Out of office: how new ways of working are changing the accounting and finance sector

The COVID-19 lockdowns had a profound and lasting impact on the way many people think about their working lives.

Companies were compelled to adopt remote working practices, which in turn gave many people their first taste of a newly recalibrated work/life balance. Many of us became familiar with new technology during that period; Zoom joined ‘Uber’ and ‘Google’ in the list of company names that have become commonly used verbs. 

It is perhaps unsurprising that replacing commuting with family time turned out to be so popular, and that the hybrid working model is still widespread; 80% of finance professionals claim to have adopted some form of a hybrid or remote approach to work since the pandemic. That’s just as well from a recruitment perspective, because today the majority of candidates in this sector want to know whether their prospective employer is in that cohort. 

There might be more to this trend than an actual need to work remotely, however. If a company isn’t offering some degree of remote working, what might that say about their wider culture? The opposite of flexibility is rigidity, after all. Or are they merely just part of the cohort of organisations who are starting to move away from remote working? "We are seeing a lot more clients move to four or five days in the office" says Paul Newell, Operations Director at LHH Recruitment Solutions, "whilst flexibility is important, the office still remains the best place for collaboration and to deliver training, especially for those earlier in their career."

Its not the same story for all clients, and there are lots who are reaping the rewards of offering more flexibility to their staff. Recent research suggests that this offer can help to attract better-quality candidates who may even be prepared to accept a lower salary in return. 

According to data gathered in our Global Workforce of the Future report, 5% of UK candidates would accept lower pay in return for more flexibility in their working schedule. Newell says this is a great way to overcome the scarcity of accounting talent: “Organisations that offer flexibility are getting much more interest from candidates, and often they are the better quality candidates.”

A recent survey by researchers at Stanford University, meanwhile, found that remote workers work longer hours than their office-based colleagues, are more productive, and take fewer sick days – while a study of UK workers found that 41% of employers believe home working has boosted their organisation's productivity, compared with 18% who think it has had the opposite effect. 

The controversy around remote working seems likely to persist. In this sector, however, the evidence seems clear: offering remote work can help businesses attract a higher standard of accounting and finance candidates – and they’re likely to be happier once they take up their new roles, too.

For more insights into the current trends shaping the accounting and finance sector, read our latest white paper.