Is your employee development program for finance and accounting teams keeping pace with Tech changes?

Background

Recently on a strategic finance program for the development for finance and accounting professionals it became apparent that many are not being provided with vital knowledge of finance transformation.

Many large organisations across Australia had not enabled their employees to keep pace with the ever evolving financial modelling, technological and analytical landscapes in the outside world.

One small example of this is PowerBI, which has been around for 5 years and is already the go to analytics tool (according to independent research), yet less than 1% of the finance professionals had even heard of or used it.

Another example of this failure to keep up to date is that less than 5% of finance professionals are familiar with the term “3-way modelling” and know that the Balance Sheet is the most important foundation to good Cash Flow and Income Statement models.

Whilst the tech is evolving, there is still a worrying skills gap covering the fundamentals of Excel Mastery and Advanced Financial Modelling skills.

But why should you care?

The reality is that at some stage you will change jobs (whether it’s your decision or not), or if you have a higher appetite for risk (or the right circumstances) start your own company.

It’s often not until these big moves are made that you realise that the real world has changed so much over the past 5 years.

The internal world of manual copy pasting Excel spreadsheets is painfully behind the reality of the automated world of data updating using PowerQuery, PowerBI and modular spreadsheet development.  

The pressure to get away from spreadsheets and have engaging conversations with others in the business is also mounting whilst methods to automate are often seen as too hard or not available.

The reality is that a lot of this is mindset, not tech.

But if we don't take a good hard look at what's going on we will remain out in the cold with outdated skills.

But don't fear help is near.

Why do some training methods not work? 

There is of course nothing stopping organisations from hiring technical trainers in the technologies like PowerBI or any other form of financial modelling training.

The problem is whilst the trainers provide a vital service, I am one too, sustained change and embedding those new skills takes a lot longer than a 2 day training course. 

Change happens over a longer time period and participants often get overwhelmed by the information in 2 days and most of it doesn't sink in.

The majority focus on the skills or Excel alone and not on the mindset, application post training or follow up support over a longer period of time.

Here is a list of a few other things to consider on training methods used:

• What about communication skills and self awareness? 
• Do you think the course fits with your personal goals and values? 
• Do you even know what those are?
• What about model risk governance and leadership skills to enable better decisions through problem solving? 

At times after attending courses the return on the time and investment is sometimes hard to tangibly see or extract.

Longer term sustainable change is a pipedream without a focused effort on continued learning and development.

So what can you do about it?

Recently we set up Full Stack Modeller to deal with these challenges. 

It's not just another Excel training course but also encompasses financial modelling and technology.

The full stack is the full complement of soft skills too.

Excel skills are still vital and it’s nowhere close to being dead and yet relying solely on Excel is also problematic.

Financial Modelling skills are equally vital for building and reviewing models that apply a recognised standard.

The time for better modelling and decision making has arrived, yet many are confused where to go and what to do.

What about analytics and tools like PowerBI?

Our online training and community platform will help members on their journey from spreadsheeter to financial modeller then to Full Stack Modeller.

Where can you go to find out more?

There are a number of free online resources available including the Financial Modelling Knowledge Hub which includes articles from experts around the world.

The Full Stack Modeller YouTube channel was recently developed for more insight.

If you think this is something for you and you want to take a free self assessment, take a quick look at our website.

Over the coming weeks we will be sharing more articles on assisting accounting and finance professionals go further beyond just Excel.