WHY SOFT SKILLS ARE SO IMPORTANT

Sharp Consultancy's Salary Survey 2025/26: Resetting the Landscape: Strategic Shifts in Finance Recruitment

It would be remiss not to start by addressing the elephant in the room — 2024 was a challenging year.While there were many reasons for this and numerous industries were affected, recruitment likely bore the brunt of it, particularly in the 6 months post-election(s).Whilst key roles and critical hires remained unaffected, certain head counts and processes were scrutinised and investment paused with internal restructures and automation utilised to reduce costs, in some instances, at the expense of employees. We subsequently saw an increase in candidate activity, with the talent pool strengthening. As those pressures eased in Quarter 4, recruitment processes saw improvement and green shoots have emerged. Optimism is on the rise in key hiring processes, albeit with a caveat. The cloud of additional cost increases in April, which is still dissipating. The senior finance and C-Suite market remains relatively unaffected, both regarding opportunities and candidates, it is the levels below that we have seen more change. In the evolving landscape of working dynamics, the volume of hybrid working is gradually waning despite sustained interest from candidates, presenting fewer job opportunities. While the blend of office and remote work remains desirable, it is no longer the predominant factor, indicating a notable shift in priorities for clients and candidates’ acceptance alike. Conversations with candidates underscore a growing desire around the importance of having a supportive mentor or manager and many professionals are increasingly open to a full-time return to the office if it guarantees enhanced guidance and avenues for professional advancement. "The salaries throughout transactional finance have stabilised across the region."Throughout the professional practice market, some similar trends have been observed but there have been noticeable differences in the past year. Salaries across the range of candidates in professional practice, from AAT to fully Qualified (ACA/ACCA) individuals are still rising and those firm’s able to offer competitive salaries alongside stronger training contracts are beating out the competition in a candidate market with a growing focus on study support packages and career advancement opportunities for Part-Qualified candidates, indicating an increase in demand from employers and the volume of available job seekers. The salaries throughout transactional finance have stabilised across the region, in what feels like the longest period of stability seen since Q4 2020 and we expect transactional finance salaries to remain stable throughout 2025/26, with anticipated salary increments to be moderate compared to the significant increases observed throughout the last 2 years. AI & Systems (process automation) continues to impact accountancy and finance, in particular, across larger functions but this has increased the need for wider interim support to assist with the transition and implementation especially with large, automated processes. Whilst 2025-26 will not be the same marketplace for recruitment as seen in previous years, there is certainly a growing level of optimism and whilst a more settled market may be seen as a negative in some areas, for those that have weathered the peaks and troughs over a longer period of time, it will feel very normal and a strong setting for both employees and employers to take advantage and thrive, with an increasing emphasis on growth and development.Download the full Salary Survey here!

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When preparing for an interview for a new position or aiming to gain a promotion, it can be easy to focus upon your job specific knowledge and experience and over look the soft skills which are just as important to ensuring that you land the role.

With more and more employers utilising competency based interviews as part of the recruitment process, failing to understand the importance of soft skills could see you trip yourself up as these will often assist employers differentiate between candidates of a similar calibre.

Whilst hard skills – your qualifications, training courses, experience and expertise – are undoubtedly important, soft skills demonstrate more to an interviewer about your people or interpersonal skills and generally cover areas such as communication, teamwork and problem solving.

The majority of candidates applying for a role will no doubt tick many, if not all, of the boxes – the hard skills - necessary to perform the role and any which do require improvement, such as mastering a particular IT programme, will often be in areas that can be addressed through training. Softer skills however tend to be the skills that a person ‘naturally’ possesses, and as such are not so easy to teach therefore can be harder to find an individual that displays the right qualities that will make them an ideal cultural fit for a particular organisation.

During an interview, employers will look to assess your soft skills through a series of questions aimed at getting you to talk about real life situations where you will be required to describe how you approached a particular scenario, your behaviour and what the eventual outcome was and what you took away from the experience.

Before attending an interview, it is worth preparing a handful of relevant examples that will enable you to demonstrate these skills.

Our top five soft skills for success:

1.Communication

Demonstrate that you are a good communicator by illustrating your examples with the type of language that you used, your tone, delivery and also your ability to listen and take on board the views of others.

2.Problem Solving

Show that you can think around a problem and come up with creative solutions and put in place measures to address any obstacles which you may come up against. It is also beneficial to highlight examples of where you have been proactive in anticipating a problem and where you have been able to overcome unexpected issues to produce a successful outcome.

3.Negotiating Skills

Can you deliver a compelling case for approaching a project in a certain way? Can you build effective relationships with other team members and departments to ensure that everyone is working towards the same goal? Can you take on board other points of view and work collaboratively to help shape the eventual outcome?

4.Passion

Are you genuinely enthusiastic about the role and opportunity to join the company? Don’t be afraid to show that you are keen to become part of the team and that you have the drive and desire to make the role a success.

5.Confidence

It’s important that you demonstrate that you are confident in your ability – but don’t let that come across as being arrogant. Show that you believe you are the right person for the role with examples of how you have made successful contributions, by sharing your goals and ambitions for the future and how you think you can make a real difference to the organisation.

Sharp Consultancy specialises in the recruitment of temporary, interim and permanent finance professionals. With offices in Leeds and Sheffield our highly experienced team of consultants recruit for positions throughout Yorkshire and beyond. CONTACT US today to speak to a member of our team about your next career move.