CFOs and finance teams have a powerful opportunity to help their organizations solve one of their most pressing challenges—winning and retaining talent.
With a record-breaking number of open jobs and rampant job hopping, hiring to fill empty seats and enable future growth is tough and it is no longer a responsibility solely relegated to human resources.
More than 60% of CFOs surveyed cite talent and staffing among their top three priorities, outpacing financial performance and growth. And smart finance teams are recognizing their potential to address the challenges with technology.
Streamlining financial processes and automating the mundane, labor-intensive aspects of day-to-day work increases job satisfaction and frees staff for more fulfilling, strategic initiatives that directly impacts their organization’s bottom line and their careers. Digitally transforming the workplace also makes it more attractive to new hires, especially young professionals who expect nothing less.
Here’s a closer look at how innovation can help finance teams increase their value-add to their organizations by addressing today’s competitive hiring landscape and better positioning for growth.
Cloud-based technology removes inhibiting boundaries
When finance teams were forced to work from home during the early days of the pandemic, the use of cloud-based technologies like automated AP solutions enabled them to continue mission critical processes like invoicing and paying the bills without accessing the mail, shuffling invoices for approvals or printing and mailing checks.
Cloud software and services not only ensured business continuity but have become productivity drivers and valuable hiring and retention tools. By enabling remote work, organizations can remove location from the hiring equation. In fact, 77% of organizations surveyed say geographic location is no longer a hiring consideration thanks to the expectation of remote work continuing.
This gives employers access to a far wider, more diverse talent pool and a better chance of hiring skilled professionals that were once out of reach due to their location. It also helps to strengthen retention, providing work-from-home flexibility and eliminating the need for employees to change jobs when they move to a new city.
Streamlining financial processes creates efficiencies, easing staffing constraints
By automating financial tasks—and therefore reducing workload, improving accuracy, and eliminating the tedious aspects of their jobs—finance teams can work more efficiently and effectively, helping offset staffing gaps and allow back-office employees to handle more meaningful projects for their careers and the business.
For instance, leveraging back-office solutions that are integrated with existing accounting software enables invoices to be processed in minutes rather than days. Teams no longer must code by hand, chase approvals, or deal with mailing payments to vendors.
Instead, they can automate the work and easily access real-time updates to track payments and monitor invoices through all steps of the approval process. The time saved can be spent collaborating with different business functions and better serving customers.
Cloud software and services not only ensured business continuity but have become productivity drivers and valuable hiring and retention tools.
Technology also enables them to take on more work and better position their organizations to scale regardless of staffing constraints.
Technology offers opportunities for skill development, helping retain talent
According to a PWC survey, a higher salary is a chief motivator for making a job switch, but benefits like flexibility and skill development rank close behind.
Digitizing finance departments provides employees flexibility through remote work options—the data they need to do their jobs can be accessed from anywhere, at any time—and introduces opportunities for upskilling as their jobs evolve.
Freed from manual tasks and with easier access to data, finance teams can be trained to think like high-level strategists, analyzing financial and customer data and trends and leveraging newfound insights to help guide important decision making within their organizations. Their jobs become more fulfilling, and their skill sets broaden, enabling them to take on more responsibility and prepare them for advancement within the organization.
Finance Teams Create Data-Driven Organizations While Combating the War on Talent
Employee turnover is projected to continue rising, putting pressure on organizations to create stronger retention and hiring strategies to ensure that they have the people necessary for growth.
Business leaders outside of the department should lean on their CFOs and finance teammates to help earn employee loyalty and attract new hires, while leveraging technology, like AI and machine learning, to elevate and expand financial roles, as well as position staff to become strategic business partners within the organization.
With more value-adding responsibilities and fewer labor-intensive tasks, the finance team has good reason to stick around. And a tech-enabled workplace will entice others to join them.
DAVE KREHL
Dan Drees is Chief Growth Officer at AvidXchange. Dan is charged with overseeing the success of our customers and driving the overall execution of predictable, sustainable, and profitable revenue growth for the company. Well versed in identifying risks, mentoring talent, identifying growth opportunities, and vertical market building, he helps customers gain greater visibility into their business, increase revenue and drive efficiencies.
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