While most CFOs know how much the demands of their roles have changed over time, one of their most important colleagues — controllers — are thinking about how their role will change as well. New technology, risks and compliance demands are not only changing how reporting and budgeting are taking place but may be causing some controllers to be wary of their role in the future and unsure of what skills they will need to obtain to meet the developing demands of their job.
According to new data from EY, a large majority of controllers expect change to their role within the next five years. According to their most recent report titled DNA of the Financial Controller Survey, 86% of controllers surveyed said they expect their role to change significantly over the next five years. Twenty-six percent of controllers also said that in five years, the role will have a very different and unknown skill set compared with today.
The demands of tomorrow’s controller
Despite some of the skills being unclear, the ways in which controllers provide value may change. Rather than overseeing the operations and reporting function exclusively, 40% of controllers believe they will be more of an optimizer of value across the finance function.
It’s worth noting a fifth (20%) of controllers agreed the controller’s role and responsibility will be either altered or downgraded. Whether it’s a new role in corporate responsibility and risk management (8%), being absorbed into the team of the CFO (8%) or a downgrade to purely monitoring and overseeing automation of the finance department (4%).
Value creation and a wary outlook on ESG
For controllers who are looking to continue to provide value at their organizations in the long term, the ways in which they believe that can be done vary. When asked about their definition of what a value creator is, controllers gave a wide array of responses. The most popular answer by far was directly driving company growth (73%) but became much more split when being more specific.
Around a third selected multiple options to define value creation. Thirty-five percent said shaping company strategy and purpose, 30% said deploying data insights and 28% said defending financial integrity. Other responses were allocation of resources (24%), reducing costs (14%) and long-term sustainability goals (11%).
Environmental and social governance (ESG), an area that CFOs have felt pressure to allocate time and resources to, is an area that a minority of controllers believe they will have any part in over the next five years. Less than half (43%) said they expect to be frequently involved in ESG over the next five years.
Although that number is up from the 36% mark it’s at today, controllers working solely on ESG may expect to have their position consolidated or eliminated by the end of the decade, as pushback on ESG, as well as the duties that encompass the controller role, continue to develop.
Confidence’s role
Confidence and the ability to get things done, something most CFOs would value anywhere in the finance function, are tremendously valuable when embodied in the work ethic and character of the controller.
By defining a subset in their dataset labeled the “confident controller,” using the quality of individual answers (emphasis on qualities aligned to technology, advanced data analytics, sustainability, and innovation) to score a respondent on a 1-100 scale and then identifying the top quartile, researchers were able to quantify the difference between confident and what they refer to as “other” controllers.
The most common action taken by confident controllers was data-driven decision-making and technology use (72% versus 65% of other controllers). The biggest differences between confident controllers and others were in areas like corporate responsibility and team development (confident controllers +24% for both).
EY’s DNA of the Financial Controller Survey was an anonymous online survey with responses being collected from 1,000 financial controllers. Additionally, responses from 280 senior finance leaders, including CFOs, were collected to understand their perspectives on the financial controller’s role.
