THE ACCOUNTANT_AUTUMN_2018_VER-7-L

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FEATURE THE FUTURE OF TALENT IN THE ACCOUNTANCY PROFESSION JOSIANNE AVELLINO WORKING WITH MISCO SINCE 2011. CURRENTLY A SENIOR MANAGER LEADING THE RECRUITMENT TEAM AT MISCO When we speak of talent in business, we think of different skills people have which allow them to successfully achieve their goals in a company. Through our experience and constant interaction with different employers in the current market, we see a clear shift in the skills that were required in the past to the skills that will be required in the future. Company requirements are changing, especially for the accountancy profession. We are seeing a transition in company requirement from skills that are more technical in nature to what we call “the human touch”. We observe that, today, focusing on the technical accounting skills only, is simply not enough for someone to succeed in an accounting career. While technical knowledge is essential and someone who does not like to crunch some numbers is unlikely to make it in this field, technical expertise on its own might not allow an accountant to advance and achieve the career they were expecting. With advances in technology, the accounting profession is also going through many changes as some duties are being taken over by automated systems while others are being enhanced through technology. With this going on, it is of utmost importance for the accountancy profession to develop the right soft skills that cannot be automated or replicated by a machine. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation should not be seen as a threat, but as an opportunity to make us more efficient. We should use this to our advantage and identify where the human touch is essential for a role to be performed successfully. Before, accountants had to take care of the coding, data entry and repetitive tasks related to accounting in order to be able to analyse data, but today, technology is allowing accountants to focus on more value-added services. This means that enhancing the soft skills is now more important than ever before. Due to changing regulations, a big chunk of the accountants’ time is being spent on compliance work. This is leaving little time for them to give advice, which, is ultimately what benefits clients the most. In a study on accounting firms in Australia, conducted by a global research company, IPSOS, it was found that 62% of accountants’ time was spent working on compliance and only 38% of the time was focused on giving advice. Compliance should not inhibit or take over the relationship accountants create with clients. Accountants need to embrace developments in technology as a resource that will assist in the compliance and data analysis aspect of accountancy. This will leave time and space for more strategic development, decision-making and building lasting relationships. Human intelligence will be very difficult to be replaced by a machine and, although automation has surely eliminated certain roles in this field, other, more meaningful, positions have been created in the process; enhancing the profession for accountants who have the right skillset in place. Developing the right soft skills for this profession to succeed is essential. Soft skills essential for the future of talent in the accountancy profession do not focus only on attention to detail and organisational skills, which were the most sought-after skills up till recent years. Together 52 Autumn 2018
16:34 INFORMATION SYSTEMS LIMITED 9/10 Melfar Buildings, C. de Brockdorff Street, Msida MSD1421 tel: 2131 5001 email: info@isl.com.mt web:www.isl.com.mt
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