Effective Onboarding for Finance Teams: The Ultimate Guide   

It’s easy to assume that the hard work of recruiting a new member to your finance team ends when a candidate accepts a job offer. The reality? There’s still a lot of work to do if you want to make sure your new employee thrives in their role and stays with your business.   

In the first 90 days your new hire spends with your company, you’re not just assessing them to determine whether you’ve made the right choice – they’re evaluating you. They’ll seek evidence that you’re invested in their success and committed to helping them excel.   

You risk losing top talent if you don’t correctly welcome your new employees, integrate them into your company culture, and guide them with a comprehensive onboarding process. The lack of effective onboarding is a significant reason companies lose 17% of their hires within 3 months.  

Alternatively, effective onboarding, tuned to the needs of your finance professionals, doesn’t just help you avoid compliance issues but also boosts productivity. A great onboarding process can improve employee retention by 82%. Here’s how you can optimise onboarding for finance teams.  

The Essential Components of Finance Onboarding 

Countless business leaders make the mistake of assuming onboarding is a “checklist” activity. They think they can welcome a newcomer with a list of tasks and call it a day. However, great onboarding is a multi-faceted process.  

It’s about equipping new hires with the tools, relationships, and confidence they need to thrive. When you’re hiring finance staff, there are a few specific areas you need to focus on:   

Compliance and Regulatory Training Requirements  

Finance professionals operate in a world where compliance is notoriously complex but crucial. Regulatory standards constantly evolve, particularly as governments embrace new concepts and rules connected to AI in accounting, sustainable finance, etc. Ensuring your teams are up-to-date on the latest regulations and compliance best practices is essential.  

System Access and Software Proficiency  

Most finance professionals are reliant on technology these days. They need access to everything from ERP systems like SAP to data analytics platforms. Ensuring new hires have immediate access to these systems and tailored training means they can dive into valuable work faster.   

Role-Specific Process Documentation  

Hopefully, your job description and interview process already gave your new finance employee an idea of their responsibilities and your expectations of them. However, you should provide access to clear documentation on day-to-day processes. Ensure your team members know how to handle everything from reconciliation to budget approvals and team meetings.   

Security Protocols and Data Handling Procedures 

Finance professionals are responsible for handling massive volumes of sensitive financial data. Onboarding must instil best practices for data handling, emphasising cyber hygiene, encryption tools, and GDPR compliance. Don’t take any risks when it comes to protecting your business.

Key Stakeholder Introductions and Relationship Building  

Finance is often a team sport. Professionals work hand-in-hand with executives and other colleagues throughout the business regularly. Help new hires build relationships with the right stakeholders early. Set up meetings with leaders and peers and start implementing team-building strategies immediately. This will help develop a sense of belonging for your new hires and ensure they know who to turn to when they need help.  

Building Technical Foundations   

Most finance professionals’ roles involve numerous technical aspects. Staff members need to use software and technology regularly to remain efficient, and they also need to follow strict policies and frameworks to reduce risk and maintain compliance.   

Helping hires build strong technical foundations during onboarding ensures they can hit the ground running and contribute to critical tasks with confidence and precision.  

Start with structured training modules, showing your teams how to use the software and systems you typically use. Many software vendors already offer access to documentation and videos you can use here. Consider asking a mentor or peer to walk a new employee through how a particularly complex system works.  

Next, introduce employees to your organisation’s control frameworks, from transaction authorisation to fraud prevention mechanisms. Provide clear, practical examples of how these controls apply to the daily tasks your employee needs to complete.   

Guide your new team members through your company-specific accounting policies, such as your revenue recognition practices and specific asset capitalisation thresholds.  

Additionally, ensure new team members are familiar with the reporting structures and deadlines affecting your business. Share calendars that help them track upcoming deadlines for tax reports, VAT statements, and anything relevant to your business.   

Developing Your Comprehensive Integration Strategy  

Onboarding isn’t a one-day event, and it’s not just about making sure new hires are comfortable with the “technical operations” of your business. The right onboarding strategy is vital to developing a motivated, engaged, and productive team.   

Here’s how you can implement a comprehensive integration strategy to prepare your new employees for success.   

Embrace Phased Learning   

The key to successful onboarding is pacing. Piling too much information and tasks onto a new employee can lead to stress, confusion, and burnout. Start simple and take a phased learning approach. Begin by introducing hires to their responsibilities, your company’s values and mission, and the core components of your company culture. Gradually progress towards more complex tasks, like discussing succession plans.   

