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Australia – CFOs report strong job satisfaction

24 November 2014

Australia’s financial leaders are happier in their roles than they’ve ever been, with job satisfaction leading the majority of Chief Financial Officers (CFO) to want to remain in their role for the long term, according to the Michael Page Global Insights CFO and Financial Leadership Barometer.

The Barometer revealed that Australian CFOs are more satisfied remaining in the same position rather than progressing to Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

As their roles become broader and more strategic, the survey found that 77.8% of Australia’s financial leaders are generally happy in their position. Increased job satisfaction within the C-suite finance level may be responsible for the decline in finance professionals seeking to progress their career to CEO. Over half (54.4%) of survey respondents reported that they expect to be in the same position in two years, however with a larger remit.

Adrian Oldham, Regional Director of Michael Page Australia, Finance and Financial Services, commented: “Once regarded as a stepping stone to CEO, the CFO role is now regarded as a career ambition in its own right. Since the Global Financial Crisis, the role of CFO has become more business orientated and business partnering than ever before. The modern CFO in an adaptive business spends less time on pure financial control and management and more time on partnering the business through driving strategic review and change, process and structural efficiencies and new revenue generation streams.”

The modern CFO is combining traditional skill sets with new responsibilities, with survey findings suggesting that Australian CFO unite in-depth financial expertise with additional capabilities in IT, legal, HR and procurement. Capabilities that are currently within the scope of a CFO’s responsibilities, other than finance, are administration (58.8%), which is down from 70% in 2012, and IT (55.9%), which has increased from 49% in 2012.

“We are seeing a shift away from the traditional functions of the CFO role as it is becoming more complex. The complexity has arisen from the functions of financial management, accounting and control becoming more global and interconnected within multinational businesses and a more business and market focus in international organisations. This positions the modern role of CFO as a stand-alone career ambition for professionals, rather than the conventional C-suite career path goal of CEO,” Mr Oldham concluded.