According to recruiting experts Hays, which surveyed 285 current Credit Managers, the biggest challenge in the recruitment of credit management professionals is the lack of available skilled candidates. So where are all the aspiring Credit Managers?
Becoming a Credit Manager is not one of those careers that people dream of from a young age. “The majority of those we surveyed (61%) of today’s Credit Managers hadn’t intended to work in credit management. They got into it via a number of various inroads, with some just falling into it by accident,” says David Cawley, Regional Director of Hays Accountancy & Finance.
Encouragingly, 64 per cent of respondents believe credit management is recognised as a career path and 89 per cent would recommend a career in credit management to others.
“The beauty of the credit management profession is that the skills and experience required to do the job are transferable from a range of different backgrounds. Communication and professionalism are the top skills needed to be a Credit Manager, technical skills can be trained,” adds David.
Credit management offers a great stepping stone into the corporate world or a foot into the door of the finance department.
According to the Hays survey, to become a Credit Manager it takes:
- Education: a degree isn’t necessarily a prerequisite with only 29 per cent of respondents holding a degree or above, however, 58 per cent have studied credit specific courses or possess credit specific certifications.
- Soft skills: the top five soft skills needed include communication (65%), decision making (46%), relationship building (43%), management skills (27%) and problem-solving (23%).
- Personal characteristics: the traits that credit managers say have helped them succeed include professionalism (54%), approachability (39%), resilience (33%), being adaptive (31%) and having tenacity (29%).
- Technical skills: Credit Managers are committed to ensuring systems training for new recruits where prior experience is lacking. In fact even 38 per cent would consider hiring someone without Excel skills.
The credit management profession is interesting and challenging. Not only are credit managers challenged with outsourcing, restructures, mergers, market conditions and changing legislation, they have to keep up-to-date with technology, improve the quality of data and streamline processes to achieve efficiencies.
To achieve all of this, they need high-performing teams who can ultimately maintain and manage debtor days, reduce debt and improve cash flow whilst managing risk.
“At Hays, we’re aware of what a crucial role credit managers play in organisations and by producing this report, we hope to promote it as a possible career path to those in search of a rewarding and challenging career,” says David.
The report contains interviews with some of Australia and New Zealand’s top credit managers, and as one of the interviewees put it, “We are not administrators. We are client facing, target driven... and definitely part of the client retention and service.”
For more, please see Hays’ report ‘What it takes to be a Credit Manager’, available at www.hays.com.au/credit-manager. It explores the particular skills, personal characteristics, background, years of experience, challenges and future career ambitions of today’s Credit Managers.