Better business: How to invest in staff and keep staff invested

For several years now, finance executives have had talent development and retention on their minds – even with all the other business headwinds they’re facing today. That’s why the timing of an apprenticeship program has been so important, and why it’s the main topic on this episode of the JofA podcast.

Today’s guest, Barry Payne, director—External Relations, Management Accounting at AICPA & CIMA, together as the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants, explains the tie-in between the emphasis on apprenticeships and the Future of Finance Leadership Advisory Group (FFLAG).

Also, hear a short segment of the Small Firm Philosophy podcast where the owner of a small CPA firm talks about a drastic change to her business model that paid personal and professional dividends.

Resources:

• U.S. apprenticeship program overview
• Future of Finance Summit agenda and registration
• JofA article on Sandy Johns and the transformative leap she took for her firm

What you’ll learn from this episode:

• An overview of progress in the Department of Labor-approved apprenticeship program in its first year.
• Some of the new companies now taking part in the program.
• How companies are applying the apprenticeship program to train and upskill existing employees.
• Payne’s explanation of how an emphasis on apprenticeships was a “fundamental action” of the FFLAG.
• The top challenge listed by finance executives who are part of the FFLAG.
• Information about the December summit and agenda and why Payne calls it a “safe haven” for finance leaders.

Play the episode below or read the edited transcript:

To comment on this episode or to suggest an idea for another episode, contact Neil Amato at Neil.Amato@aicpa-cima.com.

Transcript

Neil Amato: Welcome back to the Journal of Accountancy podcast. This is Neil Amato. On the show today, we have a focus on business model transformation, highlighting our recent JofA article and an episode of the small firm philosophy podcast that’s coming up after this interview with our guest, Barry Payne. Barry is director—External Relations, Management Accounting at AICPA & CIMA. His role  involves a relatively new apprenticeship program. Barry, first, thank you for being on the show.

Barry Payne: It’s always a pleasure, Neil, to be with you.

Amato: Thank you, the pleasure is mine. It’s approaching the one-year anniversary of the Department of Labor event that announced the signing of the first three companies taking part in the Registered Apprenticeship for Finance Business Partners program. Now that’s a long name, I’m hoping you can distill it a little bit. What’s happened in that apprenticeship program since that announcement last November?

Payne: Wow, doesn’t a year fly, Neil?

Amato: It really does.

Payne: That was during National Apprenticeship Week, where all up and down the country, there’s a huge celebration of apprenticeships and skill-based learning across all manners of different professions and occupations. I still pinch myself that the AICPA is the first professional organization to create an apprenticeship route for accounting and finance, and you’re right, we started off last year with free inaugural companies, those being Aon, HP, and of course Liberty Bank. All of which were looking really to seize the opportunity to attract and retain talent in a different way. I think across the profession, there’s a pronounced challenge around pipeline. And in the commercial world, where I spend most of my time, I work with CFOs and others around how best to fulfill that challenge. This program really came out as a result of work we’re doing, and it’s something we’re going to talk about in a minute, which is our Future of Finance group.

Those three organizations I mentioned, Neil, particularly use apprenticeship as a way to upskill incumbent staff and to provide a structured development program because the apprenticeship is underpinned by our world-renowned Chartered Global Management Accountant, CGMA designation, and the learning platform that goes with it, the CGMA Finance Leadership Program. But they’ve had some amazing early success. We’ve had some exam results go our way. Big shout-out, if I may, to Abby Wild of Aon, if you’re listening today. She passed her management exam as part of our apprenticeship. Congratulations to her.

This has inspired us to go up and down the country to talk about the notion of hiring differently and developing differently with CFOs. But with a particular focus on certain states like Maryland. Because Maryland, for example, all things are working as a result of funding, the governmental situation, the need to really ramp up the amount of apprenticeships in white-collar occupations. Off of the back of that, Neil, I’m absolutely delighted to say that we signed up organizations like Marriott, Care First, Sinclair, Stanley Black and Decker, and many others that are initially using this as an upskill. But they have huge vision for the future about how they can use our apprenticeship program.

Amato: That’s great. Now, you mentioned Liberty Bank, one of the pioneering companies in the apprenticeship program. Liberty Bank also has a role in the AICPA & CIMA Future of Finance Leadership Advisory Group. One, could you explain, I guess, Liberty Bank’s relationship with it, and two, a little bit more about the group and what it’s been doing?

Payne: It’s like what comes around, goes around,  because the whole notion of the apprenticeship was a fundamental action that came out of our Future of Finance group. More about that in a second. But the CFO of Liberty Bank is a great guy called Paul Young, a very visionary guy. We’re so pleased to have him on our group. We’re actually so pleased to also have him on our council. As well as being the CFO of Liberty Bank, he’s also known in your circles, Neil, as “the apprenticeship guy.”

Amato: Yes, he is, as he was on the podcast talking about it.

Payne: For those of you listening, just Google “apprenticeship guy,” you’ll have some fun reading his story. But what’s really cool about Liberty is they’re taking the apprenticeship one level further. They’re identifying how this can be a vehicle to attract people with non-traditional backgrounds. This is always the vision for the apprenticeship, so he’s actually hired some people — well, they were existing employees — but he’s hired them from – they were branch workers. They don’t have a traditional accounting background, but he’s brought them into the finance function and used this apprenticeship as an opportunity. He’s really proud, by the way, of hiring a [veteran] – amazing experience, amazing passion through this.

