Skilling Up for the Future

June’s roundup includes news and insights on a new model for risk, the future of business travel, leveling up skills, and battling employee burnout.

News and insights to keep you up to date and on track: a new model for risk, the future of business travel, leveling up skills, and battling employee burnout.

Your 5-Year Upskilling Plan

Rod Koch for Strategic Finance | @SFMagazineIMA

Companies are investing more and more in automation, but highly skilled workers will continue to be in high demand. Advanced technical ability is now a must-have to remain competitive.

“There’s a lot on your plate for the next few years, but the success of your organization and your personal development depend on your ability to upskill and take on the new technical challenges of the Digital Age while improving your most human abilities in order to continue to add value where technology can’t yet.”

How Center helps finance teams work smarter: What is the Purpose of Expense Management Software?

Focus on Business Travel: Working on a Comeback

Jeri Clausing and Jamie Biesiada for Travel Weekly | @TravelWeekly

The pandemic has been particularly hard on the travel industry, and though leisure travel is beginning to increase, business travel is lagging behind. But the industry is working to adapt to the evolving landscape.

“While many companies may continue to substitute video for in-person travel for both safety and budgetary reasons … those who return to the road first will have a ‘significant competitive advantage.”

More reflections on pandemic learnings: 5 Reasons Finance Teams Shouldn’t Return to Business as Usual

5 Skills That Make xP&A Work

Bryan Lapidus for FP&A Trends

Successful extended planning and analysis, or xP&A, requires a framework called integrative intelligence. Here are five ways to achieve it.

“If xP&A works right, some of that time we spend — the burden of gathering and preparing data — should come back to us. The offset of gaining time is that finance needs to scrutinize the results very carefully. What a tremendous opportunity to spend more time analyzing projections, looking at competitive benchmarks and considering macro-economic impacts.”

More on enabling teams to participate in strategic activities: How Finance Teams Use their Time

How to Calculate Risk Based on Where Your Profits Come From

Jonathan Byrnes and John Wass for Harvard Business Review | @HarvardBiz

The traditional methods for mapping risk are useful but limited tools. Companies can benefit from also integrating transaction-based profit metrics into their risk-assessment process.

“The core of the risk management process must be a careful analysis of which customers and products are in this segment and what currents of change would endanger or enhance their performance.”

More on how new tools can help finance increase strategic impact: Is Your Finance Team Under Pressure? Eight Ways Center Can Help

Metric of the Month: Total Cost to Process T&E Reimbursements

Perry D. Wiggins, CPA for CFO | @cfo

As businesses return to regular activities, experts predict a spike in business travel. Here’s how finance teams can be prepared by optimizing their expense management processes.

“T&E reimbursement is an ideal candidate for digitization and automation because the technology is widely available and the benefits are clear.”

More from Center on expense management: Doing More With Less: Rethinking Expense Management Now More Than Ever

6 Ways To Understand and Combat Your Team’s Burnout

Liz Kislik for Forbes | @Forbes

Working from home has its conveniences, but for many, the lack of work/life boundaries has led to burnout. Leaders can use these six practical approaches to reduce employee burnout levels and prevent it in the future.

“In the midst of the pandemic, 76 percent of U.S. employees surveyed said they were experiencing burnout.”

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