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Retained finance experience and careers are highly valued. The majority of finance professionals believe that SSO (shared service and outsourcing) jobs are ‘not equal’ in prestige.

Retained finance experience is necessary to progress, and is the pathway that aspiring CFOs follow.

A contradiction

Yet here is a contradiction. Finance shared services are perceived as a talent pool for the wider finance function. Value is placed on shared service experience, but there are rarely career pathways to tap into that talent.

Career paths broken

Despite the maturity of shared services models in the respondents’ organisations, it appears that career development strategies have not yet caught up. This is a missed opportunity for finance to create more value for the enterprise.

Many organisations have not established career paths that traverse the whole of finance. The result is limited career options and little ‘cross-pollination’ throughout the finance function.

The wide adoption of finance shared services could be a good news story for the business but less so for finance. The data suggests that staff nurtured and trained in finance shared services are having their eyes opened to opportunities beyond finance.

If the finance function does not adapt, it will find itself short of the critical talent required to both develop the business and manage risk.

Gen Y’s commitment

Traditional career expectations are not for this young generation. Young finance professionals see more career options with a finance qualification. So they do not necessarily make the same commitment to a finance career as previous generations. And the finance organisation seems confounded by their behaviour. It is unable to put in place the interventions that will attract, engage, develop and retain these future finance stars.  

Bar chart showing the attraction, engagement and retention of young finance professionals in finance shared services centres. 64% say my finance SSC is struggling to retain young finance professionals, 54% say my finance is struggling to engage young finance professionals, 54% say my finance is struggling to attract young finance professionals Graph showing attraction, engagement and retention of young finance professionals in finance shared services centres.