68% young finance professionals look to start their own business, says ACCA survey

Named Generation Next, the survey not only helps to offer insights about what the younger generation in finance expects from their careers, but also looks to educate employers about what are the most important factors to keep in mind while employing and retaining employees.

The global survey with 19,000 finance professionals from across 150 countries included close to 350 respondents from India, aged 16-36, majorly employed across the Big-Four accounting firms (26.09%), large corporate firms (15.53%) and small to medium accounting firms (11.18%), among others.

The Indian respondents comprised of 65.1% males and 34.9% females. Job profiles of participants included CEOs, CFOs, Managing Partners, Auditors, Financial Accountants, Financial Analysts, to name a few.

The report indicated that the next generation of finance professionals are well equipped to deal with the change happening in the profession that is primarily driven by globalization and technology.

Some of the key highlights of the survey are:
·         The top reasons for attracting young talent to a career in finance are interest in the subject matter, prestige of the profession and long term career prospects.
·         40% of Indian respondents believe that their current organisation offers sufficient opportunities to achieve their career goals, which is higher than the global average of 38%.
·         The main barriers that stop an individual’s career progression in their current organisation are insufficient rewards (29.6%), the absence of the roles where an individual might want to move to (28%) and the absence of transparent career paths (26.4%).
·         Out of the learning activities used in organisations, the most effective forms for an individual’s career development is on the job learning, e-learning courses and internal knowledge sharing sessions.
·         Finance professionals believe that technology continues to play the role of an important learning tool which will be beneficial for the individual’s development in the future. The most prominent of these are in the form of virtual classrooms, e-learning courses and online/social/collaborative learning sessions.
·         27.93% respondents strongly agree that technology will replace many entry level professions
·         61.64% respondents claimed their next career move would involve a role in a different country/region.

ACCA’s Head of International Development, Md. Sajid Khan, said, “It is no secret that today, young professionals are ambitious for quick progression, happy to switch sectors and have aspirations to work globally. They expect the companies they work for to be technology savvy, to have opportunities for them to continue learning and growing on the job and compensate them well when they deserve it.”

He added, “The challenge ahead for employers, large and small, is making sure they provide the sort of work environment, career development and training that the best of the next generation demand.”

The survey unveiled that the most important factors in attracting individuals to employers (particularly in finance) are job security, clear career progression path and opportunity to learn and develop one’s skills. On the other hand, when it comes to retaining talent, opportunity to learn, financial remuneration and job security are the preferred factors, in that order.