The CFO’s Guide to Building a Future-Proof Finance Team
Introduction
Today’s CFOs and their teams face numerous challenges, including keeping up with the evolving work environment, regulatory requirements, and continuous disruptions. To meet these demands, many CFOs are turning to cloud technologies to enhance their team's operational agility and remote access. However, simply migrating enterprise systems to the cloud is not enough. CFOs have the opportunity to rethink their finance department’s operating model, eliminate silos, and increase data visibility. Modern enterprise cloud applications offer intuitive, consumer-like interfaces that unify the user experience and streamline productivity, leading to more engaged and empowered employees.
Key Takeaways for CFOs Building a Future-Proof Finance Team
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Prioritizing User Experience:
- 48% of CFOs are actively looking to invest in consumer-like interfaces for finance employee tasks to attract their future finance team within the next five years.
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Attracting Talent with Best-In-Class Technology:
- 99% of CFOs agree that technology updates will become more important for attracting and retaining talent.
- 57% of CFOs prioritize finding candidates with AI and ML technology skill sets.
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Hiring Data Storytellers:
- 41% of CFOs prioritize hiring candidates with analytics and data storytelling skills.
Finance Outperformers Are Operating at the Speed of Change
- More than half of respondents (58% of CFOs) rate their ability to turn data into insights as "excellent," indicating they are outperforming their peers.
- Technology is described as very important or extremely important to their future success.
- These CFOs are hiring many more candidates with AI and business finance technology experience to build those capabilities internally.
- They are investing in data visualization and data science to support insight-driven decision-making.
Technology Strategy is an Important People Strategy
- Consumer-like software interfaces are becoming the norm, with the bar set by companies like Amazon and Uber.
- CFOs are investing in consumer-like interfaces (48%) and automating tedious tasks (35%) to attract their future finance team.
- Talent scarcity and budget constraints are the top challenges for CFOs, with only 3% and 5% citing staff bandwidth and reluctance to upskill, respectively.
Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Are Top Focuses
- 57% of CFOs prioritize investments in both D&I and ESG.
- Reporting on D&I and ESG requires ingesting internal and external data, ideally orchestrated in a cloud platform for seamless distribution.
- New expectations around emerging reporting requirements, such as carbon emissions and greenhouse gases, necessitate new skills for compliance.
Accelerated Digital Finance Journey
- CFOs report the need for an accelerated digital finance journey to keep pace with the evolving landscape.
Overall, the transition to a future-proof finance team involves prioritizing user experience, leveraging technology to attract and retain talent, and focusing on data-driven insights.
