A clear goal or milestone sets the direction and scope of your roadmap, and focuses the user on the critical outcomes and ROI.

The second component of the worksheet is the identification of the skill or capability gap you need to add or improve to achieve your goal or milestone. For example, low-code/no-code extract-transform-load (ETL) tools and knowledge to compress reporting timelines. The skill or capability gap should be directly linked to the goal/milestone and related ROI. The more granular the better, which requires the following: 

Once you have clearly defined the skill or capability gap, you can then determine next steps for resource investments and team decisions.

The third component of the worksheet is the skill location, which is the identification of where the skill or capability can or should live, within your organization or externally, and the risk of various options. You can invest in a single team member, train a larger team, and/or tap external expertise. Several factors contribute to this decision, including:

The fourth component of the worksheet is the assessment of your current team, which is the evaluation of your current team members' “skill and will” components in relation to the skill or capability gap. The skill components are the current skill level and the ability to learn, and the will components are the time to invest and the desire to pursue.  

To determine these, nothing beats individual dialogue with your team members, which is hopefully not a one-off exercise and is part of your ongoing mentorship of team members. While you may need additional assistance to accurately assess current competencies in a specific area, it is telling that three of the four areas of the assessment are forward looking (ability, time, desire). This is critical to understand the intersection of your current and future functional needs with the personal development agendas of each of your team members, and how both impact the decisions you will make to address the identified capability gap.

By assessing your current team's skill and will, you have a framework that supports not only a specific skill or capability improvement, but also a roadmap for individual team members. This is a no-lose benefit of the resourcing roadmap exercise, as the current team assessment impacts future editions of the resourcing roadmap for other capabilities, making decisions faster and easier.

The fifth and final component of the worksheet is the decision matrix, which is the finite number of options available to take the next step toward the capability goal or milestone. The options are: 



Note that the decisions are not mutually exclusive. For example, you could shift team loads and outsource aspects of the targeted capability, leveraging external resources to move more quickly (and help train your team) while starting to build internal capacity for longer-term ownership or redundancy.

The Finance Resourcing Playbook is more than just a guide and worksheet. It is a strategic tool that can help CFOs and their teams achieve the following benefits:
Enhance team and process readiness:

The playbook can help you identify and address the gaps and weaknesses in your team and processes, and ensure that you have the right skills and capabilities to meet your goals and expectations. By using the playbook, you can optimize your talent development, succession planning, outsourcing decisions, and future technology investments, improving long-term functional efficiency and productivity.

Foster a culture of continuous learning and development:

The playbook can also help you create a culture of L&D within your function. The dialogue around the playbook can encourage your team members to think through their own development roadmaps and the role of new skills and capabilities. This offers them more input and control over their career trajectories, a major driver of positive attitude and retention.

Drive organizational growth and resilience:

The playbook can ultimately help you drive organizational growth and resilience in the face of change. By using the playbook, you can align your team and processes with functional goals and stakeholder expectations, even when and as they change. The faster you can process capability gaps and make the critical decisions on next steps, the more value you are able to drive throughout your organization.

The Finance Resourcing Playbook is a framework and tool for finance leaders and their teams to navigate the evolving landscape of workforce readiness. It provides a comprehensive and practical framework to assess and enhance team and process readiness, and ensure that you are able to bridge any gaps to stakeholder expectations, support your teams, and meet your own goals for advancement of the finance and accounting function. If you want to learn more about the Finance Resourcing Worksheet, a copy of the worksheet is provided at the end of this guide.