If your company is still using manual/Excel processes for your monthly or quarterly analytics, you have focused on getting employees who are good at meticulous detail and thrive on repetitive tasks into those positions. This is the type of position that has an emphasis on “Financial Management” in the IT Financial Management Analyst job title. This can be a job that squeezes 6 weeks of manual work into a 3 week calendar time line. You need people who thrive on the grind to complete this month after month without hitting the job postings on LinkedIn.
When you change over to an automated system ( either home grown or off the shelf) the skill set needed also shifts significantly. Yes, they need to learn a new software tool, but the shift is deeper than that. This change shifts the emphasis from “Financial Management” to ”Analyst” in the job title.
The tasks that your employees used to spend 14 hour days grinding through now happen with some level of automation. This allows them to reverse their 80/20 time breakdown. They used to spend 80 % of their time just crunching numbers, and maybe 20% of their time doing analysis. In some cases, that other 20% is spent doing the other half of their job, so no real analysis was happening at all. Now, with number crunching taking only 20% of their time, even if they have another 50% of a job to get done, they have time for the value added analysis. It is in this analysis that you will find the real ROI — for both the application cost and the time spent.
This new set of analytic activities requires a whole new way of thinking. You are looking to grow people who like to mentally play with data- the ones who can do pivot tables in their heads. You need employees who can see interconnections and think bigger than this month’s numbers.
During the implementation of a service costing platform, we find that employees are either excited about the release from number crunching and are excited about being able to stretch their analytical wings, or else they are intimidated by this new set of responsibilities. It is important that the managers involved with the project are engaged and support their employees through this transition.
We have provided a sample IT Financial Analyst Job Description for free download to assist you in thinking about this shift as you move forward with automation projects.
Looking to expand your team with other roles? You can see other Job Description Templates.
Staff need training or support as they grow? Check out our Classes and Advisory Services.
[…] Not sure if you have the staff skills needed to continue to grow? We discussed changing skill needs in another blog post. […]