CFOs must foster a sense of belonging among disgruntled employees to prevent them from quitting or moving on since empowering digital talent in finance roles is insufficient.
According to Gartner, Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) must foster a strong sense of community among digital talent employed in finance functions or risk losing them.
The priorities of those in core finance roles differ from those of digital talent, which Gartner defines as “individuals with the experiences and competencies required to drive digital finance transformation and operate in a digital environment.” As a result, they frequently feel alienated and are more likely to seek other jobs.
According to Marco Steecker, Director of Research at the Gartner Finance practice, “Finance functions can ill afford high rates of attrition in their digital skills, especially since many are on a journey towards autonomous finance.”
“Finance directors will be able to limit churn by understanding that digital talent has various motivators,” says the author.
According to Gartner, digital finance talent needs to have their values and priorities reflected in finance’s digital strategy to help finance executives overcome the challenge. Employees must also make clear long-term prospects so that digital staff may envision their future roles inside the finance organization.
In 2023, CFOs will face the greatest challenge in finding digital talent
Given the high attrition rate of digital employees in finance, Gartner predicts that finding talent will be the top difficulty for CFOs in 2023. Finance directors generally solve this by giving staff members the power, assurance, and tools necessary for digital finance professionals to overcome their frustrations. This strategy is known as “empowerment,” according to Gartner.
An empowerment plan, however, may only go so far, according to Gartner’s poll of 202 employees working in digital finance in May of this year. Instead, executives should consider how to foster a feeling of community among digital workers.
According to Steecker, financial leaders that work to give their digital talent a sense of empowerment frequently provide them with more managerial support and leeway to carry out new initiatives and digital projects. This does help digital talent feel less frustrated, but it can also make them feel cut off from the rest of the finance department.
Retention is significantly impacted when a digital finance employee goes from having a low to a high sense of empowerment, but moving beyond that seems to have a different effect since the positive impact of empowerment is counterbalanced by rising alienation.
According to Steecker, empowerment is crucial for retaining digital talent and maximizing their potential. “However, leaders should be mindful that after they have empowered their digital employees, they also need to watch out for and manage the likelihood that those employees may start to feel detached from the department as a whole.”
