The ROI of upskilling: Why investing in your finance department skills pays off 

Why invest in developing your Finance team's skillset?

The start of the financial year is a good time to reevaluate your business strategy. Having managed to make it through in spite of higher interest rates and weak growth last year, 2024 is an excellent opportunity for a fresh start for your finance team.

The good news is that modern technology can help to effectively tighten controls and weed out hidden costs. This is perhaps more important than ever as making some investment now will enable your business to:

1. Operate more efficiently;

2. Make better use of your resources;

3. Plan ahead with confidence.

It is important to bear in mind that, although new systems will improve speed and efficiency, roles will need to be created that specialise in managing those systems and understanding what is going on.

In 2024, continuous learning and upskilling will be essential. Finance professionals should be proactive in acquiring new skills, such as data analytics, to stay competitive in the evolving economic landscape.

What are the benefits of investing in skill development for finance teams?

Go back 20 years and you most certainly won’t find jobs advertised for app developers, social media managers or drone operators. It’s a safe bet that, with the continuing pace of change, new job roles will be created in the next few years.

Add to this the general skills shortage within the UK and the ongoing drive by the government to stop all but the very wealthiest foreign workers entering into the country, and we can see that businesses are going to have to invest heavily in their talent — but why and what does this mean for finance leaders?

While Finance managers need to overcome common challenges such as addressing time constraints, getting stakeholder and employee buy-in, all while developing a culture of continuous learning, the end result is worth every penny.

Increased business performance

The need for cultivating new skills and honing existing ones takes centre stage, whether we're talking about skills required for accounting specifically or project management and process automation abilities within your finance team.

Just imagine how many hours your finance experts can save by automating simple but time-consuming processes such as manually re-keying invoices, generating custom reports, and reviewing expense claims.

Time better spent otherwise focusing on core business activities that generate revenue and sustain business growth. Not to mention reducing human error by entrusting repetitive tasks to AI-powered software and automation tools!

Enhanced strategic alignment

From a strategic point of view, finance leaders need to have a broad understanding of new technology to allow them to contribute positively to the direction of the business.

If the CFO doesn’t understand the tech then it is highly likely that the company will lose any competitive advantage, at least within the data analytics field.

With the advancement of AI technologies, investing in developing technical skills in finance departments should be a priority for the business and finance leaders. Confidently using new technology can boost overall business performance and strategically place your company on top of the competition.

Investing in employee development programmes also helps reduce costs associated with employee turnover. In fact, 94% of employees said they are more likely to stay with their current company if it invested in their development, making professional development more than a "nice-to-have".

Improved efficiency and risk management

Up-to-date and accurate data can transform how the entire business operates. The right systems in place will enable more informed decisions and build confidence.

A joined-up approach, facilitated by a modern Finance software that links to and from other core applications such as timesheets, project management and planning and procurement means that everyone is working from one version of the truth.

This is crucial for effectiveness across all departments as it means faster decision-making, less time spent on data-entry, fewer mistakes, and less room for different interpretations of what is happening in real time.

How can Finance leaders leverage skills development for finance departments?

Again, investing in skills development will benefit the Finance team as well as the entire business. Visibility of financial information and ease of access and interrogation of that data means that timely insights can be identified that might otherwise have been missed.

Picking up early on potential overspends or inefficiencies can save a lot of time and effort later; day-to-day decisions can be made knowing that the most up-to-date information is to hand; and reporting back to the Board when strategic decisions have to be made is much quicker and provides more valuable and useful information on which to act. 

Understandably many companies are currently keeping a close eye on cash flow and expenditure whilst still navigating this period of economic uncertainty.

But that in itself doesn’t mean that your plans to invest in your Finance team's skills development and move to a more modern and integrated financial management system need to be put on hold. The right training combined with a powerful cloud-based accounting software makes it possible to drive growth over time, and to pay for what you need as you scale things up — and that flexibility might just make all the difference.