The New Normal for Finance and Operations Teams
What is the “New Normal” for Finance and Operations Teams?
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, organizations and business leaders continue to strategize on how to operate in this ‘new normal’. Procurify recently held an online panel discussion to answer this wide-sweeping question and also give actionable insights for the new environment that finance, accounting, and operations teams find themselves in.
You are not alone if you feel overwhelmed with the fast pace at which changes are hitting your organization. Historically, finance has been slower to adopt new technology than other departments, and change management is now an essential skill for leaders. Listen to the replay and watch the discussion on the risks, challenges, and new processes that are now being forced upon companies and their teams.
https://procurify-1.wistia.com/medias/wsl76hkkm6
Webinar Excerpts
What are the risks to consider when moving between full remote work, partial remote work, and 100% in-office work?
“A risk is trying to replicate what you’re doing in the office, but online. There’s a lot of missed opportunities if you’re not using the communication and collaboration tools properly. There’s a key concept which is asynchronous communication. If you’re in the office, it’s easy to just turn to your colleague and ask a question. If you are not sitting next to somebody, it’s hard to do that, so you have to force things to happen.” – Iain Rogers, Founder and CRO at Entreflow Consulting Group
What do you think are the top challenges companies face as they head back into the office?
“[In our recent survey] the number one challenge was budget cuts and constraints. 44% of survey participants said that budget constraints and cuts were current challenges and more than half said that those were a big challenge for the next 90 days. [The remaining challenges] were safety concerns and how to return to the office, workforce capacity management, alignment with customer needs and travel restrictions.” – Rachele Collins, Principal Research Lead of Financial Management at APQC
How should CFOs adjust and prepare their team and the company for the new normal?
“I think a lot of the work that the CFO should be doing right now is in communication. Budgeting and forecasting are going to be a really hot topics for a long time. Make it super clear to everybody what the intention is, and if there are any changes to spend in the short term.” – Helina Patience, CEO at Entreflow Consulting Group
How should leadership deal with the pressure to level-up and potentially implement too many new tools?
“I saw this question come up and I kind of got a little mad. Look, everyone is implementing new tools, absolutely everybody in the world is implementing new tools. The companies that will emerge successfully from this crisis are the ones that are going to do that quickly. They are going to try out a lot of new tools and see what works. And they will fail quickly on certain ones and move quickly to the next one. You can’t picture yourself in the new normal from an old normal perspective.” – Iain Rogers, Founder and CRO at Entreflow Consulting Group
Learn More About Adjusting to the New Normal
Check out more resources below about change management and transitioning to new ways of working.
We asked forward-thinking CFOs and CPAs to share the best digital tools they’re using to keep their teams connected, productive, and engaged.
Procurement teams need to adjust to the new normal too. Here are four remote procurement strategies.
Remote CFO, Ryan Lazanis, founder of Future Firm, shares insights on how accounting and finance teams can adapt to remote work changes on a recent episode of the Spend Culture podcast.
