Published on the 15/04/2015 | Written by Oracle
What’s keeping CFOs up at night?…
In conversations with chief financial officers, there are a number of business issues that are common across industries and geographies. One such issue—finding and retaining the best finance talent—is a topic that can dramatically impact the CFO’s effectiveness within his or her own organisation.
Over the past several years, the role of the CFO has evolved from someone who keeps the books, to a more visionary and advisory role. Modern CFOs provide the essential reports, insight, and information needed to drive strategy around the boardroom table. This requires a new skill set—much different from the traditional accounting role.
The best CFOs have learned to ask themselves the following questions:
- How is the role of finance officer changing?
- What sort of skills do finance professionals need today?
- How do I attract and retain the best talent?
- Do I have the right technology in place to keep my best and brightest engaged and intellectually challenged?
Wall Street Journal Custom Studios recently issued a report that addresses some of the above questions. Winning the War for Finance Talent: Game Plan for the Digital Age provides six recommendations on how finance leaders can improve bench strength within their own organisations.
This infographic summarises the report’s six recommendations:
- Recruit—and pay for—talent armed with a greater variety of skills.
- Fill talent gaps by grooming from within.
- Ask the right questions when analysing data—you want answers that propel your business.
- Share data with your team or it has no value.
- Use technology and data insights to read your customers’ needs more accurately—making you a better business partner.
- Upgrade your technology to attract and retain the best and the brightest. If you don’t, you may lose gifted people to more modern rivals.
On the last recommendation, many finance offices are looking to the cloud to not only update their technology, but improve efficiency between finance and HR. A modern ERP and HCM cloud—with built-in social capabilities, data analysis and dashboards, designed for today’s mobile workforce—can provide the technology edge that CFOs need to attract, and retain, the best talent.
Read more in the recent Forbes.com articles, How to Win the Finance Talent You Need and Turning Bean Counters into Difference-Makers: How Corporate Finance is Changing with the Times.
Doug Hughes is VP Apps for Oracle APAC.
