The challenges around remote work and its impact on productivity continue to surface, and CFOs and their fellow leaders will likely strategize how to get their teams face-to-face again if they haven’t already. For finance leaders, the trickle back to the office started last year and has continued to accelerate.
According to recent survey findings from the Controllers Council’s 2025 CFO/controller outlook and sentiment study, only 9% of CFOs said they are fully remote, down 2 percentage points from 2024. This trend is likely to continue decreasing throughout the next several months as organizations push employees back into the office and encourage their executives to show face as well, particularly at small- to midsize companies that may be looking to boost collaboration or hope to circumvent necessary layoffs by temporarily increasing turnover with a return-to-office initiative.
Work settings and hiring plans
The most preferred work environment is hybrid, with two-thirds (66%) of respondents saying they will work in a hybrid setting this year, up 10% year over year). This is followed by nearly a quarter (24%) being fully onsite with no work-from-home option. Though full onsite also dropped 17% year-over-year, surveyors say this category will shift toward growth as industries like manufacturing, construction, healthcare and retail mandate in-person work for employees at all levels.
Whether they’re replacing disgruntled employees who resisted returning to the office or looking to grow their teams in a more general sense, customer-facing roles are much more ripe for growth compared to areas like finance and accounting. CFOs and controllers say their company is set to grow operations and labor headcounts by 45% in 2025, followed by sales and customer support (32%).
Accounting and finance are set to grow at an average rate of 15% in 2025, which is less than marketing and IT but far beyond human resources (8%), legal (6%), procurement (5%) and administrative (5%). Though the Great Resignation is over and employers have gained momentum, so much so that they can implement return-to-office initiatives, the next job for many people across corporate functions, particularly in finance, will likely have some type of in-person requirement that will be agreed upon before the company makes the hire.
Technology plans
Though technology transformations are costly and require extensive data preparation from finance and IT teams, finance leaders are still looking to implement many new types of technology into their finance function this year. Notably, there is almost no reduction in technology implementation across the board.
While many leaders plan to keep their initiatives at the same pace they did in 2024, areas like AI, back-office finance functions, cybersecurity and business intelligence are all areas where finance leaders are looking to inject technology. FP&A talent is particularly valuable here, as new technology supplementing traditional finance work will free up time for the finance team to develop into a strategic business partner.
Though Moore’s Law has largely been eliminated by the rapid development of computing power in AI, finance leaders may see a somewhat similar pattern of change in technology capabilities and product offerings. As these tools become streamlined and integrated into existing platforms and ERPs, CFOs and their teams may be in a position to negotiate better deals if they can get similar technology from a vendor’s competitor at a better price.
Macroeconomic concerns
For the challenges technology won’t solve, finance teams express considerable concern about areas that impact both businesses and consumers alike. The highest concerns among finance leaders surveyed were inflation (36%), recession (29%), supply chain issues (26%) and talent retention (25%).
Though CFO confidence has been high since President Donald Trump’s administration took over, uncertainty around the outcomes of many decisions being made by the administration — and their impact both domestically and abroad — creates a challenge for finance leaders looking to predict the future for the sake of the decision-making process for their business.
