EPM Channel recently completed a 360 degree survey of the Finance function in both large- and mid-sized companies, with 40% of the respondents coming from marketing, operations, and other non-finance fields. This 360 degree view enabled analysts who worked on the survey to compare the responses of both finance and non-finance professionals in order to gain unique perspectives.
Results were surprising.
“We wanted to make sure we avoided the ‘echo-chamber’ effect,” said Susan Serven, Managing Director of EPM Channel, “that sometimes happens when your results include only Finance people self-grading their own performance. That’s fine to a certain extent, in fact it’s a very important view to capture. But knowing what people outside the Finance function think is just as important, especially given the fact that Finance is a support function for the overall organization.”
The study also captured the views of Senior Executives, as separate from Managers and Staff. “This really proved crucial,” said Serven, “because it helped reveal one of the most startling results of the survey.”
According to the survey, 70% of Senior Finance Executives identified “Influence without Authority” as a training and development need to improve Finance’s performance and increase the value it delivers to the rest of the organization. Yet, remarkably, only 5% said they had actually made any investment in that area.
“We need some follow up research to get behind this result”, noted Serven, “but it could very well be that soft skills training and development programs are not seen as critical or as easy to quantify as hard skills training.”
“That may explain it,” she continued, “but if that’s the case, organizations need to understand the options available for soft skills training, the unique opportunities this training can provide for Finance professionals, and the overall game-changing value these improvements will make in order to allow Finance to provide maximum value to the organization.”
Other highlights include:
• Across the board (Finance and non-finance alike, and at all levels) the number one hindrance to the finance organization was identified as “Finance spends too much time on the mechanics & putting out fires rather than on analysis.” This shared understanding of a core issue may provide Finance with an organization wide imperative for change.
• Finance thinks they are called into provide decision support more often than their Non-Finance counterparts actually say they are. This may be a case of Finance professionals not knowing about the parties they are not invited to.
• Finance generally rates their performance higher than their Non-Finance counterparts rate them. This should serve as a bit of a wake up call for Finance to better understand their internal client needs.
• A major complaint of Non-Finance respondents was that “Finance does not do enough to develop an understanding of the underlying business.”
• Another issue that Non-Finance respondents identified, but which did not make it to Finance’s top list of hindrances, was “There is a lack of trust between Finance and the rest of the organization.” This could be another blind spot for Finance.
• Both Finance and Non-Finance respondents ranked “Strategic Thinking” in the very top spot for training and development.
• The #1 area where senior finance executives thought training and development was needed was in “Influence without authority.” In fact, an overwhelming 70% of senior Finance executives identified this need (which is even higher than overall results).
However, according to the survey, only 5% of organizations are addressing this critical need today.
• 50% of all senior finance executives surveyed said their Finance organization was capable of delivering “Game Changing” decision support. Yet just 15% said Finance was accomplishing that in their organization today.
To download EPM Channel’s Finance 360 Degree Insight white paper, please click here.
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