Choosing the perfect finance professional

When it comes to someone's curriculum vitae or his/her application forms, many employers in finance functions would like to see the whole picture of someone's skills, abilities, knowledge and experience.
They want to be sure that they are recruiting the right person for a particular role, someone who will grow and flourish and who can become a valued member of the team of the chief finance officer (CFO).
The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) recently surveyed 104 finance professionals in China to understand better what matters to them when they hire new staff for busy finance functions.
The survey also spoke to CFOs in the UAE, Malaysia, the UK, Russia and the USA - 500 CFOs in total. The findings were published in a report titled The complete finance professional 2013: Why breadth and depth of finance matter in today's finance function. The CFOs identified the key financial areas which they said they needed and wanted in the finance functions.
A majority said they wanted a complete finance professional, who, for them, meant someone who possesses the breadth and depth of knowledge, skills and abilities required for the world of the modern finance department.
A full 100 per cent of the Chinese respondents said it is essential for newly-qualified finance professionals to have a good working knowledge of corporate reporting. About 99 per cent said knowledge of professionalism and ethics is vital to efficiency in business.
Besides requiring their accounting professionals to act ethically and professionally, they also wanted to see good financial management and financial analysis, particularly as these are high-impact areas. And they also sought to see a clear understanding of governance risk and control, strategic management accounting and corporate reporting.
For the Chinese CFO, the top three key skills accountants should have in order to enable their business to grow are ethics, professionalism and management competency.
The top three factors giving CFO recruiters the highest level of confidence that they are hiring the highest qualified and skilled recruits for their businesses are the following:
n The subject they studied covers detailed management and financial accounting.
n The subject they studied for is built on professionalism and ethics.
n  The subject they studied is strategic.
It is clear that all these demands require someone who has the complete package and someone who demonstrates all the skills, abilities and competencies that a 21st century employer demands.
Based on this research, the ACCA has worked with leading employers, mostly from the UK, Malaysia, Russia, China and the UAE, to develop a competency framework that makes it easy to compare key business areas against the ACCA syllabus coverage.
The ACCA's Competency Framework is an online interactive tool to illustrate how its members are complete finance professionals and have a comprehensive skills set, allowing them to work in a variety of accounting and finance roles.
The ACCA Competency Framework will enable employers and workplace mentors to see all ten of the main competencies, which are learned through the ACCA Qualification and how they relate to the requirements of different jobs. The flexible search criteria include sector, job profile, behaviour and more.
To view the competency framework goes to this link http://competencyframework.accaglobal.com/
WHAT IS A COMPETENCY? For the ACCA, we define a competency as a fundamental knowledge, ability or expertise in a specific subject area or a specific behaviour.
The ACCA has identified 10 key competencies for complete finance professionals, and published these in a new online competency framework. This checklist is seen as a set of competencies that business leaders require from aspiring finance professionals.
The ten key competencies are those which finance professionals must have if they are to succeed in business and their career.  
The ACCA Qualification comprehensively covers these abilities and behaviour through its exams, practical experience requirement and the ethics module.
The 10 key competencies for complete finance professionals in its new Competency Framework are:
1. Professionalism and ethics,
2. Governance, risk and control,
3. Stakeholder relationship management,
4. Strategy and innovation,  
5. Leadership and management,
6. Corporate reporting,
7. Sustainable management accou-nting,
8. Financial management ,
9. Audit and assurance, and
10. Taxation.
But the competencies are not just aimed at employees. They are also helpful to employers, learning providers, current and potential accountancy students to view the key competencies, which are learned through the ACCA Qualification and how they relate to the requirements of different jobs.
The ACCA Qualification addresses all the key competencies required by finance professionals, from performance and financial management and taxation, to Islamic finance and the principles of integrated reporting.
The ACCA's competency framework also looks at the behaviour expected of the complete finance professional. This supports the broad competency areas demonstrated in the exams, the ethics components and the practical experience requirement.
Behaviour is transferable and may apply to more than one competency area and to several components of the qualification, in different contexts.
For instance, one behaviour is acting ethically and legally.
Level 1:
It complies with the main codes of conduct, regulations and legislation to meet at least the minimum requirements for legal compliance and to avoid infringement and related penalties or sanctions.
Level 2:
It applies relevant codes of conduct, regulations and legislation, sets high standards of accuracy and attention in detail in producing compliant accounting records and reports to the highest standard of professionalism.
Level 3:
It ensures compliance with, and exceeds, minimum requirements or regulatory standards of relevant codes of conduct, regulations and legislation, recognising implications of non-compliance for individuals, for organisations and the wider public interest and the longer term reputational benefits of operating to and beyond such minimum standards.
Dr Xu Yugao, Executive Vice President and CFO, the CNOOC EnerTech in China, has offered his views about competencies and skills in an interview last year in the ACCA's Accounting and Business magazine.
When asked "What attributes do you feel are essential to be an effective and respected finance professional in such an organisation?", Dr Xu said it is important to have integrity, and strong capabilities in coordination and communications. He added that a strong addition to this mix is the motivation to learn new things.
Learning is the firm foundation of any profession. A lawyer, a doctor and an accountant begin their professional career with qualifications, with experience and when qualified, they keep on learning.
The future of finance careers is changing. There are more finance roles in shared services or global business service operations and new types of finance roles are emerging as a result.
Young people's aspirations are also changing. Although this research was conducted three years ago, the ACCA still stands by the findings of research among the youngest group of people in the accountancy profession around the world. This research with Generation Y showed that many finance professionals in the early stages of their financial careers want to keep their career options open, and that they see a professional finance qualification as a strong basis for a career in management and/or finance.
These aspirations are already reflected in the career paths that finance professionals are taking. Growing regulation and the growth of emerging markets are driving a need for specialised finance skills. The competitive and volatile business environment continues to create demand for commercially astute accountants.
As a result, we may expect the career paths of future CFOs to look quite different from those today - more mandated rotation through different parts of the function from 'retained finance' through to shared services or global business services (some organisations have already started to do this), international 'secondments' on someone's CV (particularly in emerging markets - may start to carry greater value), and the encouragement of taking roles outside of the finance function.
mohua.rashid@accaglobal.com