Give Your New Hires a Buddy  

Designate a member of your existing team to be a go-to mentor or buddy for your most recent hire. More experienced colleagues can give your new employees someone to turn to when they have questions and offer insider tips on how to integrate into the company culture. Plus, a buddy system will help new employees forge powerful relationships within your team, leading to greater engagement in the future.    

Invest in Knowledge Transfer Documentation  

Capturing institutional knowledge is critical for onboarding in the finance sector. Documented processes, including financial reporting cycles, software guides, and compliance workflows, give new hires a roadmap to navigate their roles. These resources are a reference point for every new hire to turn to, minimising reliance on others for repetitive queries.  

Set Performance Goals and Milestones  

Setting clear, achievable performance milestones keeps your onboarding strategy measurable and helps ensure your team members know where to focus their efforts. For instance, you might set a target for your new accountant to be able to independently complete a report without assistance within the first 90 days of joining your team.   

Bridge the Gaps Between Departments  

As mentioned above, finance professionals rarely operate in isolation. While you don’t necessarily need to introduce your new employees to everyone they might be working with straight away, make sure they gradually have the opportunity to connect with new staff. Introduce them to product teams, IT teams, finance professionals, and anyone else they need to know.  

Measuring Onboarding Success  

A great onboarding should deliver measurable, clear results. It should boost engagement and productivity among team members, improve retention rates, and improve the overall company culture. Make sure you can track the success of your efforts over time.   

Identify clear KPIs or metrics to monitor, such as error rates in reporting, the time taken to complete tasks, or how often new team members adhere to deadlines. Don’t just focus on whether your team members are becoming “productive” quickly enough, either. Pay attention to how they feel in your business. Collect direct feedback from staff members and find out whether they have any issues with the culture or might need help to forge connections with colleagues.   

Monitor how often your team members are making progress towards pre-defined milestones, like completing compliance training or managing tasks independently.  

Look at your onboarding strategy’s potential outcomes and ask yourself whether you’re getting a positive return on investment from your efforts. Compare retention rates, productivity metrics, and employee satisfaction scores before and after revamping your onboarding programme.  

Quick Tips for Better Onboarding  

The steps outlined above should help you to structure a powerful onboarding strategy for your finance team members, but there are a few extra tips worth keeping in mind:   

• Start with pre-boarding: Onboarding begins before the first day. Pre-boarding offers a chance to build excitement and forge a connection. Sending a welcome package to your employees before they start can help provide instant insights into company culture.  

• Personalise the experience: Every finance professional has unique goals, and onboarding should reflect that. Take the time to learn about their aspirations – whether leading a team, becoming CFO, or honing technical expertise, and adjust your strategy accordingly.   

• Check-in frequently: Don’t wait until the end of the year to check in with a new hire. Connect regularly to share and ask for feedback. Discuss potential challenges, celebrate wins, and keep your staff engaged.   

• Remember remote workers: Connection is key for hybrid and remote finance teams. Virtual team-building activities and informal meetups, like online coffee breaks, help remote employees feel part of the team.  

• Re-onboard when necessary: Not every onboarding journey goes smoothly. Be prepared to extend or revise the process based on individual needs. Watch for signs of disengagement, like poor performance or a lack of enthusiasm, and take steps to reintegrate employees before it’s too late.  

Optimise Your Finance Onboarding Strategy  

Hiring the right finance professional is just the beginning. The real test lies in how well you integrate them into your organisation. Without a strategic, thoughtful onboarding process, you risk losing your best talent before you can benefit from their input.  

By investing in tailored onboarding, you’re enhancing retention and ensuring accuracy, compliance, and team cohesion. Make effective onboarding a strategic priority, and your finance team will have more engaged, competent professionals.   

Thanks  

Rachel Mitson  

About Rebus Financial Recruitment 

Rebus Financial Recruitment provides a specialist and focused recruitment service to its customers, ranging from various organisations, including SMEs, to large PLCs. 

We strive to offer both the client and candidate a seamless recruitment experience. Using our expertise, we get to the heart of employer and employee needs, and, in doing so, we match the two perfectly. 

To learn more, contact one of our team members today or call us at 01282 930930.