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Nurturing ambition in accountancy and finance

19th Jun 2017
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Across all professions, it’s important for both employers and employees to be ambitious in order to strive for success in their roles.

According to the Hays What Workers Want Report, ambition is high amongst accountancy and finance professionals, with over three-quarters of accountants saying they are ambitious, which is above the UK average. Qualified private sector accountants (81%), part-qualified accountants (76%) and credit controllers (75%) are among the most ambitious.

However, whilst ambition is high, over a third of accounting professionals (37%) said they are dissatisfied or indifferent towards their current role meaning there is much more that employers can do to retain and nurture and indeed attract ambitious talent in the accounting and finance sector.

What we’ve found is that employees working in accounting and finance want to be recognised for the hard work they put into an organisation. The majority are interested in their own progression and learning, with over three-quarters saying they hold or are working towards professional qualifications in accountancy and finance to ensure that they do their job more effectively and map out their career path.

Some 28% are also aspiring to reach C-suite level during their career, higher than the 21% UK overall average, and an additional 40% want to reach senior management. However, employers need to ensure they are looking for ways to nurture this drive and ambition by providing the work-life balance and positive career experience that their employees want. Further findings reveal how organisations can determine what their different employees want from pay, benefits and career progression in order increase staff happiness, and reduce turnover.

Pay

Pay remains the most important factor for accounting professionals when deciding to stay in a role, or move jobs. However, over half of this decision is based on the other factors of culture, career progression and benefits and it is here where employers need to consider different offerings for different employees.

Interestingly, findings showed that generations hold differing motivations when it comes to aspects of pay. Over two-thirds of millennials find bonuses motivating, whereas nearly half of Generation X say they either have no impact, or are demotivating.

When it comes to pay, employers should consider the desires of the different generations.  Bear in mind that there is room for negotiation as 63% of accountancy professionals across all generations stated they would consider taking a pay cut in order to achieve everything else that was important to them, in particular work-life balance and extra holidays.

Career progression, training and promotions

The research also explored what an employee values when receiving a promotion. Following pay, accountants placed the highest importance on recognition and respect, at 44% greater than the overall UK average of 40%. Moving up a level in an organisation held the same value to accounting professionals at 23% as the training and development options available to them. This is a contrast to the average response where focus was placed on training and development ahead of the progression upwards.

In turn, finance professionals are more likely to choose professional qualifications to support their career in order to enhance their credibility in the workplace, with 44% telling us this. This credibility factor is given precedence over qualifications being a requirement for the job (17%), allowing professionals to do their job effectively (13%) and allowing them to earn more (10%).

Despite the importance placed on career progression, there is also a mismatch in communication around promotion expectations. Over half of employees (55%) expect to be promoted within two years of starting a new role, yet only 47% of employers agree this will be the case.

To avoid stifling the ambition of their accounting staff, employers should ensure they are clearly communicating the career progression opportunities available. Having regular performance review meetings gives an opportunity to discuss promotions and be clear on expectations from both employer and employee.

Benefits

Although benefits were rated as the fourth most important factor for employees looking to stay or move jobs, accounting professionals do expect a base level standard.

Our research found that over half (55%) of accounting professionals feel that they have a good or excellent work-life balance, yet are still keen for measures to improve this. Two thirds (66%) would be attracted to work for an organisation that restricts ‘out of hours’ working such as checking emails and taking calls, and over a third (40%) would be willing to take a pay cut for additional annual leave.

For employers, results show benefits need to be better communicated within job interviews, to counter risks of being overlooked. 57% of finance employers say they discussed benefits in their last interview, however only 31% of candidates recall these being discussed, highlighting the need for employers to improve communication of policies and practices in the recruitment process.

It’s vital for employers to therefore clearly communicate promotion plans and remuneration incentives with accountancy professionals to avoid losing out on retaining or recruiting ambitious individuals. Ensuring suitable channels are in place to promote individual and team successes to the wider organisation is also an important way to motivate employees to do their best, and ensure they feel valued and respected and choose to stay with an “employer of choice”.

For further information visit www.hays.co.uk/what-workers-want

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