ACCA qualification ensures members are complete finance professionals
The vast majority of chief financial officers (CFOs) looking to appoint new staff for their businesses believe it is important for each potential employee to have both a breadth and depth of finance expertise and capabilities, find new research from the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA). Key findings from the 500 global finance professionals surveyed showed that 96 percent of them said newly qualified finance professionals should know about financial management and 94 percent said it was important to have a good understanding of professionalism and ethics.
Management skills scored 73 percent while stakeholder relationship management came lower down the ranking at 68 percent, possibly because CFOs responsible for hiring would see this as a development for the futureThe majority of them also pointed out that the most beneficial grounding to help a newly qualified finance professional on the path to being a future leader was a full appreciation of financial and management accounting, coupled with a strong strategic focus. They went to explain that understanding the links between all areas of finance enabled recruits to minimize future financial risks and enabled them to deal with financial challenges.
When it comes to sustainable business growth, 76 percent said it ‘really adds value to their business’ for their finance professionals to have the complete finance knowledge and skills set, from both financial and strategic management accounting.
Commenting on these findings, Nilusha Ranasinghe, Head of ACCA Sri Lanka, said, “While these are global findings, my sense is that CFOs in Sri Lanka will want the same things as their global counterparts when it comes to hiring staff. Like their colleagues around the world, recruiters in Sri Lanka are looking to appoint the complete finance professional and seek out newly qualified accountants who have breadth and depth of skills. ACCA’s view is that the environment in which finance professionals now work requires them to bring a broader range of finance skills to the table.”
She added, “Finance functions now have to be excellent in a wide range of capabilities, from supporting businesses to managing risk, developing effective strategies for growth, driving financial insight, continuing to maintain appropriate levels of control across the organisation as well as ensuring its statutory and regulatory responsibilities are met.In other words, a complete understanding of the finance value chain - from budgeting to external reporting - and how all this fits together, is critical, in today’s context, to meet the challenges posed by a post-crisis global economy which is increasingly volatile, complex and competitive.
Therefore, the need for finance staff to have a broad range of skills and expertise throughout the finance value chain is of prime importance to CFOs here in Sri Lanka and of equal importance to individuals looking to plan their careers and maximise their employability.