Irrespective of company size or sector, when it comes your business’s strategy, future growth and financial performance, having an expert finance team in place really is crucial to your success.
As an FD or CFO looking to put together a high-performing finance team, there’s a lot for you to think about if you’re to get this right in the long-term.
From talking to our network of finance leaders, if you’re looking to build an effective finance team, here’s what you need to consider.
The structure of your team
High-performing finance teams have begun to stretch beyond simply having traditional financial skills and experience to incorporate talent that includes skills such as great communication, leadership and problem-solving.
Likewise, strong finance teams incorporate a mix of key characteristics which can span across its people, processes and technology. This mix allows individuals to support and challenge each other, which in turn, allows the team to develop and improve over time.
Open communication across departments and cross-functional collaboration are essential for any successful finance team, while the use of collaboration tools can help ensure that information flows seamlessly within the team and throughout the business.
Setting clear roles and responsibilities
Setting clearly defined roles and responsibilities is a must and each member should have a clear understanding of their role within the team and the wider business. This helps to avoid overlaps or confusion, but also ensure the team’s set up to operate effectively.
Backing up these roles and responsibilities with clear goals and performance metrics allows you to measure the effectiveness of your finance team and review and adjust your team’s individual roles where necessary.
Invest in continuous learning
To stay ahead of an ever-evolving financial landscape, continuous learning, training and upskilling is crucial, both in terms of long-term effectiveness of your team and also long-term employee retention.
The Work Institute’s 2022 Retention Report found that 22% of employees left due to career reasons, including opportunities for growth, promotion or achievement. Therefore, it’s vital that continuous professional development is top of mind when building your high-performing finance team, to keep skills current and develop new skills to attain promotions and career development.
Adapt to change and embrace technology and innovation
The finance industry is dynamic, so embracing change and innovation is essential for long-term success. As technology rapidly changes, so do the finance team’s skills they need to develop and keep up with the pace of innovation.
A Gartner report found that taking a more comprehensive view of technology and how it can benefit the finance team is vital for success. Yet as it stands, only 21% of finance teams have the necessary technological literacy, which is fast becoming one of the most important factors in today’s modern finance world.
Underpin it all with recruiting to future proof your teams
Gartner’s report goes on to suggest that three out of four finance teams will have a skills shortage because they do not consider non-technical skills such as innovation and digital skills during the hiring process.
It’s important, therefore, that as you build your finance team, you look to the talent that can display more than the traditional finance and accounting skills and backgrounds.
For example, managers with both strong technical skills and exceptional leadership and people development skills are ideal for future employee retention and development. They can also help with identifying talent with attributes beyond the typical finance CV who might otherwise be overlooked.
