ACCA outlines the value of promoting diversity in finance
View(s):
The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) has been a consistent promoter of the value of diversity in organizations, and has been advising and guiding organizations on how the role of finance can contribute in driving diversity and value within organizations.
Giving a further insight into this subject was ACCA member, Sajindu Perera, Head of Finance Integration at MAS Intimates, who spoke on how organizations can benefit from promoting diversity and inclusion in finance functions and departments.
Sajindu says the first step is in gaining a proper understanding of diversity and inclusion. “While these are two interconnected concepts, they are far from being interchangeable. Diversity is about representation , whilst Inclusion is about how well the contributions and perspectives, of the different groups of people are valued and integrated into an organization’s environment.
Each Finance Department must have the right mix: “A practical and meaningful plan towards building a truly collaborative and conducive culture with accountability and governance must be in place where organizations must adopt different approaches that align with the diverse stakeholders they deal with. For this to happen seamlessly, finance must consciously create diverse teams to ensure there’s a greater pool of talent to leverage to meet diverse requirements, ” avers Sajindu.
Today’s finance teams need a mix of technical capabilities, that includes commercial understanding in order to support business operations, and people management skills to liaise with stakeholders, so diversity is more important than ever before. Furthermore, businesses need to ensure finance professionals gain the appropriate level of experience across the finance function and beyond the finance function to develop the necessary level of capability needed. This goes beyond developing the necessary technical ‘know-how’. Providing this breadth of experience enables finance to develop the broader business based skills required” she adds.
Sajindu further affirmed that a culture of openness in finance will also resonate strongly with the younger generation of finance professionals in the workforce and ensure in a high bearing on recruitment and retention success.
Women in Finance: Specifically on the involvement of women in the accounting and finance field, Sajindu notes that there’s more interest now, but more progress required in terms of women taking on senior finance roles in organizations. To address this gap, she believes the first step would be to forge a gender-equal world to enable diversity agendas and raise awareness against gender bias. This will help to tackle labeling and stereotyping of women and instead empower them to be effective leaders.
Biases Go Beyond Gender: She further stated that biases don’t just relate to gender anymore today, and also exists in the inclusivity of varied generations that make up Sri Lanka’s workforce. “As organizations, we now need to look at how do we facilitate the varying generations at the organization and how we create a conducive workspace to be able to retain the skill of the senior or more matured workforce, whilst also giving growth opportunities to bring out the best in our young talent.”
Finance leaders must embrace open ways of working: In today’s finance function, diversity means much more than equal opportunities, going much further than gender, ethnicity or social equality. It is also about diversity in the ideas, skills and capabilities that people from all ranges of backgrounds, experiences, ages, geographies and cultures can bring to the finance function” explains Sajindu .
Despite the challenges around addressing the gaps and overcoming the barriers, Sajindu feels that more organizations today acknowledge the issues and are committed to making changes, which is a step in the right direction. She said however, that there are no quick fixes to these challenges and can only be resolved successfully with deep commitment and a sustained effort.
ACCA’s with their 140,000 members, and 404,000 students in 170 countries being a testimony to the breadth of skills and experiences diversity brings, intends to be at the forefront of supporting businesses to build finance capability through diversity and drive this important agenda moving forward.