How Top Finance Talent Enhances Productivity and Efficiency

Ongoing economic concerns, such as supply chain challenges, lower consumer demand caused by inflation, and rumors of recession, all hold a level of uncertainty for the revenue stream of organizations. Finance and accounting talent has the analytical skills that organizations are looking for during challenging times like these, but outdated tools and methods are time-intensive and make it impossible for them to play a strategic role.

CFOs can attract and retain the Office of Finance with digital investments, such as finance automation, that encourage finance and accounting talent to work effectively with a “do more with less” approach and focus on the bigger picture for the entire organization.

Factors That Attract Top Finance Talent

#1: Work-Life Balance

Finance and accounting professionals are notorious for struggling to maintain a healthy work-life balance. Historically, they have had to work with manual processes that are severely time-consuming and lack visibility. On top of that, CFOs/Controllers and finance leaders ask that the finance and accounting teams play a strategic role within the organization, further adding to their workload and leaving them stressed.

Organizations need to lean into solutions that prevent burnout to sustain this shift in expectations and attract the right talent. Streamlining the financial close process and reducing the time spent on methods that don’t generate revenue gives your team time to focus on higher-value tasks so they can find ways to drive down costs and boost revenue, all while living fulfilling lives outside of work.

#2: Automating Manual Processes

Automation is on the rise as organizations embrace technological advancements to increase process efficiency and reduce costs. As the digital age progresses, prospective employees are looking for organizations that are modernizing their practices, which holds true in the finance world. A few of the benefits of finance automation include the following:

• Faster close timelines
• Increased transparency/visibility across the close process
• Reduced costs and risk
• Time to focus on high-value activities

Finance and accounting talent are looking for opportunities to grow their skillset. With access to automation solutions, the Office of Finance can spend more time analyzing the data and what it shows rather than wasting time obtaining it or entering it manually. Automation cuts out the tedious day-to-day processes and encourages critical thought that cultivates more engaging work. When organizations lean into automation, teams can shift their focus to meaningful projects that challenge and upskill their abilities.

Retain Top Finance and Accounting Talent

#3: Unlock the Full Potential of Your Team

Just as automation is attracting top talent, it is also helping organizations retain the valuable talent they have today. Now more than ever, employees know exactly what they want from their job. As organizations worldwide continuously invest in automation solutions, finance and accounting professionals see that this transformation can be sustained and are reassessing the efficiency of the manual processes in their current roles.

Organizations can mitigate employee churn by implementing automation to aid their employees’ professional development and boost productivity. Finance automation acts as a lifeline for talent retention and encourages teams to be valued contributors to the organization again.

The bottom line: Top finance and accounting talent will go elsewhere if their needs are not met.

Despite economic uncertainty, attracting and retaining talent can be done with the right solution. The most successful organizations will be those who embrace automation to better equip their teams in the ways that matter most.

Written by: Lauren McCrohan