News & Thoughts

Stop chasing unicorns. In Yorkshire’s competitive recruitment market, waiting for the “perfect” candidate slows hiring and productivity, and risks losing talent to faster-moving competitors. Focus on those must-have skills, act quickly, hire for potential, and you’ll secure stronger, long-term hires without getting stuck in perfection mode.

In today’s volatile business environment, leadership resilience is a critical skill for long-term success. Economic uncertainty, political change, global disruption; they’re all things that are now constant. The organisations that thrive in these environments are the ones led by people who can guide teams through uncertainty with confidence.

.When you’re hiring, you want to attract the right talent. Getting the salary and benefits package is obviously important, and these days, it’s not a nice-to-have anymore, it’s business-critical. If you offer too little, you might miss out on the expertise that you need. If you pay someone too much, you risk internal disparity and unsustainable costs in the long term.

Companies can shorten the recruitment process for financial controllers by improving job clarity, using pre-vetted talent pools, streamlining assessments, and automating admin tasks. These changes cut time-to-hire without sacrificing quality, making it easier to secure top talent for critical finance roles.

TLDR; The HR talent market in Sheffield is competitive, with rising demand for experienced professionals and a limited supply of candidates. Employers using specialist HR recruiters gain faster access to pre-vetted talent, clearer market insights, and more efficient hiring processes, helping them secure the right hire before competitors.

Six months ago, Eleanor Kirk joined our transactional finance team, working out of our Sheffield offices. We hired her for her resourcing experience, and candidate management skills, but also for her personality – she’s upbeat, driven and she wants to learn everything. We sat down with Eleanor and her manager, Hannah Sharp, to talk about how she’s found it so far and get her to tell us what sets Sewell Wallis apart from the rest.

​Technical proficiency alone no longer guarantees success in a finance career these days. The people responsible for hiring are putting a lot more focus on soft skills - communication, adaptability, empathy - and these are becoming essential, not desirable. Business partnering in the finance sector is much more prevalent these days, and recently collected data only highlights the growing importance and the tangible impact these skills have on both your individual finance careers and the sector as a whole.​

Stepping into a managerial role is a big moment. But let’s get one thing clear: being a manager shouldn’t be a reward for long service. It’s a job in its own right, and it demands a very specific set of skills.