This role can be located in any European city where Adecco/LHH has offices. 

The scope of the Interim (maternity cover) Finance Director is to support the Career Transition & Mobility (CT&M), Learning & Development (L&D), and Recruitment Solutions (RS) businesses across Belgium, Netherlands, Poland (BNP) and Germany, Switzerland (DACH).

The responsibilities of the Finance Director include overseeing all finance, accounting, compliance, group reporting, budgeting, forecasting, business partnering for the cluster to ensure accurate/timely submissions that follow Adecco Group Policies.

The BNP & DACH Finance Director partners with the LHH BNP & DACH Cluster leader and the management team as a trusted advisor, ensuring decisions are aligned with the groups strategic direction and based on sound data and that risks are managed.  They drive profitable growth, where possible anticipating opportunities/risks, providing data led recommendations and ensuring there are decisive accountable action plans and lead on Finance components of projects.

The Finance Director also works closely with the LHH EMEA FD and LHH Global Head of Finance on BNP & DACH cluster and Global strategic issues and projects as well as leading and developing the BNP & DACH Clusters Finance team driving clear structure/roles/responsibilities and standardization to best practice process resulting in efficiencies.

Reporting Relationships:

      Reports directly to the LHH EMEA Finance Director with a strong dotted line to the BNP & DACH Europe Cluster Leader

      Other stakeholders include:

• LHH Global Head of Finance, Corporate Finance and Compliance teams
• BNP & DACH TAG Finance teams
• The BNP & DACH clusters Management Team and the wider business, this may include Head of Business Lines, Head of Sales, Head of Operations and Head of Support functions, such as HR, IT and Marketing.

Direct Reports:

      BNP & DACH finance team: 14 in team, 3 direct reports

      This includes Financial Accounting & Compliance, Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A)/Business Partnering, Billing, Collections (AR), AP, Tax & Treasury

Location:

      Ideally Switzerland, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium or Poland, however there is the possibility this position could be located anywhere in Europe

Travel Requirement:

      Estimated at 10-20% - to local Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, Poland and Netherlands offices and to other European countries for global/regional meetings as required

Languages:

      English required, German and/or French a plus

In this role you can expect to

Financial Accounting, Tax & Compliance

      Oversees full Finance function within the BNP & DACH cluster

      Drive process improvement/change and implementation resulting in efficiencies and a stronger control environment

      Ensure compliance with Adecco Group Policies and all external legislative requirements (tax/legal) relevant to the countries operating.

      Ensuring the timely and accurate preparation of LHH financial statements in accordance with US GAAP, Group Policies and Controls.  This includes submission of the LHH legal entities P&L and Balance Sheets, timely and accurate production of statutory accounts, Tax Packages and other internal group reporting (e.g. FRT/HFM/GRP/MRL/QLR etc.)

      Ensure account reconciliations are prepared monthly by each country and aged items are actively being investigated/resolved

      Work with auditors (internal, external and ICS) and proactively project manage the resolution of open audit points

      Manage financial risk and ensure adequate provisions are recorded

      Ensure tax returns are filed timely / work closely with Maitland and Zurich Tax

      Risk Management: Capture items for quarterly risk report, assess reserves required (if applicable) with adequate support for analysis, and implement required mitigating actions (audit risks, employee related risks, lawsuit, etc.)

      Other relevant activities as required

Financial Planning & Analysis

      Be a trusted Finance Partner to the BNP & DACH leadership team, partner with the LHH BNP & DACH cluster leader and the management team:

• Ensuring decisions are aligned with the groups strategic direction and based on sound data
• Drive profitable growth, where possible anticipating opportunities/risks, providing data led recommendations and ensuring there are decisive accountable action plans
• Lead on the financials for business projects or on BNP & DACH finance projects

      Ensuring the timely and accurate preparation of the annual budgets and monthly forecasts providing challenge and insights as appropriate

      Ensure the timely/accurate preparation of internal management presentations and reporting (GM’s, KPIs etc.) ensuring understanding of the underlying drivers of material variances (Vs Fcast, budget and PY) and providing recommendations to remediate

      Proactive management of the financials:

• Partner closely with the business to maximize opportunities and minimize financial risks
• Ensure expenses are managed in line with revenues and recommend early action plans for any deviation from budget / targets
• Prepare contingency plans for any slowdown of business
• Monitor and tracks KPIs monthly for each line of business/country ensuring variances are understood and provide recommendation to remediate deviation from target

      Compensation and Bonus plan modelling - partner closely with HR and regional/global Finance, prepare monthly detailed schedules by person to support monthly accrual, reviews commission calculations for region

      Employees/Contractor risk management and documentation: ensure proper classification / documentation and compliance with local and tax laws for associates and contractors; perform quarterly risk assessment and document results in “matrix” tool.

