Blockchain, AI, data analytics… it’s an exciting time for the finance function. The adoption of digital innovations is allowing accounts departments to bring greater value to the business. But if your finance employees lack the know-how to use the tech or interpret the data, your digital transformation strategy can only get so far.
To keep pace with the move to Finance 4.0, businesses need to hire, retain and develop employees with the right digital competencies.
So what are the key skills your finance workforce needs, and what is an easy, cost-efficient, route to getting them? Let’s take a look.
What’s changing?
Finance 4.0 is all about using digital innovations to transform finance functions. Blockchain, for instance, can improve the way financial transactions are reconciled and reported. Essentially, it’s a digital ledger that can increase security, decrease the risk of human error, and significantly reduce costs.
Then there’s data analytics. All finance departments gather raw data – everything from customers’ purchasing behaviour to cashflow, credit information, and fluctuating costs. But collecting it isn’t the same as understanding it. Data analytics can help your employees unlock and communicate the data and technology you have at your disposal – leading to improved decision-making.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is used by most businesses to automate routine clerical tasks. For finance, that means areas such as invoicing, procurement, and accounts payable and receivable can be completed with minimal human intervention. As well as helping to lower costs, AI frees up your finance staff to concentrate on the more high-value tasks – a boost for their job satisfaction and the business’s bottom line.
All these innovations create faster processes, better forecasting, and fewer errors. With a thorough understanding of the tech, today’s finance professionals can become strategic experts, helping to steer their organisations towards modernisation and growth, while better managing the core responsibilities such as payroll, cashflow, and accurate record-keeping.
But is upskilling your staff an expensive undertaking? Not necessarily…
Use your company’s Apprenticeship Levy to achieve digital transformation
Many business leaders are using their Apprenticeship Levy to fill skills gaps and build digital competency in their organisations. Remember, an apprentice can be at any stage in their career. They can be a new recruit to your business or an established member of staff. What makes them an apprentice is that, in addition to their job role, they’re undertaking an accredited training programme that will improve their productivity and performance.
And the best bit? The costs associated with training apprentices in England are funded by the government’s Apprenticeship Levy.
What Data and Technology Apprenticeships are available?
At Kaplan, we offer a wide range of Data and Technology Apprenticeship Programmes to help drive digital transformation and upskill your employees in the emerging skills.
Kaplan’s Data User Apprenticeship Level 3, for instance, is a good starting point. Apprentices learn how to identify and explain data, tell the story of your organisation, and help support the wider team to implement efficiencies.
For staff taking on a more advanced data-centric role, our Finance Data Technician Apprenticeship Level 3 is unique in the market. As well as developing technical skills using a range of technologies and platforms, we support our learners to weave together the ability to source and work with financial data, and generate insights that underpin business decisions.
If your people need to carry out data analysis and upskill in Excel, SQL, Tableau, Power BI, Python and R programming language, take a look at Kaplan’s Data Analyst Apprenticeship Level 4.
How to start your digital transformation
Digital transformation can bear fruit only if you approach the process from a people perspective. It’s important to ensure your staff are learning new skills in a way that is beneficial for both them and your business. That means partnering with the right training provider.
At Kaplan, we have a passion for education and a commitment to results. Our programmes can help you build your data and technology capabilities at scale.
If you’d like to discover how to start your digital transformation, please get in touch.