Companies have confronted extraordinary challenges all through the continued COVID-19 public well being disaster. For a lot of organizations, abruptly transferring to distant work in March 2020 pressured CFOs and finance groups to get modern with a purpose to scale back inefficiencies and function extra strategically of their new on-line environments.
With 2022 lastly underway and no indicators of the pandemic coming to an in depth, finance groups should assume much more strategically about combating the affect this disaster will proceed to have on their organizations within the 12 months forward.
Listed here are 5 methods CFOs and finance groups are dealing with these challenges head on:
1. To deal with problems with burnout and retention, CFOs will give attention to making work much less tedious and extra partaking. Worker burnout elevated throughout the pandemic and companies proceed to grapple with “The Nice Resignation.” Decreasing handbook, time-intensive work processes is already a precedence for CFOs. Deploying instruments to automate tedious processes might help alleviate burnout and in addition help in attracting new expertise. CFOs shall be targeted on investing time in high-value actions, like predictive evaluation and dealing with enterprise stakeholders, whereas additionally offering extra partaking work for workers.
2. Distant and hybrid work fashions are right here to remain; CFOs will play an essential position in serving to companies adapt. CFOs and the finance perform play a essential position in guiding enterprise technique and making operational selections throughout the group. Distant work continues to have a huge impact on bills and revenue margins. On common, corporations intend to lower workplace area by 30%. In response to COVID-19, many finance groups will stay distant or largely distant. With combined emotions on returning to the workplace, companies may want to supply options to staff who’re distant however in search of co-working area or touring longer distances into the workplace a couple of instances a month or quarter.
3. Provide chain points will proceed to considerably affect corporations, requiring additional consideration from the finance division. Most CFOs stated their corporations are grappling with pandemic-induced issues within the provide chain. Securing items early ties up money, and it’s extra essential to have good credit score. To attenuate provide chain delay, robust profitability and money stream are essential.
4. CFOs will improve use of real-time knowledge to drive enterprise efficiency within the face of the persevering with ripple results of the COVID-19 pandemic, together with provide chain, inflation, taxation and regulation uncertainty. 99% of CFOs wish to function their enterprise utilizing real-time knowledge, however solely 16% accomplish that. It’s essential for finance groups to have knowledge to drive selections, and moreover to make it accessible and usable by enterprise unit leaders to drive efficiency. Information might help resolution makers navigate uncertainties with slightly extra readability.
5. As corporations return to enterprise journey, a rise in in-person occasions and new journey insurance policies would require coverage and funds shifts. As vaccination charges climb and COVID case ranges drop, extra corporations will convey their inner, distant and hybrid groups collectively for collaboration and in-person conferences regularly, utilizing budgets beforehand allotted to services or perks. Conferences and commerce reveals will possible return in full-swing by the second half of 2022, and attendees could also be required to indicate proof of vaccination or damaging take a look at outcomes. Corporations might want to replace their insurance policies accordingly to incorporate COVID-related issues, for instance, paying for COVID testing pre- and post-trip or implementing a daily testing process.