      Contract Management: ensure compliance / roll out contract Matrix template / work closely with Global Finance and Legal

      Ongoing review of vendor spend and opportunities for savings

      Lead on relevant projects as required

EVA / DSO / Cash Management

      Manage Invested Capital

      Ongoing focus on reducing outstanding Account Receivable and DSO (or achieving target) and implement action plan when required

      Timely escalation of customers at risk, management of bankruptcies and evaluation of reserves

      Review operational process (from contracting to collection) when needed and suggest/drive fwd. improvements

      Partner with Sales and Operations to achieve desire results

      Other relevant activities as required

Lead and Support BNP & DACH Finance Team

      Provide strong leadership to the BNP & DACH finance team

      Oversee activities of the team to ensure accurate and timely submissions

      Define clear roles and responsibilities, priorities, hold the team accountable, review their work, ensure respect of deadlines and provide feedback

      Ensure the Finance structure is fit for purpose ensuring that there are development and progression opportunities to help the team grow as well as adequate succession planning

      Elevate the Finance team to provide support and insights to the business to strengthen confidence and decision making, enabling better business outcomes

      Drive clear roles, responsibilities and standardization to best practice process resulting in efficiencies.

      Improve Peakon / Great Place to Work engagement scores Implement actions defined in plan

Here’s what you’ll need to succeed

      Demonstrated history of building strong working relationships with direct reports, key stakeholders and the wider organization

      Demonstrated history of being a trusted business partner; assisting in solving business problems and project managing tasks through to completion, demonstrated strategic thinking and ability to add value and provide recommendations with concrete action plans, ability to build long term growth plan supporting the defined strategy

      Technical US & Local GAAP knowledge and a strong understanding of financial and operational requirements

      All round finance experience including FP&A/business partnering/modelling, accounts payable and receivable, financial accounting / general ledger, payroll and compliance

      Experience in managing a medium size team of financial professionals, such as management experience of the following departments: FP&A, GL, AR, AP, Payroll, Tax & Treasury

      Solid experience internal/external audit; coordinating audit activities and driving remediating actions

      Project management and process improvement abilities, particularly in a transformational environment

      Experience in new accounting / front-office system roll-out

      Real Estate: experience in managing real estate portfolio and making recommendation for alternate solutions while staying on top of leases expiration dates

      Background of process improvement / operations inside a sales-focused organization

      Computer literate with good excel skills and solid understanding of accounting software principles:

• Advanced Excel
• Advanced PowerPoint
• Intermediate Microsoft Word for Windows
• JD Edwards a plus

      Understand & mitigate risk when conducting business

      Strong interpersonal and communication skills; experience in effectively communicating key data, including presentations to senior, board or other outside partners

      Personal qualities of integrity, credibility, Inquisitive and proactive, a “can do” positive attitude with a hands-on approach

      A high personal energy, coupled with a genuine enthusiasm for achieving operational excellence and can maintain composure under stress

      Delegation & motivation capabilities

      Attention to detail, good judgment showing logical decision making

      Deadline and action oriented

      Bachelor of Commerce/Business or related field and qualified accountant required.

      10+ years’ experience in accounting/finance field and in leading teams, with most recent role being in a Finance Management position

About LHH

The world of work is ever-changing and unpredictable. Organizations are constantly fighting a battle to find and maintain their competitive advantage: their talent. To succeed, they can’t just rely on what works today, working tomorrow. They need to be ready for next.

LHH exists to help individuals, teams, and organizations find and prepare for what’s next. With integrated, end-to-end solutions that include Advisory, Professional Recruitment, Career Transition, and Learning & Talent Development, we are uniquely positioned to work together to make a positive impact on the future of every person we work with at every key career moment.

LHH is at the forefront of change to build a bigger, bolder workforce. Every day is a new day to prepare for, and we’re here to make sure the future works for everyone.

A division of the Adecco Group – the world’s leading HR solutions provider – LHH’s 8,000 colleagues and coaches work with 15,000 organizations in over 60 countries around the world. We successfully help close to 500,000 candidates to enhance their careers every year. Our local expertise, global infrastructure, and industry-leading technology allow us to manage the complexity of critical workforce initiatives and the challenges of transformation. It’s why most of the Fortune Global 500 companies choose to work with us.

This is LHH.

Ready for Next.

www.lhh.com

LHH is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

For additional information on our Diversity and Inclusion policy, please consult the following link:  https://www.lhh.com/us/en/diversity-and-inclusion