Forget about post-holiday expanding waistlines – seems CFOs have some ever-expanding job descriptions to contend with!
And you can’t scale those back the way you can the cookies.
Finance executives have been taking on more responsibilities outside of traditional accounting and finance ones. A recent survey by Robert Half Management Resources highlights where your peers are doing more in the past three years.
And some may be relatively unfamiliar territory.
Take a look at Robert Half’s findings to see how it compares with your own experience.
Numbers people becoming the people person?
More than 2,000 CFOs were asked “Which one of the following areas outside of traditional accounting and finance responsibilities, if any, has your role expanded into most over the past three years?”
Here’s how your peers answered:
- Human Resources (21%)
- Information Technology (19%)
- Operations (18%)
- Marketing (17%)
- Sales or Business Development (10%)
- Don’t know (1%), and
- None – Role Hasn’t Changed (14%).
So a full 85% of your peers have undergone an expansion of their job description in the last few years.
Of course, in the name of greater profitability, finance execs have had some involvement in many of these areas for years. But now companies of all sizes are tapping their top finance leader to handle more responsibilities in these areas.
Bringing your strengths to the table
It makes sense that more areas would want your input — CFOs have the big-picture view and voice of reason that can get (or keep) things on track.
To set yourself up for success, no matter in which direction your job description expands:
- Bring your big-picture view. CFOs have a knack for thinking strategically. After all, you’re a key decision-maker in the direction your company is heading. That’s a perspective you need to bring to whatever new area you’re working in. Of course, that only works when your company has a clearly articulated vision of where it’s heading and how it will get there. The new year is a great time to make sure big-picture goals – both long and short term – have been both articulated and communicated.
- Keep the collective eye focused on the bottom line. Remember, not everyone in other departments will be used to thinking about the bottom line first-and-foremost. You can help raise awareness there. Think about working up a cheatsheet of financial terms so that non-financial employees can get a better understanding of what’s expected. You might even offer a little Finance 101 mini-class for folks (or tap your Finance staffers to help) to get folks up to speed. IT’s never going to turn into a finance department, but with the financial impact that group has, it needs to be working within a financially-minded framework.
- Manage your own time. Most likely this is something you stress with your own staffers when they’re being pulled in a million different directions. But the same goes for the boss, too. Whether that means time management or even saying no now and then, you want to be the driver of your own time.
Info: For more on the survey, click http://rhmr.mediaroom.com/CFO-expanded-role-human-resources-HR-IT-information-technology