ESG tops list of CFOs’ upskilling priorities

ESG reporting is the #1 area where finance teams want to upskill this year, beating out even inflation and perennial standbys like FP&A.CFOs and finance VPs ranked ESG metrics and measurement highest among the areas they want to prioritize in the next 12 months.

That data comes from Protiviti’s 2023 Global Finance Trends Survey, which polled 903 finance leaders across a wide variety of industries. Last year, ESG ranked 11th among CFOs’ and finance VPs’ priorities on the survey. The renewed focus on this area partly stems from new and pending regulations, including the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and the SEC’s forthcoming cybersecurity rule, Protiviti suggested.

“It’s time for CFOs to take—and implement—more control” over ESG reporting, Protiviti wrote in its report, noting that CFOs can play a vital role in overseeing ESG data governance, implementing ESG reporting and training across functions, and making ESG part of risk management.

Companies appear to be getting the message that finance is a critical ESG partner. In fact, 57% of public company execs and 40% of private company leaders said that ESG reporting became part of their finance teams’ mandate in the past year.

AI adoption: 50% of CFOs and finance VPs said their finance teams were using generative AI. But it’s still early days for the technology.

“It’s likely that many current uses of the technology in the finance organization are in the trial/experimentation stage,” Protiviti said in its report.

Public companies have an edge in terms of AI adoption: 63% of finance teams at public companies are using it, versus 39% of those at privately owned companies, the survey found.

Staffing still a sore spot: Half of CFOs and finance VPs named recruiting qualified staff as a concern. Only a third did so last year.

The tactics CFOs and finance VPs said they’re using most often to recruit staff include programs to help staff upskill (45%), using technology and automation to take over repetitive tasks (43%), allowing for flexible work (32%), and employing more managed service providers (31%).