Building a Future-Forward AP Team, Part 1: Assessing Your Needs

Ready to get more productive and better support the strategic direction of your organization? Rounding the corner toward 2017 is an excellent time to take stock of your AP department’s current capabilities and assess what skill sets or competencies might be missing. Fortifying your team to meet future needs can start today if you put your finger on your company’s “pulse” and take a 360-degree look at what your department can do to add value.

Consider these best practices for building an AP team that’s ready to tackle everything the future has to offer.

Ensure Your Goals Align

Your department’s day-to-day production goals may keep your team busy, but they don’t need to distract you from the bigger picture. Thanks to new technology tools that streamline workflows and help reduce costs, accounting department leaders are increasingly relied upon to provide higher-level strategic support. When they’re not tied down doing lengthy and error-prone manual tasks, AP employees have more time and energy to devote to activities that make a difference to the bottom-line, such as strengthening relationships with suppliers and optimizing the payments strategy (taking advantage of early payment discounts, for example, or pursuing faster, more secure payment methods). As a result, AP’s work can become an integral driver of company growth.

For related content, explore Supplier Relationships Believed Central to B2B Customer Engagement and 5 Factors to Consider While Developing a B2B E-Payments Strategy.

Evaluate Your Core Competencies

To do their jobs, accounting and finance professionals are required to have specialized skills and knowledge of various regulations, processes and procedures, and computer and software systems. That means your team is already sitting on a wide range of skills. But are they sufficient for the next-level—for supporting the company’s strategic goals?

Take supplier relations, for example. According to Building a Best-in-Class Procurement Operation Ardent Partners, 77% of best-in-class procurement organizations credit their people for improving supplier performance. This means that their people—not the goals—make the magic happen and secure success. It’s important to understand what skills they need to bring to the table. Global professional services recruitment consultancy Morgan McKinley gives these Top Competencies for Procurement Professionals:

• Strategic industry management
• Category management
• Project management
• Relationship management
• Negotiation skills
• Financial acumen
• Analytical skills
• Aptitude for technology
• Results focused
• Professionalism

Identify Skills Gaps

It’s your job to determine the gaps in your AP team. Insights from Monster.com indicate that financial talent with the right skills in data analytics and big data are high demand/short supply. And 4Q 2016 hiring trends from accounting, finance, and information technology staffing firm, Brilliant, reveals the biggest skillsets missing among qualified accounting and finance candidates:

• Problem solving – 28%
• Communication – 12%
• Expertise – 20%
• Cultural fit – 24%
• None – 16%

These insights can be a starting point for taking this step, but you can take a deeper look in Unlock a Treasure Trove of Insights in AP Data and Big Data and the “Cultural Evolution” for more on the importance of having skilled number-crunchers on your team.

Once you’ve got a handle on your department’s role in supporting strategy, assessed your team’s competencies and identified gaps, it’s time to start filling them with internal talent or the hiring boards. Stay tuned for Building a Future-Forward AP Team, Part 2: Focus on Talent.