Recruiting and Developing Finance Business Partners

As finance professionals increasingly move from transactional support roles to strategy and data-driven decision-making, APQC finds that the skills needed for finance business partnering are in short supply.

In Q3 of 2022, APQC surveyed organizations about how extensively finance business partnering (FBP) was being offered and what trends have emerged among those who have fully implemented FBP programs compared to those who do not. A major finding to emerge from this survey was that more fully implemented programs are bumping up against a shortage of the skills needed to be successful in the role.

This article examines:

• specific abilities identified as necessary for success in business partnering and the reasons why these skills are critical for the role,
• barriers to finding finance talent with these skills, and 
• recommendations for finding and developing external and internal talent to bring the skill set up to pace with the requirements of the role.