As Spring tries its hardest to spring, so the English cricket season warms up. Our main interview this month is with the regional director of women’s cricket at Surrey County Cricket Club, Emma Calvert FCCA. A former under-18 county cricketer herself, she now manages the South East Stars. Her mission is to turn the team into a squad of professionally contracted players and boost the inclusivity of one of the world’s most popular games.
We also have an interview with the CEO of the Financial Reporting Council, Richard Moriarty. Should the regulator’s new head drive up standards or relax them to promote UK competitiveness? Find out how he plans to square the circle with his modernisation agenda.
Also on auditors’ minds are issues around recruitment and retention. The UK is facing a talent squeeze across many sectors and disciplines, but the audit profession in particular is grappling with how to make audit careers more attractive. A report from ACCA and CA ANZ, which draws on a survey of 6,500 respondents globally, identifies concerns around the career ladder and work variety, sustainability reporting and technology. But it is work-life balance (and not remuneration) that is the biggest single concern for audit professionals. Find out more.
Anyone looking for a new career challenge would be well advised to understand how employers and headhunters are using AI in the recruitment process. Thanks to innovations in AI, one trend fast gaining ground is skills-based hiring, with recruiters focusing on candidates’ specific skills rather than education and experience. This used to be a time-consuming task, with candidate skills having to be manually mapped against job descriptions – not any more, as AI can do the matching in a flash. Find out in what other ways the technology is changing the hiring process.
In public sector news, we look at the parlous state of local council finances in England and the differing views about the government’s proposed backstop date of 30 September for auditors to issue opinions based on ‘work they have been able to complete’. Read about the ‘sticking plaster’ and concerns for the longer term.
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