How transformation is redefining the skillset of the tax professional

Brave new world

“The tax professional these days holds a huge amount of potential value for other parts of the organization beyond tax,” says Smith. “They can be far more targeted and data-centric with their advice. That requires confidence to interpret the data, to engage broadly beyond Tax and across the entire business landscape, open a dialogue and make suggestions, as opposed to simply discussing very specific questions on the tax return. Many people are comfortable with the latter; the former may push them out of their comfort zone.”

That kind of wider role for tax also requires people to place a greater emphasis on soft skills to promote their expertise across the business, including being able to articulate the opportunities at hand clearly, while responding to questions and challenges in return. They must be able to build trusted relationships and understand the nuances of working across cultures, embrace a global mindset and thrive on working with multicultural teams.

The right mindset and attitude are now key. Today’s professional must be agile, innovative and ready to handle uncertainty. They must also be proactive and team-centric when interacting with colleagues. More than ever, tax functions will need to engage with organization-wide technology and data programs to secure the strategic investment and functionality required.

“We’re all talking about how change is happening continuously and at speed,” says Stephanie Hamilton, EY Global Compliance and Reporting Talent Lead. “Being able to embrace that amount of change is an incredible skill to have. The transforming business environment is forcing people to be more transparent and authentic in how they collaborate and work with their teams.”

It’s no surprise, then, that a more widely developed skillset has become a key priority for tax professionals at every stage of their career. While young professionals starting out want to be clear on the skills required for the changing road ahead, experienced practitioners are equally concerned about ensuring they have the relevant skills to adapt. This may require upskilling or reskilling. “You need everyone to go on this journey,” says Smith, “as embracing technology is the only way to make its democratization successful and to release the benefits of investment.”

The race for talent

The backdrop of the broader race for talent has brought this topic into sharp relief for employers, too. As we live through the “Great Resignation,” with unprecedented numbers of people reconsidering their purpose at work and how they want to approach it, companies are scrambling to recruit the brightest talent, and it’s those candidates with the right skills who are holding all the cards.

“If somebody has tax experience with a strong technology thread running through their CV, and an appreciation of the power of data, they're the candidate everybody is clamoring for at the moment,” says Smith.

Even in today’s job market, many are looking strategically at what skills they need to bolster their CVs to stay relevant and be more in-demand going forward. Therefore, employers must ensure they have leading class, in-house training and skills development to nurture and retain the best talent.

The EY 2022 Work Reimagined Survey released in April showed that the largest number of employers (37%) saw improved learning and skills development as a key to helping employees thrive in a new work experience. It’s also something many employees are looking for: a quarter of workers would change jobs for better career advancement opportunities.

A diversity of experience and opportunities and premium learning programs are key offerings that will not only attract top candidates, but enable existing professionals to build the right skills. Balancing traditional tax technical learning with tech, data and transformation capabilities will provide the most rounded individuals in leading tax teams.

This is also evidenced by the 2022 EY Tax and Finance Operations Survey, which found that 95% of respondents believed their tax and finance personnel need to augment their tax technical skills with data, process and technology skills in the next two years. This aligns closely with the increased use of technology by tax authorities and financial regulators. In the US the Certified Public Accountant certification is going to include a technology component, whereas previously it was just accounting, auditing, tax and law. Likewise, universities are now offering Tax Digitalization and Tax Technology degrees, recognizing the growing relevance to aspiring tax professionals.

“The skills we’re looking for in our people are technology awareness and know-how, and technology qualifications are definitely something we’re seeing more of,” Smith adds. “So, it doesn’t surprise me that it’s now incorporated into the standard industry body offering.”

Smith offers the following practical steps to ensure the journey of recruitment and training is smooth:

• Create a vision for your tax function in the next 5, 10 and 20 years. You need a feel for what roles the function is going to fulfill, what resources you're going to bring in, what technology you're going to build or procure, and how you're going to work with other parts of the organization. Only then can you judge the skills you have now against those you need and assess the gap in between.
• Look at how you're drafting your role profiles for vacancies, who you're recruiting, and from where. Consider a more dynamic pool – such as the science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines, or other fields of business where you can attract individuals with diverse skillsets.
• Ask yourself how you are helping to build and refresh the necessary skills among your existing teams. When hiring from universities or other sectors, how are you bridging the gap between what they’ve learned as theory and what they now need to know practically? Make sure your training covers everything from tax technical to technology and data and, increasingly, the soft skills that will be essential when dealing with the C-suite and other parts of the business.
• Establish the role of outsourcing or co-sourcing. When facing challenges to recruit the people you need, consider easing the burden with resources and technology provided by trusted third parties. You can then focus on recruiting and developing the skills required for critical or sensitive in-house tasks, while outsourcing more general tasks.

“A lot of times we talk about this as the skills of the future, but it's really what we need our people to be developing now,” says Hamilton. “Every business is going to have different things to offer and deliver on it a little bit differently. But at the end of the day, we're out there competing for the same thing – trying to get the best talent that we possibly can into our organizations.”