Following more than a year and a half of redundancies, adaptation, and home working, the landscape of business management and finance teams has affirmatively shifted. As pandemic restrictions ease, the UK has seen waves of unemployment and employees resigning citing expectations of stronger work life balance following success seen with remote working. Consultancy and accounting disruptors, Theta Global Advisors, dissect how these changes have manifested rapidly shifting working norms in finance, seeing expertise and leadership shift externally to reflect these new norms and lead top companies successfully post-pandemic.

Hiring costs have skyrocketed amidst new expectations from employees, resulting in CFOs seeking innovative ways to provide for these new expectations and appropriately reflect new employment climates. Thought leaders in the field are now turning to consultancy-based practices as the future of their finance teams, offering lean, agile, tailored solutions at a fraction of the cost by avoiding the overheads of traditional in-house teams.

More than a third (37%) of all white collar workers agree that for employers to successfully manage ever-changing workplaces, they must bring in assistance from external experts – a sentiment reflected across professionals in the finance sector who have proven that traditional, long hours in the office do not necessarily equate to productivity as a team. We are thus seeing reflected in employee sentiments that leaner, external teams will be essential for leading company CFOs to successfully manage their teams and guide their companies through the array of difficulties set to arise post-pandemic.

A national study commissioned by Theta Global Advisors dissects the value placed on internal teams and external experts, reflecting the shift in the landscape of the future of finance for successful, leading companies:

Key Stats

42% of the UK workforce value advice and guidance from outside-in leaders over internal management.
Over half (51%) of 25-34-year-olds agree that they are more likely to enact change introduced by external experts, rather than in-house leaders.
A third of Brits (30%) feel their workplace culture has now become stagnant and internal management needs the assistance of external support for businesses progression.
33% of businesses owners and employees in the UK agree that to thrive post-pandemic, significant changes within the workplace must be made with the advice and guidance of outside expertise.
More than a third (37%) of white collar workers agree that if their employer is to successfully manage the ever-changing workplace post-pandemic, they must bring in assistance from external experts.
(Research taken from a poll of 2,069 and nationally representative as per the British Polling council)

Chris Biggs, partner at Theta Global Advisors has been leading by example at his firm. Theta provide flexible hours and hybrid working structures to their employees, and offer clients tailored, lean solutions to their accounting and management practices, allowing CFOs to adapt to their teams’ and businesses needs at a fraction of the cost with finance teams that can be adapted as necessary to access specific expertise flexibly.

​Chris comments on the future of external, flexible finance teams:

“Attitudes to the future of work have affirmatively shifted, and internal finance teams are rapidly becoming a thing of the past for leading innovative, forward thinking companies post-pandemic. In-house finance teams have proven to have huge overheads and may often lack the flexibility and breadth of expertise needed to adapt quickly to rapidly changing needs, as evidenced throughout the pandemic and in the masses of unemployment and resignations the UK has seen as restrictions have eased.

“The landscape of finance teams for leading companies is rapidly changing and external teams and consultants have proven themselves entirely essential. CFOs are able to access teams of accountants that are flexible, with a far wider range fo expertise to suit specific situations and offer tailored solutions at a fraction of the cost of traditional, in-house teams. It is now no longer a question of how many accountants it takes to support a successful business, but which consultant body with an ever-flexible roster of accountants they can access interchangeably these successful, top-tier businesses will rely on moving forwards.”