The upcoming year brings a host of major challenges for finance chiefs in all industries, but which ones are the most pressing?
Business Finance Magazine recently highlighted the most-pressing issues CFOs face in 2012 in this article. Here is a summary of the two key challenges:
1. Finding incentives to keep staffers productive. Years of layoffs, wage freezes and meager raises have left a majority of the workforce burned out and dissatisfied. Problem is, with the economy not picking up the way employers had anticipated, businesses simply don’t have much room in their budgets to offer workers the raises and bonuses they desire. As a result, more CFOs are looking to pay for performance comp structures to keep their top performers happy.
2. Recruiting and retaining the best employees. Despite the high unemployment numbers in the U.S., highly skilled workers are still hard to find — and keep — for many businesses. And research shows that many employees are ready to leave their current job as soon as the right opportunity presents itself. That means CFOs will have to work closely with HR to come up with a strategy that showcases their firm as an attractive destination for top talent, while also ensuring their current top performers are satisfied with the current working environment.