Advertise a CFO or Finance Director vacancy and you’ll get applications. The harder question is whether the person you’d most like to appoint is among them. Often, they won’t be.
Advertising still has a place. But at this level, many of the strongest candidates never see the advert, and those who do rarely reply to one.
Why don’t the best CFO candidates apply for advertised roles?
Most strong CFOs and Finance Directors are already in roles where they’re valued and busy, so they aren’t checking job boards. Many would consider the right move, but they wait to be approached. An advertised vacancy mainly reaches people who are actively looking, and at senior level that’s usually a small part of the market.
That doesn’t make active candidates weaker. Some are between roles for good reasons, such as a business sale or a restructure. But if you only see the people who apply, you’re choosing from a fraction of those who could do the job.
Senior finance leaders are also careful about who knows they’re looking. Applying through an advert puts their name on a list they don’t control. A private conversation feels much safer.
What is a passive candidate?
A passive candidate is someone who isn’t actively looking for a new job but would consider the right opportunity if it came to them. At CFO and Finance Director level, most of the market is passive at any given time. These candidates are usually reached through direct, discreet approaches and existing relationships.
Passive doesn’t mean uninterested. It’s closer to content but curious. Plenty of finance leaders would never update their CV on a whim, yet they’ll take a call from someone they trust and listen carefully.
In our experience, the trigger often comes from inside their own business. A new owner or a change in strategy can turn a settled finance leader into an open one within a few months.
Do most businesses try to reach passive candidates?
Relatively few do. In the CIPD’s Resourcing and talent planning report 2026, based on a survey of more than 1,000 HR and people professionals, only around one in five organisations said they target passive candidates to ease recruitment difficulties. Almost half said they’d consider it.
We find that gap interesting, because the same report found senior and skilled roles are still the hardest to fill. Businesses know where the difficulty is. Fewer have changed how they go about solving it.
Part of the reason, we suspect, is that reaching passive candidates depends on relationships that can’t be built in the middle of a search. You need to know who’s out there before the vacancy exists.
Doesn’t a bigger response to an advert help?
Not necessarily. More applications can mean more work without a better shortlist. In the past year, 58% of employers in the CIPD’s survey saw an increase in unsuitable applicants, against 33% who saw more suitable ones. For a senior finance role, volume rarely makes up for reach.
And sifting a long list takes time the business doesn’t have while the role is empty. The CEO is often covering part of the finance leader’s job already.
A shortlist of five people who fit the role, and who are open to talking, is usually far more useful than fifty applications.
How should you approach a candidate who isn’t looking?
Discreetly, and with something specific to say. The first conversation should explain why the role might suit them in particular, what it would let them influence and why the timing could work. It’s an exploratory discussion, and the candidate should feel in control of whether it goes any further.
Treat it like an interview and you’ll often lose them. Someone who wasn’t looking doesn’t feel they need to prove anything yet. They’re deciding whether to give the conversation any more of their time.
Confidentiality matters too. A sitting CFO can’t have word getting back to their CEO that they’ve been meeting other businesses. That’s one reason many prefer to hear about opportunities through someone they already know.
What does the business need to do differently?
Be ready before anyone is approached. Agree what the role will influence, who it reports to, the package range and how the process will run. Passive candidates can always stay where they are, so a business that explains itself clearly and moves at a steady pace is much more likely to keep their interest.
We’d also suggest some flexibility early on. An informal coffee with the CEO can do more to win someone over than a formal first round.
And expect harder questions than an active candidate might ask. They’re giving up something they value, and they’ll want to know what they’re getting in return.
Reaching the finance leaders who matter
The finance leader you’d most like to appoint is probably doing a good job somewhere else right now. Reaching them depends on relationships built long before the vacancy, and on a business that’s ready to make its case.
This week’s white paper looks at the passive market in more depth, including how timing and trust affect whether a candidate says yes.
To talk about reaching the finance leaders who won’t see your advert, contact The ONE Group’s Executive Search team.
