How Finance Professionals Can Return To The Office And Turn A Trying Year Into A Boost For Their Career

This article is sponsored by Konsolidator, a listed Danish company, that makes financial consolidation and reporting simple through its cloud-based solution. We will be discussing how you can return successfully to the office after 12+ months working from home and elevate your role as a finance professional at a webinar on 20 May at 10:00 CEST. You can sign up for the webinar here.

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Most people can count the numbers of times they have been in the office for the past year on one hand. It has been a very different experience than what we have been used to. However, when we go through such an extended period of a one-sided change this becomes the new normal. Hence working from home is now the new normal and we should be conscious of that when we start transitioning back to the office. 

This is no less true for finance professionals as a different reality is awaiting us. Just consider this statement for a moment. If you were able to do your job from home for a year, then someone else could just as well be performing the job 10,000 miles away. It does not need to end like that but likely it means you need to make some changes and elevate your role to the next level. 

This article tackles returning to the office and transforming your role to becoming more strategic and proactive. If you think about it the best way to consider your return to the office is treating like it was your first day in the role. 

Your transition guide 

Let us first consider the “getting back” scenario and then turn to how to become more strategic and proactive. 

• Meeting your manager: This is the first time you see your manager in a while, and you want to come across as excited and engaged as you were before the pandemic.
• Meeting your team: As with your manager, you have not seen your team face to face in a while. You might know high-level what they are working on but use the first meeting to reconnect with them and show a genuine interest in what they are doing.
• Meeting your stakeholder: Most finance professionals have business stakeholders they work closely with and need to build relationships with. This is often done through informal meetings so be sure to socialize with your stakeholder when you meet them again.
• Meeting the physical space: This might sound like a very awkward statement but since you have not been in the office for a year you need to re-familiarize yourself with how to work most effectively there. Just think about how to use the meeting rooms next time you need to make an important presentation. Are you on top of the tools and not least your own physical presence when you present? Probably this would be a good area to spend some time on.

You might think that returning to the office will be easy. It might, but only if you make the right preparations and arrive with the right mindset. On top of simply returning, you also need to elevate your role to the next level. The pandemic has made it clear that work can be performed anytime and anywhere so what is your specific value contribution really? 

In simple terms, you must go from producing numbers to using numbers. You must generate insights and use them to influence decisions to improve decision-making and impact value creation. How do you do that? Let me give you some tips. 

• Drive performance management and focus on business metrics rather than financials
• Optimize the existing business through continuous improvement initiatives
• Involve yourself in growing the business by contributing to strategy and sales growth
• Re-connect with your stakeholders and build even stronger relationships than before the pandemic
• Leave the finance cubicle and go experience the business where it happens
• Start proactively communicating your insights and take a leading role in meetings rather than waiting to be involved

It is a tall order for sure but nonetheless, that is going to be your new reality. Just remember that returning to the office will be hard for everyone but if you take the right steps you will come out of it looking like a sharper finance professional than ever before!

What is your “going back to the office” plan? 

You might think of returning to the office as business as usual. It is not though. You have been away for so long that you need a plan for returning successfully. See it as a line drawn in the sand and a new opportunity to be a value creation finance professional. 

You will only succeed if you have a plan. How will you re-connect with your colleagues, your manager, and your business stakeholders? How will you elevate your role and your impact and no longer be a number cruncher but rather impactful finance professional? Answering these questions before you return will give you a competitive advantage and turn a trying year into a boost for your career. 

What thoughts do you have about going back to the office? Do you see it as non-event or something major? Do you a plan for how you will acclimate yourself into your “old” reality? How you approach this could majorly impact how successful you are in the years to come so you better be prepared! 

Do not forget to sign up for the webinar with Lianne Gatti, Country Manager, UK at Konsolidator, and me on 20 May at 10:00 CEST. Here we will discuss how to successfully return to the office and accelerate your impact as a finance professional. You can sign up here.

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Anders Liu-Lindberg is the co-founder, COO (Chief Operating Officer), and CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) at Business Partnering Institute and owner of the largest group dedicated to Finance Business Partnering on LinkedIn with more than 9,000 members. I have ten years of experience as a business partner at the global transport and logistics company Maersk. I am the co-author of the book “Create Value as a Finance Business Partner” and a long-time Finance Blogger on LinkedIn with 57.500+ followers.