Dive Brief:

• With finance and accounting talent shortages among the biggest workforce challenges cited by CFOs, some finance chiefs report that they are playing a bigger role in finding and hiring workers to staff their teams, according to an April 28 article from Big Four firm Deloitte.
• The increased involvement is just part of the evolving strategy for bolstering the workforce, as roughly a third (34%) of finance leaders said they were taking a larger role in the hiring process, while 35% said they were bringing in employees from other departments as reinforcements and turning to external human resource firms to identify candidates, according Deloitte, citing data from the company’s Q1 2025 North American CFO Signals survey.  
• Because CFOs understand the inner-workings of their finance department, it makes sense for finance chiefs to be more involved. “The hands-on approach — effectively, CFO as the chief human resources officer of finance — might help finance chiefs get the right candidates in the right seats,” Deloitte states. ​​​​

Dive Insight:

The one-two punch of retiring certified public accountants and a shrinking pipeline of younger people choosing the field has galvanized momentum to bring more people into the accounting profession by easing CPA licensure requirements. To date, at least 11 states have passed legislation that removes the 150-hour-rule hurdle which effectively requires candidates to complete a fifth year of college to obtain a license, CFO Dive previously reported. 

Increasingly, finance departments are also turning to technology, including automation and AI, to fill finance skills gaps. Nearly eight in 10 (79%) finance chiefs surveyed said it is likely that they’ll use generative AI in the coming 24 months “to bridge skills gaps,” according to the report from Deloitte executives led by Steve Gallucci, national managing partner, US CFO Program. 

However, the Q1 survey found some potential challenges may be in store, with 48% of finance chiefs citing staff resistance to using new technology as their biggest challenge in meeting C-suite expectations.  

Meanwhile, CFOs are anxious about the impact of the talent shortage on the workers they do have, as well as their companies. The biggest talent pipeline-related worry was about the increased workload shouldered by existing workers, cited by 44% of CFOs, followed by the fear of a loss of credibility with institutional or private investors, cited by 42%, and concern about the eroding the board’s confidence in finance, cited by 41%. 

“Such consequences can put CFOs squarely in the hot seat,” Deloitte said, noting that only 15% of respondents said their organizations are not experiencing a shortage of accountants or other finance talent. 

The Deloitte article highlighting the workforce talent shortage that CFOs are grappling with did not include broader survey findings related to the respondents’ outlook on the broader economy, which is often part of the regular quarterly survey. Last month, a Deloitte spokesperson said the company had at that time opted not to release the traditional report due to changes in the economic environment that occurred after the survey was fielded in February. The company did not respond to requests for further comment on the report.

Deloitte’s Q4 2024 Signals report showed a sharp jump in executive optimism, with 72% of the 200 finance chiefs surveyed projecting an improved economy in a year, compared to 19% in the previous quarter.