The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Is your finance team ready to embrace automation?
Proactive recruitment will help you build a team and business that’s fit for the future
When it comes to finance, numbers are numbers – but everything else, from working habits to how figures are collated and reported, is always subject to change.
And one of the biggest transformations coming to the industry is automation. Andrew McLeod, head of resourcing at Hutcheon Mearns, a business finance advisory firm, explains: “The finance landscape is changing and will change as we go into the future. Automation is definitely coming as companies look to streamline processes and make things more efficient. We’ve seen the emergence of power BI dashboards, a real gamechanger in terms of giving good information quickly to drive business and strategic decisions.
“As these new systems and processes are folded out, and you get more buy-in from the C-suite level, is your team prepared to adopt it and do you have that skillset in your team? If the answer is ‘no’, then you probably need to bring in resources to protect the future of the business.”
After all, embracing finance or accounting automation could increase your business’s competitive advantage. By adopting automation you’ll be able to make better decisions, focus on profitable lines, lower costs with more efficient processes and procedures, and react more quickly to customer demands.
So how do you make sure your finance team is fit for purpose, no matter what the future holds? Take a strategic and proactive approach. Andrew says: “It’s about making sure that if you’re changing your team, you’re doing it for the right reason and that you’re adding the right skillsets that match your company objectives, budget or forecast. It’s making sure that your finance team is helping you get there and not hindering you.”
Start by evaluating where your team is now, thinking about strengths, weaknesses and skills that are lacking in the team. Then, consider what your finance team may need in the future and where you need to build strength. This means you can be more targeted in your recruitment, looking for specific skillsets or experience.
And finally, decide what steps you can take to get there, taking advice on the best solution to fill any gaps in skills or capabilities. This might involve taking a more long-term view to investing in recruitment, particularly when it comes to automation.
Andrew explains: “I think there’s a misconception that adopting these things are vastly expensive projects, and there was a time it was, but not so much now. You have to look behind the individual salary or individual consultant cost, at the wider cost benefit to the business.”
Hutcheon Mearns can help by evaluating your finance team and recommending changes.
Andrew says: “Where we separate ourselves from others in the market is, we can offer advice and then we can help implement it. For example, say you have a weakness because you don’t have enough experience in North American regions. You need a controller-level individual who can manage that. So we can go to the market and tell you who you can get and how much they’ll cost. It might not be a decision you’ll make today, but you can have it in your budget to make that change later.
“At the end of the day, our whole focus is to make our clients’ lives easier by giving them a good level of service, but also giving them knowledge and letting them know what to do with that knowledge.”