Boosting Employee Engagement within Finance Teams in Five Simple Steps

Following the Great Resignation, when a record number of people left their jobs to find more fulfilling roles, businesses still face ongoing challenges with employee engagement. Most notable is ‘quiet quitting’, where employees simply perform their absolute base-line duties with no motivation to go above and beyond – and are still likely to leave in the long term. There is clearly still a pressing need to boost engagement with employees. Happier teams mean greater benefits for the business, with research showing that the most engaged teams create higher profitability, sales and productivity than their less-engaged counterparts.

Finance teams are critical to business success – in particular the accounts receivable (AR) team who keep AR processes operating smoothly and ensure the company receives what it’s owed. Low engagement levels here could mean reduced productivity, meaning invoices take longer to process and follow up; reduced accuracy, meaning records may be inaccurate and finances harder to forecast; and ultimately less care paid to what is often the frontline of customer relations.

By boosting employee engagement, AR functions can help set enterprises up for success. This piece shares five key areas that will help organisations boost employee engagement within their finance team.

Starting with the basics

A good place to start when addressing employee engagement is ensuring good communication with management. AR staff are faced with a myriad of tasks on a daily basis including maintaining accurate financial data and running the cash application process. Their job is only made harder if they lack the tools they need to carry out their duties, or the training to complete tasks accurately.

If AR team members feel they can open up to management when needed - for instance when they feel they’re overloaded with work, or need help prioritising their time, they in turn will feel heard and supported. A team that speaks up when it has too much on its plate, and delegates when required, is one that is freeing up its own time. In turn, this frees up the AR department to address more meaningful and satisfying opportunities such as improving customer relationships or providing more strategic value to the organisation. But it all starts with knowing their voices can and will be heard by their superiors.

Performance recognition

Internal praise is powerful within businesses as it shows staff they belong and are appreciated.

Benefits of praise such as encouraging collaboration, clarifying organisational goals, reinforcing employee purpose, and improving quality are all key to ensuring the success of the company, especially during the current economic climate. A recent report highlights ‘performance coaching’, whereby performance is reviewed weekly, as a strategy to boost employee engagement by assisting development and offering additional training where skills gaps exist.

In AR teams, this can be applied in many ways. One example is CFOs mentioning top performers on company calls, or offering incentives to motivate staff. A recent report highlights that 69% of employees planning to quit their jobs said that receiving recognition and rewards would cause them to stay in their current position. Performance recognition motivates staff to both work hard independently, and pull together to achieve results.

Feedback culture

Employee recognition should form part of a broader focus on creating a feedback culture. This encompasses managers asking themselves whether employees feel their opinions are listened to and valued, as well as if they’re receiving regular input on their progress. This includes asking questions like: do your finance teams speak up when they are struggling with their workload, or feel they have too many invoices to process and not enough time to finish them all? Research has revealed that organisations investing in regular employee feedback have almost 15% lower turnover rates, and teams are five times more likely to report increased productivity. Both these outcomes have a transformative impact on performance and company success.

Adopting agile practices

Companies who adopt agile practices deliver work in small, but consumable increments without compromising quality. For example, sprint planning in AR teams: using daily meetings to report on progress and share any areas that are limiting staff from achieving their goals. This could include discussing concerns like manual data entry prohibiting teams from doing more engaging and meaningful work. Similarly, sprint reviews can provide the same feedback from the opposite direction: regularly reporting on results within projects and discussing changes that should be implemented in the next sprint.

Achieving team consensus on suggested approaches is an effective way to empower employees. Silos are eliminated and the collective brainpower of the team is far more equipped to solve a challenge than one person struggling silently. In fact, there is a huge impact on organisations that encompass agile working practices, including a 60% growth in both revenue and profit.

Automation and adding value

Even following the steps laid out above, employee engagement can still be limited within AR teams. This is largely because employees are still completing repetitive manual tasks daily such as invoicing customers, tracking invoices, and accounting for aspects such as early payment discounts and late payments. Finance teams need the right tools to eliminate these mundane and time-consuming tasks, delivering greater job satisfaction, and creating more value for their organisation. Automation is key to this. By centralising account data and providing transparency between departments, less time is spent chasing relevant information. Instead, staff can focus on more value-adding and engaging tasks.

CorneaGen is one organisation that adopted automation within its AR process, making reporting easier and giving employees more time to focus on improving the customer experience. Its adoption also boosted employee morale, helping them gain recognition for exceeding KPIs and freeing up time to focus on tasks that drive greater job satisfaction.

Employee engagement is vital for driving the success of AR and Finance teams. Without engaged employees, organisations are at risk of high turnover rates, decreased productivity and profitability. Given the economic crisis with falling consumer confidence and business output, it is important that businesses prioritise their AR and finance function to set them up for success. By doing so, employees will value the work they do, yielding substantial benefits for both themselves, and the company as a whole.