The world is becoming automated and robots are taking over.

This is the narrative that has been around for a while and has been promoted as the future, but more than ever, the future is now, and we are seeing the automation of transactional and routine tasks at pace.

What does this mean for FP&A?

These constant changes mean that people in the finance function need to stay ahead of the robots by developing new skills for the new world of finance. 

We need to think about things such as adaptability, flexibility, accountability and innovation which will ensure we are ready for the different roles that we will be asked to take on.

What about the recruitment process in FP&A?

Something that I've not seen mentioned is the changes that will happen to the recruitment process in FP&A and finance in general.

Decisions need to be made by hiring managers about the motivation for recruitment and what they are looking for from new colleagues.

“The question will come down to skills and experience versus talent and ability.”

Which is more important to the hiring manager and the business?

What skills will be the most important to an organisation when it comes to their new employees?  

The traditional finance skills and knowledge will remain to be important.  Things such as a fundamental understanding of accounting in terms of debits and credits, P&L, balance sheet and cash flow statements will be key, but what will be more prevalent will be other skills that are currently not at the forefront when thinking about an FP&A role.

The skills below will become key along with soft skills that some in the finance community don't currently have as part of their toolkit:

• Curiosity
• Confidence
• Motivation
• Resilience
• Tenacity

The recruitment of people into the FP&A and wider finance function will change as the function itself transforms from a transactional, backward reporting, controller type role to being a value-add business partner in the true sense of the term.

Now, more than ever, a hiring manager needs to cover the fundamentals of what is perceived to be a relevant interview process that it could be argued is stuck in the past:

• Quickly establish rapport. 
• Be ready with preparation completed and always act professionally.
• Make sure that information is shared with the candidate about the role and the company before and during the interview.
• Be a good ambassador for your company.

The problem then comes as to how the new skills required as part of the new finance world are judged as part of an old and perhaps outdated interview process that continues to be the norm for recruitment.

How do you judge, for example, that your interview candidate has resilience or curiosity?

Many organisations will have a behaviour framework or the values of their business that they will judge a candidate against.  There will be questions that can be asked on the back of these concepts but is an interview really the best place for these conversations?

You could ask the candidate to present around a certain subject and then ask them questions on the back of this, but again you are creating a highly pressured and potentially hostile environment that you wouldn’t expect to be part of the day-to-day working surroundings.

How about trying something different by perhaps carrying out psychometric testing.  Again this will help create a profile of the candidate but this doesn’t create a rounded view of the skills, talent and ability of the person.

Another difficulty within an interview process can be assessing a candidate's cultural fit within both the direct team that they will be working with and the organisation as a whole.  People can behave very differently in a one-off meeting than compared against spending 8 hours a day with this person.

In Summary

FP&A and the finance function as a whole is changing quickly and recruitment needs to keep up with this pace of change.

Forward-thinking and future-proofing need to be built into the recruitment process so that your team keeps up with the rest of the function.

There is no benefit in recruiting for the roles that we are doing today if we expect these to change tomorrow.

How do you see the recruitment process in FP&A in the future?