Being Planful: CFO News & Helpful Resources for the Office of the CFO

Thanks for stopping by this installment of “Being Planful,” our series recapping the latest CFO news for the Office of the CFO. We’ve scanned the headlines for trending topics relevant to the Office of the CFO and here’s what we found:

• Workforce First: Your people matter and recruiting remains a challenge, so shower your teams with flexibility, resources, and care.
• Relieving Pressure: The Office of the CFO has been under constant pressure to provide more insights. Give them the right tools to make it easier and faster.
• 2023 Outlook: There’s always a silver lining. Consumers are shopping, the business wants your help, and other CFOs are taking time off this holiday season.

More uncertainty puts more pressure on finance and accounting professionals to do more analysis, run more scenarios, and build more models. That pressure continues to take a toll. But with U.S. unemployment remaining below 4%, unhappy workers still have plenty of options.

• Putting people first is always the best approach, whether you’re developing AI-based software or managing finance and accounting teams. Communication works well, too: “people do best when they have a clear vision of how their work fits into the big picture.”
• Recruiting for accounting professionals is particularly tough these days, with 87% of accounting managers saying they’re having trouble hiring accounting talent.
• For finance professionals, finding purpose in their work matters as much as work-life balance and work flexibility. Upgrading finance technology is also critical to retention: “Automation is extremely important, especially for FP&A people who don’t like doing repetitive tasks.”

The Bottom Line: To put a number on worker well-being, stress costs companies about $2,000 per employee: “organizations can experience an opportunity loss of $20 million for every 10,000 workers due to low well-being and its drain on performance.”

It appears that oncoming economic haziness will be the sequel to the past few years of economic chaos. The result is the Office of the CFO continues to be asked more questions with more frequency.

• Too many questions coupled with too much uncertainty is causing CFO stress: An Accenture survey found that 67% of CFOs feel “paralyzed” by the vast array of choices and decisions they need to make.
• Taking a more involved role in business performance is also adding to the CFO’s anxiety: “Job creep has been a major source of [CFO] stress, especially given that their core tasks related to earnings reports and storytelling of the business have not waned.”
• And, don’t forget about the finance chief. Stress increases as volatility requires CFOs to have different skills, and a pressure-filled few years is driving an increase in CFO retirements: “experienced CFOs are sharing personal levels of fatigue around clearing COVID and now bracing to weather a recessionary period.”

The Bottom Line: With finance and accounting teams both overworked, more CFOs are looking to cut costs rather than cut people as the economy swings: Alexander Bant, chief of research for CFOs at Gartner, says: “Most CFOs are very reluctant to let staff go in what seems to probably be a pretty mild recession.”

‘Tis the season for new year’s predictions. Volatility and uncertainty continue to be the main drivers, which also makes it difficult to nail down a theme for 2023. On the bright side, a major U.S. shopping mall owner says,

• “Parking lots are full, and there are a lot of people shopping.” The firm’s early November metrics saw a 95% increase in foot traffic.
• Speaking of shopping, Macy’s CFO says its finance and accounting teams will shift from reporting the news to shaping outcomes in collaboration with the business: “My finance leaders and their teams are now going to [distribution centers], they’re going to stores, they’re sitting in working sessions with business partners to understand the levers that we need to pull in order to drive the financial outcomes.”
• With more uncertainty on the horizon, finance and accounting teams have to be prepared for anything. That makes scenario planning a critical competency. More critical, however, is taking Macy’s lead and bringing the rest of your organization into the process: “An FP&A team should be able to rely on input and assistance from other groups within its company, making this level of financial planning a genuine team effort.”

The Bottom Line: Tomorrow is always a day away, so take a breather after a hectic year and as you prepare for another hectic year. Here’s how CFOs from top companies are spending their 2022 holidays.