The numbers game

Most of the time, you will find members of a finance team sitting in a windowless room at the back of the office with HR, away from the everyday hustle and bustle. Maybe it’s because of the stereotype of an accountant being as grey as the M&S suit they are wearing. Maybe it’s because when you are trying to be creative and innovative, you don’t need someone constantly asking “but how much will it cost?”.

But at We Are Social it’s a bit different (well a little; we still sit at the back of the office with HR... but there are windows and we don’t wear suits), as all of the team act as business partners to the agency and are aligned with Client Services teams and their clients, so they work closely with a wide variety of people (and are able to move freely around the office). By being embedded within client teams, there are obvious commercial benefits, and our client teams have a dedicated expert on hand to help them with all of those tricky finance questions they might have, as well as having great insight brought to them from the monthly reports we produce.

So when a large shoot happened in Manchester for one of our clients, our Finance Analyst was given an invite to go along so he could see first hand the workings of a large-scale production and better understand the issues facing client teams on days such as these.

Aside from being away from his desk for a day, spending time with famous footballers and relaxing with the people he works with every day, it was also an education in what happens on our shoots. Not only was it great to see the work we do being created, it also gave us some key learnings that could be shared within the team:

• The talent in our agency are very good at what they do, something we forget when we focus so much on their numbers.
• Much like a month end, when these guys are stressed out and busy, anything that can be done to make things easier will help them and be appreciated.
• Sometimes when looking at numbers and budgets, it’s hard to understand the size of the operation and why it’s often difficult to keep to a budget or not have everything organised beforehand.
• Working closely with team members before and after a shoot can help iron out processes and improve efficiency going forward.

So, if this is a team you think you want to be part of and feel you can offer the full business partner experience while managing the day to day of an established and strong finance team, get in touch or apply here: https://www.dhirubhai.net/jobs/view/673576301/