A Robert Half executive on the 2024 hiring outlook

12/21/23 • 15 min

Steve Saah, executive director of the finance and accounting permanent placement practice at Robert Half, joined the JofA podcast last week at the Future of Finance Summit in Orlando, Fla. In the interview, he shares recent data that seems positive related to hiring trends.

He also offers insights into the future of in-office work, analyzes the role that inflation plays in that dynamic, and discusses the advantages organizations have with multiple generations in the workforce.

What you’ll learn from this episode:

§ How organizations are approaching hiring in 2024, according to recent Robert Half data.

§ The reasons for the significant gap between supply and demand in the finance industry.

§ The one word Saah used to describe the 2023 economy.

§ What Saah thinks about the future of in-office work.

§ The hiring advantages of hybrid work models for organizations.

§ The relationship between age, career level, and coachability.

What you’ll learn from this episode:

§ How organizations are approaching hiring in 2024, according to recent Robert Half data.

§ The reasons for the significant gap between supply and demand in the finance industry.

§ The one word Saah used to describe the 2023 economy.

§ What Saah thinks about the future of in-office work.

§ The hiring advantages of hybrid work models for organizations.

§ The relationship between age, career level, and coachability.

Previous Episode

Power of the peer group: Riding the wave of finance transformation

The JofA podcast took a road trip last week to the Future of Finance Summit, catching up with several leaders on highlights from the event and reflections on its growth since the first event in Nashville, Tenn., in 2021.

Tom Hood, CPA/CITP, CGMA, executive vice president–Business Growth and Engagement at AICPA & CIMA, leads off this compilation episode, sharing a favorite quote and how it applies to the summit’s themes. He and other speakers explain how a growing community of leaders is applying the knowledge of the crowd to guide their organizations in transformative times.

Other speakers in this episode:

n Carrie Kruse, CPA, CGMA, economic development administrator for the city of Des Moines, Iowa;

n Scott Spiegel, CPA, CGMA, COO for AICPA & CIMA; and

n Kelly Lorenz, AICPA & CIMA’s associate director–Business Growth and Engagement.

The episode is the first of several that will focus on Future of Finance speakers and sessions, so be on the lookout for more, starting Thursday and continuing into 2024.

What you’ll learn from this episode:

· Hood’s summary of the event’s growth over the years.

· Why Cruse considers the event the “top professional development opportunity of the year.”

· The reasons Spiegel is more energized now about a new finance apprenticeship program.

· Why the summit’s idea-sharing has been a “gold mine of opportunity” for finance leaders, according to Lorenz.

Next Episode

Gen AI, business model transformation, and more with AICPA & CIMA CEO

Barry Melancon, CPA, CGMA, the CEO of AICPA & CIMA, explains why the accounting profession has to embrace generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) instead of running from it. And that’s not all he’s talking about in this episode of the JofA podcast.

Melancon shares insights on the effect of AI on audit and assurance, how private equity’s entry into accounting is changing firms, how business models themselves are changing, and why he says the world needs accountants more than ever.

This is the second of a two-part conversation. The first part was published in December.

What you’ll learn from this episode:

The importance and value of a recently published toolkit on Gen AI.
Why accountants and accounting firms have to embrace Gen AI and understand its risks.
Potential uses for AI in auditing and assurance.
The shifts Melancon sees in the business model of firms.
Skills that CPAs should be prepared to learn, unlearn, and relearn.
Melancon’s explanation of the “trust equation” as it relates to CPAs.