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Accounting & finance hiring trends in Belgium

The Robert Walters Global Salary Survey for 2017 contains recruitment market updates, hiring advice and benchmarks salaries across our global markets.

Here we discuss the outlook for the commerce & industry sector in Belgium.

Controllers and analysts in high demand

Hiring activity was low at the start of 2016, despite hiring managers being given higher budgets for recruitment. However, as Belgian SMEs and international companies increased investment in new projects in 2016, a significant number of newly created positions became available, especially in accounting, internal audit, analysis and controlling. The Antwerp region specifically saw higher levels of recruitment, with a strong increase in the hiring of permanent finance staff.

Allowing a team to be understaffed for a protracted period incurs the added risk of losing additional team members, as extreme workloads could lead other employees to resign.

With finance professionals playing an increasingly prominent role in shaping growth strategies for companies, hiring managers were highly selective when recruiting and were particularly interested in hiring controllers and analysts with strong business acumen and the ability to bring added value to the business.

Outlook for 2017

As the economy continues to grow, rising confidence will mean that professionals will increasingly look for new opportunities, seeking higher salaries or better work-life balance. Despite this increased candidate mobility, many employers are likely to face skills shortages. In such candidate short market, employers will need to act quickly to ensure positions are filled with their first choice candidate. Allowing a team to be understaffed for a protracted period incurs the added risk of losing additional team members, as extreme workloads could lead other employees to resign.

Competition for talent remains strong, so hiring managers will need to keep recruitment processes short and efficient in order to avoid losing the right candidates and risking buyback offers.

The salary rises we saw in 2016 for permanent positions will increase in 2017 with companies also offering additional fringe benefits and flexibility to provide a better work-life balance. Professionals in high-demand roles such as controlling, audit, accounting and consolidation may be able to secure minor salary increases when changing roles in 2017.