Creating an Innovation-First Culture in Your Accounting Department

Innovation in accounting departments goes a long way. Accounting professionals know that we’re in the middle of the “perfect storm” in the industry. Talent crisis. Compliance requirements that continue to grow year-over-year. Market volatility. Rising expectations from boards, CFOs and investors.

An innovation-first culture helps firms:

• Remain competitive
• Survive the talent shortage
• Retain top talent
• Service organizations at a higher level

Creating an innovation-first culture isn’t a future initiative. In fact, it’s a present-day imperative. The benefits are too great, and the risks of delay are too high.

Why Innovation Can’t Wait for Today’s Workplace 

Hiring challenges and talent shortages are too challenging to go away overnight. Nine in ten professionals agree that technology can solve skill shortages and attract talent because we have to be honest:

• Fewer college graduates are taking up accounting.
• Many accounting professionals are leaving the industry.
• Accounting departments have to do more than ever, with less.

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Innovation helps alleviate these challenges while also boosting retention rates. The best talent is required to pick up the “slack,” so to speak, and they want to work with cutting-edge tools and companies.

Acceleration and transformation in technology is also undeniable. AI and automation are raising the bar, and the longer departments wait to adopt these new tools, the further they’ll fall behind.

Pair all of these things with strategic demands from boards and CFOs who want forward-looking insights, and it’s clear that accounting departments need to change. Innovative processes offer real-time, actionable intelligence that competitors are already offering.

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If departments want to retain talent and avoid watching their best people jump ship, it’s time to transition into an innovation-first culture. 

What an Innovation-First Culture Looks Like

Brainstorm a few times. Add a few software solutions. Seems innovative, right? But innovation must go beyond the solution and turn into a mindset shift at every level to be a true success.

Cultivating this mindset requires a few crucial elements:

Encourage Experimentation

For innovation to happen, teams require time. Accountants are often going from the moment they log onto their computers until they walk out the door.

Where’s the room for experimentation?

It’s at the bottom of the team’s to-do list. To create an innovation-first culture, you must allow everyone time to experiment. Consider how you can allot team members a certain number of hours to this task every week. 

Creating the conditions for experimentation is just the beginning. Sustaining innovation requires a culture where every voice matters. Input from all levels gets teams to “buy in” to the innovation culture. Promote question-asking from your team, invite open dialogue, and encourage cross-functional collaboration across departments.

Question-Asking

Encourage team’s curiosity and you’ll notice how they begin to ask better questions:

• Is this really the best way to complete this process?
• Are we wasting time on this process? 
• Can and should we automate this?

This type of critical thinking cultivates the mindset you want across departments.  A mindset focused on efficiency, improvement, and ownership. 

Support

People drive this type of cultural change, and tech is there to support it. You should offer encouragement, training, and feedback to support integral changes in your team’s culture.

Innovation-first cultures encourage accounting teams to ask questions and find solutions to problems that department heads might not even know exist. However, getting there takes intention.

Here are the steps to start building an innovation-first culture in your department.

Steps to Take to Transform into an Innovation Culture

Cultivating a culture of innovation is a team endeavor that starts from the top down. Identifying areas for improvement is a great place to start for department leaders.

Map Your Current Workflows

Innovation starts with having a clear picture of your current workflows. Take the time to map them out.

Then, start identifying:

• Redundancies
• Inefficiencies
• Bottlenecks

Once you have a list, use it to build a roadmap for improvement.

Introduce Auditable Automation & AI Agents

Today’s accounting departments have tools like AI agents and automation right at their fingertips. Technology can streamline tasks and open the door for your team to focus on experimenting and innovating processes.

Adopting new solutions is innovative in and of itself.

Start by automating obvious tasks, like:

• The close
• Compliance
• Reporting

FloQast can help you do all this and more, allowing your team to shift from “preparer” to “reviewer” with AI that’s secure, auditable, and transparent.

Remember, AI isn’t about replacing jobs; it’s about redefining your team’s role.

Redefine the Role of Your Team

Education is the gateway to innovation, so make continuous learning a key part of your culture. Give your team the space and flexibility they need to upskill and take on higher-value work.

It’s worth the investment to help give your team fulfillment and a competitive edge. And when you prioritize learning and development, you help make innovation a core part of your culture.

Learning platforms like FloQademy can help your team lead innovation (not fear it).

Celebrate Process Improvements

Reward your team for taking initiative and make innovation a part of your team goals and reviews.

Celebrate wins and lessons learned. Share ways to improve or iterate on experiments going forward. 

When your team is rewarded and recognized for their efforts to innovate, they will feel empowered to continue improving. And that empowerment goes beyond process improvement; it has a direct impact on retention and recruitment.

How Culture Helps Organizations Address The Talent Crisis

There’s no simple solution for the talent crisis. However, standing out in the crowd is even more important for attracting and retaining talent. Culture is one way to differentiate yourself. 

According to FloQast’s Controller’s Guidebook: When Accountants Dare to Dream, today’s accounting talent wants:

• Meaningful work
• Room to grow
• Modern tools

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Legacy processes are a fast track to burnout and higher turnover. They eat up your team’s time and increase the risk of errors.

Innovation-first departments, on the other hand, are talent magnets. Why? Because they feel empowered. They have access to modern tools, and the work is strategic.

When the accounting department can do its job without frustration and focus on rewarding tasks, they’re more likely to stay with the team.

The Takeaway

When you cultivate an innovation-first culture, improvement becomes a part of your department’s DNA. You give your team access to modern tools that do more than just help your department work more efficiently. They empower your team to have a say in how the work gets done and experiment with different processes. Not only will this help improve retention rates, but it will also help you build a future-ready department.