deloitte's Q4 2024 Signals report had shown a significant rise in executive optimism: among 200 surveyed CFOs,72% expected the economy to improve in a year, compared to only 19% in the previous quarter.