What type of corporate training video or in-person seminar is often needed in most corporate finance departments?
Answers
David, in addition to the excellent answers below and as a newer member, you might also want to take a look at the
https://www.proformative.com/events
Enjoy!
Best... Sarah
Ethics
I couldn't agree more with Wayne. Ethics is a very important piece of any Fraud prevention program.
Good question:
Are you talking about:
-
-how to handle a situation when they see/are made aware of unethical behavior by others in the company
-or both?
2
Len, I was talking about any type of
Wayne, on "Ethics," could you provide more detail about what in particular and why you think it's in demand?
I'm not a corporate finance person, so a little more info would be helpful.
The whole gamut, from what is an acceptable gift (be it a meal, show tickets, flowers, etc) both in-coming and out-going to dishonesty shown by fellow employees (from stealing a pencil to leaving early and being clocked out later, etc).
It really depends on the type of business, number of employees, etc.
One of the training concepts that I have liked in the past is cross training
Conversely, training accountants in learning more about how finance people build their forecasts will help them point out certain transactions and their accounting treatment that could make material variances in the forecast, cash flow, debt covenance calculations, etc.
Lastly, this cross training has the potential to create better working relationships between the two teams and allow for efficiency gains among the two teams.
We have had really interesting feedback when we train on soft skills. Things like teamwork, communication,
It seems like there is plenty of technical accounting training out there, but many of the skills which are needed to become exceptional are not obvious to the finance teams.
1
Jeffrey,
You hit a big nail on the head:). But this is also heavily influenced by the culture of the finance leader. If that person is a "get up and work with my fellow execs" then s/he will likely want staff to follow in their own way. If the F&A team is a true business partner, they will need soft skills to work effectively with non-F&A colleagues and earn respect for what value they add.
Financial metrics the company uses. Coaching and counseling.
I'm old fashion. You don't train people in ethics, you develop a ethical culture. Remember Enron had an official 200 page ethics policy. See how well that worked. How the top five executives act will determine the ethics for the entire company. Visualize it as an inverted triangle. If the sharp point on the bottom is crumbling forget about strengthening everything above it.
The problem with most training programs today are that they are disparate when they need to be integrated. How many times are we asked by employees about attending training programs from Monday thru Thursday in Orlando (read Disney World) When an employee is hired they need immediate training as to how the company policies and processes are executed. When you promote a person to supervisor you need time management and personnel supervision training. At the management level you need to train personnel on PIP (performance improvement program) etc. Then you need to determine how to overlay technical financial training on top of all these HR issues. The key is to develop individual
1
Andrew -
As far as Ethic; which comes first, chicken or the egg.
As for integrated training, great idea for the large corporation who has the money; but 80% of companies either don't have the money or more importantly don't understand the importance of this type of training.
You have some great programs out there. AMA (American Management Assoc) has a whole track of seminars like Budgeting, Fixed Assets, Cost Accounting. Stanford Grad School of Business also has several DVD presentations related to Accounting and Finance topics. You can also attend webinars and conferences through the AICPA.
Soft skills - communication, listening, motivating , managing in a positive and helpful manner, while at the same time holding people accountable, decision-making techniques, leadership, understanding the emotional components of change, how to really work effectively in teams (different from the way most are taught), dealing with different cultures, dealing with conflict with change and with new opportunities.
In my opinion, we spend too much time on technical skills and not enough on interpersonal relationship skills.
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Human Capital