Out of office: how new ways of working are changing the accounting and finance sector

The COVID-19 lockdowns had a profound and lasting impact on the way many people think about their working lives.

Companies were compelled to adopt remote working practices, which in turn gave many people their first taste of a newly recalibrated work/life balance. Many of us became familiar with new technology during that period; Zoom joined ‘Uber’ and ‘Google’ in the list of company names that have become commonly used verbs. 

It is perhaps unsurprising that replacing commuting with family time turned out to be so popular, and that the hybrid working model is still widespread; 72% of accounting and finance hiring managers say their organization started to offer flexible or remote working since the pandemic. That’s just as well from a recruitment perspective, because today a majority of candidates in this sector want to know whether their prospective employer is in that cohort. 

There might be more to this trend than an actual need to work remotely, however. If a company isn’t offering some degree of remote working, what might that say about their wider culture? The opposite of flexibility is rigidity, after all. 

The benefits of offering hybrid working extend to employers, too. Recent research suggests that this offer can help to attract better-quality accounting and finance candidates who may even be prepared to accept a lower salary in return. 

Accounting and finance candidates would take a 14% pay cut to have some sort of remote hybrid flexibility. Simon Talbot, National Brand Strategist, Accounting & Finance at LHH, says this is a great way to overcome the scarcity of accounting talent: “Companies that offer this are getting more candidates and they're getting better candidates.”

A recent survey by researchers at Stanford University, meanwhile, found that remote workers work longer hours than their office-based colleagues, are more productive, and take fewer sick days – while a study of UK workers found that 41% of employers believe home working has boosted their organization's productivity, compared with 18% who think it has had the opposite effect. 

The controversy around remote working seems likely to persist. In this sector, however, the evidence seems clear: offering remote work can help businesses attract a higher standard of accounting and finance candidates – and they’re likely to be happier once they take up their new roles, too.

For more insights into the current trends shaping the accounting and finance sector, read our latest white paper.