As an executive candidate interviewing for a leadership role, the questions you ask should demonstrate strategic thinking, operational awareness, and genuine interest in the business. They will reveal how prepared you are to lead and signal your understanding of what drives success in that environment. Show you've done your homework and are ready to make an immediate impact: 1. How do you define the company's long-term vision, and what role would this position play in achievi

Congrats! You’ve been offered a great-seeming role at a mid-sized, growing company! How do you evaluate the offer? (Hint: start before you get the offer!) Mid-sized organizations offer agility and influence, yet they often lack the rigid structures and transparent disclosures of large public companies: financial transparency is limited, leadership structures are flatter, growth can be exhilarating or chaotic depending on execution. Executives transitioning to this environment

Employee turnover carries a price tag that executive teams rarely see in full. The visible expenses, like recruiting fees, onboarding, and training are clear. But not so obvious costs can be far more consequential: eroded team productivity, damaged client relationships, and the cascading effect of institutional knowledge walking out the door. Smart hiring starts with retention strategy. Consider engaging an executive search firm to help diagnose why vacancies are occurring.

For Senior Finance roles, quality of hire means something different than it does for mid-level positions. It's about strategic contribution and stakeholder confidence. There's no single KPI that definitively marks a senior finance executive as exceptional, but the right combination of data points reveals clear patterns. Here are seven metrics that effectively measure hiring success for senior finance and executive roles. 1. Executive Onboarding Quality and Cultural Integratio

Canadian companies are still trying to balance talent scarcity with candidate volume: there are candidates, but the right match is harder to find. In the past few months, the pace has quickened, hiring has become more operationally complex, and employer mistakes are more likely to be noticed. Today’s hiring managers must meet higher candidate expectations around flexibility and values alignment, while also filling senior and executive roles with both speed and accuracy. On

If you’ve decided that engaging a search firm is the right step for advancing your talent strategy, the next critical decision is selecting the right partner. Your time, budget, and organizational reputation depend on making an informed choice, so it requires careful consideration. To support that process, we recommend asking prospective search firms a set of key questions before engaging them: About The Firm What sets your firm apart from other executive search firms? How lo

Hiring senior finance and C Suite candidates is high stakes work. In smaller or private companies, the cost of a mis-hire shows almosts immediately: team disruption and a prolonged “search drag” while the business waits for leadership to stabilize can lead to missed strategic targets. The challenge in hiring is evaluating competence while also getting multiple stakeholders to agree on what “good” looks like, then running interviews with enough precision to infer real-life per

Client Profile A privately held organization in Southwestern Ontario seeking assistance with a confidential executive search. The First Assignment Like many new client relationships, it began with a single search. The organization needed to appoint a key leadership position and wanted a search partner who could provide more than candidate introductions. They were looking for market insight, objective advice, discretion, and a recruitment process that reflected the importance

The moment a candidate signs an offer letter feels like a finish line. The interim period, however, sometimes lasting weeks or months, represents one of the most fragile phases in executive recruitment. A poorly managed transition can unravel all of your recruitment work and damage your employer brand. Senior-level candidates are uniquely vulnerable during this window. They've made a commitment, often left their previous role, and are now watching how your company operates be

The lead up to Canada Day has a lot of people thinking about long lazy days, but while many companies scale back recruitment during the summer, the opposite approach gives you a real advantage: less competition, more candidate availability, and time to build stronger relationships. Here are five reasons to prioritize hiring this summer: 1. Mid-Career Professionals Are Open to Change Summer prompts experienced professionals to reassess their careers. They're making decisions n

Video interviews have become the de facto first filter in executive recruitment. Yet many hiring managers treat them as a checkbox rather than a strategic assessment tool. Get it right, and you'll identify cultural fit and executive presence before scheduling in-person meetings. Get it wrong, and you'll miss exceptional candidates. Here are the four essential strategies: 1. Design Questions That Reveal How Candidates Make Decisions Generic questions fail. Rather than "Tell us

Great teams are built intentionally. As a hiring manager, your role is to create an environment where people know what's expected, feel supported, and have the tools to succeed. Here are six practical steps to boost your team's performance: 1. Set Clear Expectations Unclear expectations kill productivity. Define what success looks like, how you'll measure it, and what each person's role is. When team members understand their responsibilities and how they fit into the bigger p

On behalf of our client, we're seeking an experienced Controller with manufacturing finance expertise to lead accounting and finance functions, manage AR/AP staff, and report to senior leadership. We need someone who's commercially minded and operationally fluent: able to prepare financial statements, build job-cost models from scratch, and present ROI analyses to inform ownership-level decisions. Location: London, Ontario. Interested? Email info@verriez.com.

When your resume lands in a recruiter's inbox, chances are they’ll search for you online before they finish the first page. Your digital footprint now functions as a parallel resume, and it’s one you may not have deliberately written. At senior levels, this scrutiny intensifies. A fragmented online presence raises questions about attention to detail and authentic professional identity. Your online footprint is integral to how you're evaluated. Here are some tips to tidy up yo

Welcome to the final installment in our series on retaining your best people in senior finance. If you missed part one, which explains why we're seeing high turnover, find it here, and if you want to review the questions you should be asking, find part 2 here. Simply scheduling retention interviews and asking questions won't prevent people from leaving your organization. Today we'll look at how to structure the interviews for best results. Timing and Frequency Conduct stay in

Last week we talked about the reasons for high turnover in senior finance roles, and why it needs to be addressed by organizations of all types. If you missed last week's article, find it here: https://www.verriez.com/post/retaining-senior-finance-executives-guide-for-2026-part-1 One of the best ways to keep your best senior finance folks is with retention interviews. Let's look at some of the questions you should be asking, and why. 1. What aspects of your role inspire and e

Employee retention at the senior finance level has become a serious strategic imperative. The stakes are high: CFO turnover hit a seven-year high in 2025, and mounting evidence that burnout and role fatigue are driving departures. The finance industry faces a particularly acute crisis: 83% of finance professionals express a desire for a career change, and the field is experiencing a fragile "talent bubble" with a 3-to-1 senior-to-entry hiring ratio that threatens long-term pi

Today's CFOs, controllers, and finance directors are selective. They're walking away from lucrative offers that don't align with their broader professional and personal priorities, and if you're hiring, you need to understand what drives these decisions. Posting a role and waiting for applications simply won't work anymore, because senior finance candidates are passive until the right opportunity emerges. They're evaluating compensation, cultural fit, growth trajectory, techn

When you're ready to make your next career move, the temptation to work with any search firm offering opportunity feels rational, maybe even urgent. The problem is that not all recruiters operate with your interests in mind. Some firms prioritize volume of placements over fit, or use high-pressure tactics that damage your professional reputation before you've even stepped into a new role. Finding a recruiter is easy, but it’s more difficult to find one worth your time. Qualit