CGMA knowledge fast forward

The AICPA and CIMA have joined together to form a joint venture which powers a new designation for management accountants, the Chartered Global Management Accountant ( CGMA). The CGMA is designed to elevate management accounting and further emphasise its importance for businesses worldwide.

CGMA knowledge fast forward is a knowledge sharing initiative which strives to improve awareness on how core management accounting concepts and case studies create sustainable value to businesses.

The content for this month’s article is extracted from the write up ‘Powering talent decisions with data’ by Bernard Marr available on www.cgma.com.

The role of management accountants in talent analytics

One could argue that the analysis of talent data is the role of the HR team in the organisation. However, management accountants bring certain skills about numbers and data analysis that are often lacking in HR departments.

Management accountants also bring the understanding of the overall business performance framework and should be able to help create the link between talent analytics and overall business performance outcomes (eg, financial results). A close working relationship between the finance team and the HR department can ensure that complementary skills are brought togeth-

Management accountants also bring the understanding of the overall business performance framework and should be able to help create the link between talent analytics and overall business performance outcomes (eg, financial results). A close working relationship between the finance team and the HR department can ensure that complementary skills are brought together to deliver enhanced business benefits

er to deliver enhanced business benefits.

People with the right talent are the most important asset for any organisation and generally also represent the biggest costs. Advances in data generation and analysis capabilities allow us to harness existing HR data and supplement them with newer forms of big and unstructured data analysis to gain real business insights and competitive advantages.

The key to making talent analytics work is ensuring the business leaders identify the key business questions about their talent. Once the questions are defined, data can be collected and analysed to answer the question.

Real business questions addressed in the examples here include:

What makes a good manager in our company?

What difference can happy employees really make?

How can we best recruit the talent we need?

What are early warning signals that some of our key people are thinking about leaving?

But you can come up with many other key business questions about the talent in your organisation.

Top three ways of using data to power your career

Analytics aren’t just for data-savvy companies seeking a competitive advantage. Individuals can also use data to ensure their careers stay on track. Here are three tips for using data to power your career:

1. Ensure you have what employers are looking for.

When it comes to your career, you want to make sure that you stay in touch with the latest developments, newest tools and general trends. This information is vital to ensure you spot the best career moves to make as well as the top development and training opportunities. Three really good ways to keep up with trends are:

Google Trends: A free service that allows you to map out how the worldwide search volume for these key terms is changing. You can also compare a number of terms to see the relative trends.

Topsy: A social media search engine that features a Twitter analytics tool. You can compare up to three subjects to understand which one is trending the most.

Google Alerts: Set it up so you get the latest news about your industry and job directly to your inbox.

2. Find the job opportunities.

Many websites provide job offers and alerts. One I particularly like is Glassdoor. com. It helps you find relevant jobs but also provides a look inside the company. The site provides information about salaries and interviews at the company as well as reviews of what it is like to work there. Indeed.com allows you to set up a profile once and alerts you about relevant openings. Having this setup allows you to regularly read the relevant job offers and see what companies are looking for in their job specs.

3. Make yourself interesting for a potential employer.

LinkedIn is my preferred tool for business networking, and if you are not signed up yet, do it right now. It is the best place to grow your network, find and interact with like-minded people and market yourself to a potential employer. Sites such as LinkedIn allow you to collect data on how your network is growing, how many of your skills have been endorsed and how many people have looked at your profile, among other things. Used well, it can provide valuable insight about how attractive you are for potential employers.

Here are some key tips to increase your attractiveness on LinkedIn:

Grow your network: Send personalised invitations to key people in your industry asking to connect. Even if you don’t know them personally, I find that if you make it personal and explain why you would like to connect, you generally get a positive response.Ensure your most relevant skills are listed and endorsed: Don’t put all your skills on the list.

Pick the ones you believe employers are looking for. Then ask your network to endorse those skills.

Seek recommendations: These are great ways to show potential employers that you are doing a good job.

Engage with the community: Join relevant LinkedIn groups and participate in conversations. This will show that you are actively involved in your industry and will help to boost your score on Klout, which measures influence by analysing one’s social media activities.

Bernard Marr (bernard.marr@ap-institute. com) is an author and authority on organisational performance and business success. He is founder and CEO of the Advanced Performance Institute, a research, consulting and training organisation in business performance.