It comes as no surprise that the growth in salaries for accountancy and finance professionals is due to continue on an upward trajectory in 2016 as the skills shortage in this discipline persists.

Both temporary and permanent roles in accountancy and finance are still leading the polls for most wanted skills in 2016. Building upon the growing need for candidates in this sector that began back in 2015, the continued growth of organisations has only served to increase this demand with predictions that a 25% increase will occur in an already stretched labour market.

Three out of five of our surveyed businesses backed up this claim, stating that since the 2015 upturn it has taken on average 40% longer to engage candidates.

With less professionals entering the job seeking market than demand requires, many organisations are offering inflated salaries to attract the right candidates to their roles. In fact, good quality part- qualified candidates with ambitions to further develop their careers are able to demand market rate or even higher salaries as companies compete to fill vacancies.

As with any role, regional variances to the percentage of market rate salary professionals in accountancy and finance receive are to be expected. But where can you expect to pay the most to recruit a new member of staff?

• Scotland: 98.4%
• North East England: 90.0%
• North West England: 92.9%
• Yorkshire: 91.9%
• East Midlands: 91.8%
• West Midlands: 92.8%
• East of England: 97.9%
• London: 129.0%
• South East England: 106.0%
• South West England: 90.3%
• Wales: 89.5%

It comes as no real surprise that you’ll need a bigger budget to recruit an accountancy and finance professional in London, but with salaries expected to continue upward in 2016 some areas will be paying market rate or more in the coming months.

Therefore, my advice is for any HR professional or business owner is to revisit their salary benchmarking in this area to ensure that salary offerings remain competitive as we continue to battle the skills shortage in 2016.