How can employers best support the development of their finance professionals while demonstrating that their team has outstanding professional, technical and ethical skills? One solution is to apply for ACCA Approved Employer status.
More than 7,800 organisations across 111 countries are already signed up to the Approved Employer programme, which recognises employers with high standards of staff training and development.
Nigeria experience
One such company is Nigerian insurance company AXA Mansard, which has been an ACCA Approved Employer for more than a decade. Chief client officer Rashidat Adebisi FCCA says that this status plays an important role in retaining and developing its staff.
‘One of the ways we add value to our employees is by increasing their capabilities,’ she says. ‘So being ACCA-approved reinforces the status of the company as one that keeps training its people.’
‘Our local talent pool is limited but being an Approved Employer has helped us to attract staff’
Approved Employer status also enhances the attractiveness of AXA Mansard as a potential employer to ACCA-qualified accountants who are looking to move roles. This gives the company a competitive advantage in the talent marketplace, which is critical since Nigeria suffers from an acute shortage of skilled finance professionals.
‘The talent pool in our market is limited,’ Adebisi explains. ‘But being an Approved Employer has helped us to attract talent.’ The company also values the other benefits that come with Approved Employer status, such as the ability to participate in recruitment fairs.
Working for an Approved Employer brings benefits for ACCA members and students too. Adebisi highlights that it’s much easier for students and members within AXA Mansard to make their annual CPD declaration, for example. Plus, they get support from ACCA with training and preparing for exams. ‘I think working for an ACCA Approved organisation like AXA also helped in my quick qualification as a Fellow,’ she adds.
‘ACCA members or students have more confidence in our commitment to people development’
To retain its Approved Employer status, AXA Mansard engages with ACCA over the learning and development programme that it provides to its ACCA members. This programme doesn’t just cover technical financial skills, it also includes leadership and interpersonal skills. What’s more, the programme is available to members of the company’s finance community who are not ACCA members.
Employers in Nigeria want to hire finance professionals who are adaptable and agile, Adebisi says. They need professionals who are abreast of developments in the profession, including evolving accounting standards. Additionally, they expect that these professionals should have a rounded skillset that encompasses strong financial technical skills, as well as skills relating to business, communication and technology.
‘The ACCA qualification goes beyond pure accounting and numeracy,’ notes Adebisi. ‘It also considers ethics, which is important for a company like AXA.’
Adebisi’s advice to other organisations that are considering becoming an ACCA Approved Employer is that it will benefit both their brand and their employee value proposition. She says: ‘If the goal of the organisation is to develop its people, Approved Employer status will help it to attract and retain the right talent so that the business performs well.’
Endorsement from Vietnam
‘We see a lot of benefits from being an ACCA Approved Employer,’ says Tran Thi Thu Hang FCCA, head of financial control at Vietnam-based Techcombank.
Techcombank, which has had Approved Employer status for around five years, joined the programme to simplify processes for its ACCA members and boost its profile in the recruitment market. Since joining, it has benefited from the support of the local ACCA office when advertising for new staff, which has helped it to secure the attention of candidates from both within the country and beyond.
‘When ACCA members or students see that we are an Approved Employer, they have more confidence in our commitment to people development as well as our professional environment,’ Tran says. ‘So it helps us to attract them more easily.’
Thanks to Techcombank’s Approved Employer status, Tran herself does not have to provide detailed information to complete her annual CDP declaration – something that she values. Furthermore, her achievements with ACCA count towards her personal development plan with her employer.
‘It can help to realise a lot of long-term benefits in terms branding, recruitment and people development’
Working with other ACCA members is a privilege, Tran says, because of the common background they share. ‘We talk the same language,’ she says. ‘So the quality of conversation is higher and it’s easier to get to conclusions.’
There has been an evolution in terms of the skillsets that Vietnamese employers expect from finance professionals, Tran explains. In the past, employers tended to focus predominantly on financial accounting skills. Today, they are increasingly looking for finance professionals with management accounting expertise, as well as data and problem-solving skills – all skills that ACCA can help to provide.
‘Right now,’ she says, ‘we are recruiting people with skills in programming and data visualisation to help us build a dashboard to report automatically’.
Tran recommends ACCA Approved Employer status to other organisations, saying: ‘Your local ACCA office will help you apply for it and there’s no cost. But it can help to realise a lot of long-term benefits in terms branding, recruitment and people development. So why not?’
More information
ACCA’s Approved Employer programme is free and open to all organisations. Find out more