Paul is part of our Future of Finance Leadership Advisory Group. In fact, we met this week to plan and put the finishing touches to our summit, which is going to be in Orlando. This is a collective of about 25 or 30 visionary finance leaders in various different roles, Neil, across a diversity of companies. The majority of them are [large, privately held] or Fortune 500. They are basically our eyes and ears in the marketplace. The whole purpose of this group is to provide an independent, safe haven for folks to think about how they need to re-imagine and evolve their finance function with everything that’s going on in the world, everything that’s going on with business.

How do we absolutely maximize our value? The great offspin and offshoot of this is all of the insights that we get from this group, we’re able to channel back into our profession to make it stronger. The No. 1 priority of this group consistently, even over the last year, has been the attraction and the retention of talent. Even though there have been things, such as the use of technology and AI that had really come up and the cyber risks of that and others, but the development and retention of talent has always been there as a mainstay. As I said a moment ago, that’s how our apprenticeship was born.

We have other practical examples, such as a finance maturity model as well, that have been created as practical actions for our membership in our market, as a result of the work of the Future of Finance group. Just like to publicly, for anyone that’s listening, just thank every single one of that group for their commitment to leaning in, to bettering themselves, their companies, but also our profession.

Amato: That group has at least been together in the formal summit now two times, by my count. I’ve been with the group in Nashville and then also last year in Austin. I look forward to being there in Orlando again. That starts December 10. Is that correct?

Payne: That is right. It kicks off with a pre-session, Women in Finance, December 10 to December 12.

Amato: Great, and in the show notes for the episode, we’ll include a link to the registration page for that event. I guess it’s still open. But for finance leaders interested in this, what more can you say as a closing thought for the value of the Future of Finance Summit and Leadership Advisory Group?

Payne: It’s been a journey from the humble beginnings in Nashville, Tennessee. You and I were there. It’s grown a life of its own. I think this summit is really the pinnacle for any finance leader looking to seriously effect some change in their organization.

I’m blessed to be able to have an ongoing relationship with the finance leaders that are part of this summit. I was speaking to one the other day and he posted a nice e-mail to myself and to Tom Hood and to Kelly Lorenz, who runs the Future of Finance. I’ll just read you what he said: “[At my] organization, it’s allowed me to elevate our overall function’s visibility and position ourselves better as valuable and strategic advisers. Really these concepts emanate from leaning into the Future of finance summit. Your investment in me” — I presume that’s the AICPA’s investment in me — “had really manifested itself in some key business results and actions.”

That’s what we want, Neil. Out of the Future of Finance Leadership Advisory Group, they really inform us of the themes. It is so multi-layered, the Orlando summit, by the way. Because you can’t isolate one of these themes because they all work together. Very peer-led, so, yes, we do have sessions on talent, of course, sessions on multi-generation, sessions on advancements in technology and AI, ESG, for example.

We’ve got a very well-known leadership coach around coachability. It was like one person said to me last year, if you remember, when we were in Austin together, Neil. She said to me, “I can’t believe that there aren’t any sessions about numbers.” I said, “Is that a problem to you?” She said: “No, because I can get my numbers anywhere else from the wonderful things that you do. I need to take time out to be brave and to invest in areas that I really do need to think about, but I just don’t have time. This provides the opportunity to do that.”

Great companies that are part of our leadership advisory group are speaking and providing their insights. It’s really insights to galvanize conversation — so the likes of Verizon on their digital transformation journey, Disney on what they’re doing in their parks business around elevating their finance function, Southwire, a massive private company on ESG. I can’t wait, Neil. I think it’s going to be the best summit yet, and I would encourage your listeners to find out more.

Amato: That’s great, Barry. Thank you. I do look forward to seeing you in person, Kelly and also Tom and the rest of the group. Thank you very much for joining the show today, and we really appreciate your time and insights.

Payne: You’re welcome, Neil, as always.

Amato: Again, thanks to Barry Payne.

I said at the top of the show that we would highlight the topic of business transformation. The JofA‘s Bryan Strickland did just that in an article now on journalofaccountancy.com. We will link to that article in the show notes.

The article features insights from Sandy Johns, a CPA firm owner, who was on the Small Firm Philosophy podcast with Erin Hartman discussing how freeing it was, personally and professionally, to cull her list of clients while also creating a more profitable subscription billing model.

We will also link to that podcast episode. Here’s a snippet of the conversation, which again has the voices of Erin Hartman and then Sandy Johns.

Erin Hartman: I think probably the commonality between you and so many people I’ve been talking to lately about just changes that they’re making, whether it be in their billing practice or culling clients or whatever it is, is you’ve just got to do it. There’s never going to be the perfect time – that like, you do it all at one time.

Sandy Johns: Yeah.

Hartman: Just do it. Start the process.

Johns: Yeah.

Hartman: And I also haven’t heard anyone regret it, doing the things they know that need to happen.

Johns: Yeah, I am happier, I am healthier – emotionally physically, spiritually, relationally. My zest for life has returned, and my passion for the profession has been renewed, which is so cool.