“All financial services firms are still complaining that they can’t find people to hire. We say that the accounting profession is a fairly safe profession. Of course, you might expect me to say that as a representative of ACCA, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants. It is the largest international association in the financial and accounting field. We have around 800,000 members and students worldwide.

You can be a CFO at the age of 40 and start the ACCA qualification. It is the highest qualification for a professional in the financial and accounting field: to become an ACCA member.

With the help of this community, we anticipate these trends, and, through our qualification, we incorporate them into the day-to-day lives of our members and students and prepare them for the future,” said Andreia Stanciu, Head of ACCA Southern Europe, at the People Empowering Business Forum organized by The Diplomat-Bucharest.

Key statements:

• We speak with dozens and hundreds of employers who have very large finance departments: the big consulting firms, but also financial services centers. We are able to see what the best practices are to create this community, to ensure that the group of people in the finance department is united, happy, and delivering at the highest level.
• There is a change taking place in the HR field, we are talking about authentic leadership. Recently, I saw – and I’m sure it is not the only company that did this – PwC organized an away day for managers and partners, and they talked about empathy, effectiveness, and psychological safety.
• So, there is clearly a shift, and it’s very good that we are talking about these things. When we talk about people and how we can make them more efficient and happier, first, I believe we need to ask them.
• Communication, communication, consultation. Organizational culture is not a one-stop, it’s not a destination, it’s a journey. You reach a point and then realize, wait a second, we don’t want leaders that are so involved anymore, we want leaders who lead from behind, we need to give people autonomy. Then we shift again. But you always talk to people — always. So consultation is essential.
• We need clarity, because we live in the times we live in and there is so much uncertainty around us that at least at the workplace we want someone to say: this is the company vision, and this is what it means for you. In the next two years, in the next month, this is what you need to deliver.
• I have seen in the most functional teams that people were allowed, within certain limits and in a safe space, to make mistakes. To do things that maybe were not even in their job description.