In our Q1 2026 report, which polled more than 1,100 Australian finance professionals, 44% said they would decline their dream role if it required five full days in the office and 39% would accept. The most common setup is three days in and two at home. For a first finance hire I suggest a heavy start on site, then a fixed split stated in the ad, with flexible start and finish times.
What the market offers finance people now
There are three models: full time in the office, hybrid, and full remote. In finance, hybrid is the default and the details vary by how many days, which days, and how fixed they are.
The classic split is three days in, two at home; my rough read is that around two-thirds of businesses run it. Most of the rest of the hybrid roles I see are four days in and one at home. Full remote roles still come up, but they are not common: roughly 10 to 20% of the market by my estimate. The rest is a mixed bag, and where a company lands is mostly the leadership's philosophy.
The direction has shifted recently. There has been more of a lean back towards the office, because when conditions are tight, owners want more control and more visibility. I understand the instinct. The cost is the size of the market you are hiring from.
What finance candidates will accept
Most will accept hybrid, and a large share will not accept five days in. In our Q1 2026 State of the Market report, which polled more than 1,100 finance professionals across Australia, we asked whether they would take their dream role if it was five days in the office. 44% said no, 39% said yes, and 17% said maybe.
That matches what I hear. Pretty regularly, candidates tell me they would not look at anything that is five days on site, and I have had CFOs tell me they lost great candidates when the company insisted on full-time office presence. The 17% who said maybe are not a safe middle either. They would accept under the right conditions, and that negotiation happens at the offer stage. A full-time office rule takes you out of the running for close to half of the senior finance pool, before brand, role or pay come into it. That is one of the filters behind the accountant shortage founders tell me about.
Five days is not always the problem: start and finish times are
Flexibility is not only about the number of days. Control over the hours inside those days often matters as much, especially to people with school runs and childcare.
More often than not, five days on site is not the issue. It is having some control over that time. I have recruited for heaps of five-days-a-week roles that were not a problem, because people could start early or finish late: in at seven one day and gone by three for school pick-up. So when a client tells me a role has to be in the office five days, my first question is whether we can offer flexible start times to suit working parents.
State the exact split in the ad
A hybrid policy only helps you hire if candidates can see it. "Flexible" tells them nothing. "Three days in the office, Tuesday to Thursday, two from home" tells them whether the job fits their life before either of you spends time on an interview.
In the Q1 report our advice to hiring managers was simple: state office expectations clearly and early, because misalignment on this point is a leading cause of late-stage candidate drop-out. For a finance role, that also means the predictable peaks: the days you expect people in for month end, board meetings, budget season and the audit.
| A vague ad | A clear ad | |
|---|---|---|
| Office policy | "Flexible working" or "hybrid" | Three days in, Tuesday to Thursday, two from home |
| Hours | Not mentioned | Core hours stated, with early start or early finish allowed |
| Peak periods | Discovered after starting | On site for month end, board meetings and the audit |
| Systems | Not mentioned | Support structures for remote work named |
| Who it filters out | Good candidates who drop out late, at the offer | People it will not suit, before the first interview |
How to write a finance job ad the right people answer.
What to set for a first finance hire or first CFO
The first finance hire in a startup is building the function, and the office setup should suit that job. I run two searches only, the first finance hire and the first CFO, for venture-backed tech, fintech and deep tech companies in Australia, so this is the setup I advise on for both.
For businesses in their growth phase, I think an in-office component is critical, and I say so to every candidate on those searches. Full remote has its upsides and it sounds great, but it brings real challenges in stakeholder management, team management and the people side, which I have put to a finance leader on my podcast. A lot of tech and high-growth companies run heavily hybrid or remote, and finance is often harder to do well without an office presence.
The pattern I recommend is a heavy start, then a fixed split. Get the new hire on site as much as possible for the first four to six weeks; by then they have a good feel for the business. After that, move to a set hybrid pattern, often four days in and one at home. Keeping it at five days for good is what cuts the candidate market down most.
There is another way to do it. I am seeing companies go one way or the other: some bring everyone back in, others go full remote. Some startups have done really well fully remote and believe in it; some run five days in and it works for them. I think the startups that do best commit to whichever model fits the business, and say so up front. If you are remote, put the support structures in place so the role works from anywhere.
What goes into a first CFO offer package besides the base.
The candidates who cannot be on site
Some very capable people cannot be in an office every day, for reasons that have nothing to do with how well they work.
I have spoken to excellent candidates who are turned away from roles for this: a single parent whose child has a disability the usual school and childcare system does not accommodate, someone with a respiratory illness that makes a daily commute too risky, people whose anxiety is made worse by crowds and noise. When employers put them in the "too hard basket", I think they miss a chance to hire someone of strong intellect, work ethic and ability. One of Covid's great learnings was that people can work well from home with the right support in place, and that support often costs nothing.
The return is loyalty. Remote-first and part-time roles are hard to find, so working parents, people returning to work and people with disabilities who land one tend to keep it, and often give more than their scheduled hours. Hiring for capability and skillset over in-office presence might not be the simplest path, but it might be the best hiring decision you ever make.
If you are the candidate: how to handle the office question
Ask for the exact split, the anchor days and the start and finish times at the first conversation, not at the offer. If you can do five days in, say so early: in the Q1 report we pointed out that it meaningfully broadens your access to senior roles others are ruling out.
When a role needs an office presence, employers want to hear that you actually want it, not that you will put up with it. "I am happy to do it if I have to" lands very differently from "I want that". Talk through the commute and how it fits your week, so they can see it works. And know your rights: after 12 months with an employer, full-time and part-time employees who are, for example, the parent of a child of school age or younger, a carer or a person with disability can make a formal request for flexible working arrangements under the Fair Work Act.
When the offer comes, the office terms belong in it alongside the pay and equity, in writing, so there is nothing to renegotiate after you start.
How founders should approach closing a finance hire.
Common questions
What is the most common hybrid split for finance roles in Australia?
Three days in the office and two at home is the most common split. Four days in and one at home is the next most common, and together the two cover the large majority of finance roles. Full remote roles exist but are a small share of the market.
Will finance candidates accept five days in the office?
Many will not. In Story Recruitment's Q1 2026 report, which polled more than 1,100 Australian finance professionals, 44% said they would decline their dream role if it required five full days in the office, 39% would accept and 17% said maybe. Flexible start and finish times bring some of the rest back.
Are remote finance jobs common in Australia?
Not very. Full remote finance roles come up, but by my estimate they are only roughly 10 to 20% of the market. Most remote-friendly roles are hybrid, with a fixed number of office days.
What office setup should a startup offer its first finance hire or first CFO?
A heavy start on site for the first four to six weeks, so the new hire gets a good feel for the business, then a fixed hybrid split such as four days in and one at home, with flexible start and finish times. State the split in the job ad and the offer.
Should a job ad state the hybrid split?
Yes. Write the exact split, the office days, core hours and any on-site periods such as month end or the audit. A vague word like flexible tells candidates nothing, and misaligned office expectations are a leading cause of candidates dropping out late in the process.
These guides set out how we see it, drawn from the searches we run and the finance leaders we work with. They are general information about the market, not financial, accounting or legal advice, and they are no substitute for advice on your own circumstances.