Financial Planning and Analysis: Build a Team That Drives Real Business Impact

Article

Tomorrow's financial leaders won't just report what happened—they'll shape what happens next.

Finance and accounting leaders are under pressure from all sides. Robert Half’s latest Demand for Skilled Talent report reveals that 71% are dealing with skills gaps on their teams, and 72% say these gaps have become more problematic over the past year. Despite this challenge, leaders must still pursue important improvements in areas like planning, budgeting and forecasting, their second highest priority for 2025.

While talent shortages complicate execution, the business case for strong financial planning and analysis (FP&A) remains compelling, and companies that master these capabilities can gain a real competitive edge in today's unpredictable markets. Following are some practical approaches to strengthen your FP&A and budget forecasting capabilities.

Financial Planning Excellence: Building Top FP&A Teams

The human factor: Why talent drives financial planning success
Addressing the talent gap in financial planning
Building essential skills for modern financial planning
Keeping top financial planning talent engaged
The future belongs to agile finance teams

The human factor: Why talent drives financial planning success

The talent crunch makes everything harder. With 46% of finance leaders facing headcount budget limits and 93% struggling to find qualified candidates, you need to be strategic about where you invest your limited resources.

Today's most effective finance departments include professionals who connect traditional accounting knowledge with data science skills. Teams with analysts who know advanced forecasting techniques can spot important trends that simple spreadsheet analysis would miss.

When your financial planning and analysis team clearly understands company goals, they focus on work that truly moves the business forward. However, working across departments remains a major challenge. Robert Half found that 47% of finance leaders identify cross-functional collaboration as their biggest obstacle. Breaking these silos down requires deliberate planning and consistent communication between teams.

Addressing the talent gap in financial planning

Here are some key considerations when recruiting and hiring professionals to build strong financial planning and analysis teams that consistently deliver results:

Emphasize strategic impact in job descriptions. Top finance candidates are attracted to roles where they can influence decisions. Show applicants that your financial planning and analysis positions involve real business partnerships rather than back-room calculations.

Look beyond technical skills during interviews. Financial modeling expertise matters, but the best planning professionals blend this with business sense and communication ability. Assess how candidates translate complex data into clear insights, particularly when they explain their approach to budget forecasting.

Include operational leaders in the interview process. Let potential FP&A hires meet the business leaders they'll support. This demonstrates your commitment to cross-departmental collaboration and gives candidates practical insight into how financial planning and analysis actually works in your organization.

Consider non-traditional backgrounds for financial planning roles. Some of the best FP&A talent sometimes comes from adjacent fields like business analysis, data science or operations. These professionals often bring fresh perspectives and complementary skills that enhance forecasting techniques. Look for candidates with analytical mindsets and business acumen who can be trained in finance-specific knowledge.

Create a compelling employer brand for finance talent. FP&A professionals in greatest demand research potential employers carefully. Showcase your financial planning team's achievements and impact through social media highlights, industry speaking engagements, and case studies placed on the company website careers page or on the firm’s LinkedIn page.

Work together with specialized talent solutions firms. Companies like Robert Half connect you with pre-evaluated finance professionals who are ready to help contribute immediately. Highly skilled recruiters understand exactly what makes someone successful in financial planning and analysis and can match you with candidates who fit your specific needs.

Building essential skills for modern financial planning

Once you've assembled your FP&A team, your talent management work isn't completely done. Even the most skilled professionals need ongoing development to keep pace with forecasting trends and demands.

Advanced modeling and scenario planning top the list of must-have capabilities. Your analysts need to create solid models and run multiple "what-if" situations to explore different possible futures. When teams regularly practice scenario planning as part of budget forecasting, they become much better at spotting risks and opportunities early and adapting quickly.

A good understanding of the business separates solid analysts from exceptional ones. Savvy finance leaders build this knowledge by giving promising team members temporary assignments in operational departments. This hands-on experience gives planning staff real insights into market conditions and business challenges, making them much more effective partners when applying various forecasting techniques.

What is key for finance teams is their ability to communicate effectively. The best analysts can transform numbers into narratives that drive action. But when your team members are able to explain complex data clearly and connect it to business goals, executives listen. Finance professionals who present technical budget forecasting findings as compelling stories about business opportunities gain a stronger voice in key decisions and become trusted advisors rather than just report creators. Consider implementing monthly practice sessions where analysts present their findings to colleagues who roleplay as executives, with constructive feedback to sharpen their storytelling and presentation skills.

Keeping top financial planning talent engaged

Finding and training skilled FP&A professionals solves only part of the equation—keeping them on your team matters just as much. Smart retention approaches center on meaningful work and clear growth paths.

Give your best people challenging assignments that showcase their abilities. Top finance talent craves meaningful problems to solve. When you entrust key team members with leadership roles in significant financial planning and analysis projects, you achieve three important goals:

Better project outcomes from your most capable staff

Stronger loyalty as they see their impact on the business

Personal growth through tackling complex challenges

Don't underestimate the impact of modern tools on job satisfaction. Robert Half found that 45% of finance leaders struggle with outdated technology. When talented professionals waste hours on manual tasks that could be automated:

Productivity drops as time gets consumed by low-value work

Job satisfaction declines as frustration mounts

Skilled analysts consider moving to more progressive companies

Create viable career paths for ambitious finance professionals. Robert Half research shows FP&A is the area with the most critical skills gaps, so growth opportunities are extremely valuable. When you map out clear advancement steps and support training in advanced forecasting techniques, you give your best people compelling reasons to stay and grow with your organization.

Creating a welcoming team culture rounds out your retention strategy. Finance professionals want to work where their efforts are noticed and their unique perspectives are valued. When you consistently connect the dots between their financial planning and analysis work and the company's success, routine tasks gain deeper meaning. Team members who see how their spreadsheets and models help to achieve business goals develop stronger loyalty and greater personal investment in outcomes.

The future belongs to agile finance teams

Tomorrow's financial leaders won't just report what happened—they'll shape what happens next. By addressing talent challenges creatively, you position your company to make better decisions, respond more quickly to market shifts and ultimately outperform competitors who haven't prioritized their financial planning capabilities.

Upload resume Hire talent

Building High-Impact Teams for Profitability Analysis

How AI-Enabled Finance Functions Can Help Companies Navigate Macroeconomic Challenges More Effectively

How AI and Analytics Tools for Finance Teams Can Help Small Businesses Sharpen Their Competitive Edge