Dive Brief:
- Ninety-one percent of companies provide professional development opportunities to help workers build skills in business analytics, according to a new report from staffing firm Robert Half Finance & Accounting.
- According to the 1,100 CFOs surveyed, business analytics skills are important to some or all positions in finance or accounting, 86% of respondents said.
- When asked to name the hardest-to-find attributes in accounting and finance job seekers, 32% of CFOs pointed to tech skills. Another 21% said the most illusive trait was "functional job skills," while 18% said it was leadership abilities. Slightly fewer named soft skills as the trait they have a hard time finding.
Dive Insight:
It appears many businesses have implemented a strategy — or see the need for a strategy — that can at once help talent secure the business analytics skills they need or assist workers in building up those they already have. Liberty Mutual Insurance, for example, sends its current employees to bootcamp programs to build up their software development capabilities.
It also appears CFOs are encountering a talent predicament similar to those HR professionals and managers have been facing over the last year, as jobless rates fell and the market tightened. Talent shortages took first place on Gartner's list of emerging risks for organizations worldwide at the beginning of 2019. According to Robert Half's data, CFOs experience the same specific recruiting challenges in the accounting and finance departments as more general hiring managers do elsewhere. Ninety-two percent of respondents said they need more workers with tech skills, according to a 2018 Consumer Technology Association's 2018 survey.
It's not just tech candidates with tech skills that employers can't find, however; CFOs are not alone in their search for job seekers with soft skills, either. The largest skills gaps pertain to soft skills like leadership, oral communication and time management, according to data from LinkedIn's 2018 U.S. Emerging Jobs Report.
