Soft skills speak volumes 

By Paul Brent
Illustration: Katy Dockrill

TenThe future is bright for the next generation of accounting and finance professionals, provided they are armed with such soft skills as the ability to communicate, deal with change and work in a team setting. Those are some conclusions of consulting and staffing firm Robert Half International Inc.’s report Next Generation Accountant.

Findings, based on surveys of financial executives and interviews with experts, academics and professionals, included: incentives are being offered more frequently to top candidates; benefits such as flexible scheduling, reduced workload arrangements and concierge services are being publicized; and a shortage of top professionals is looming as baby boomers retire.

“We are certainly finding a demand for accounting and financial professionals who not only have the strong financial background but who have strong communications skills, the ability to analyze challenging scenarios and come up with solutions,” says Jeff Holloway, a vice-president with Robert Half in Toronto.

The Canadian version of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act will require publicly traded firms to produce an annual report on the effective-ness of its internal control over financial reporting. Robert Half found the rising focus of internal control over financial reporting is going to make communication skills, diplomacy and persuasion almost as important as financial skills.

“The nonspecialist specialist — someone who is enough of a generalist and smart enough to work in many areas — is going to be a very valuable person,” says Dennis Beresford, a University of Georgia accounting professor and former chairman of the US Financial Accounting Standards Board, in the study.

CFOs were asked which areas of specialization they would recommend to someone starting their career: 58% said general accounting, 15% tax accounting, 14% internal auditing and 10% forensic accounting; 3% didn’t know.