THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS
Provided by the career experts at Robert Half Management Resources

Today’s accounting and finance professionals are used to having a lot on their plates, but a new survey shows that growing to-do lists could be taking their toll. More than one in three (26 per cent) chief financial officers (CFOs) interviewed cited heavy workloads as the number-one workplace concern for their financial teams. Work/life balance ranked second with 24 per cent of the response.

The survey was developed by Robert Half Management Resources, the world’s premier provider of senior-level accounting and finance professionals on a project and interim basis. It was conducted by an independent research firm and includes responses from 270 CFOs from a stratified random sample of Canadian companies with 20 or more employees.

Executives were asked, “Which one of the following do you think is the greatest source of work-related concerns for finance and accounting professionals?” Their responses:

Heavy workloads	..............................................	26%
Work/life balance issues	..............................................	24%
Corporate governance	..............................................	14%
Personnel Issues	..............................................	10%
Job security……	..............................................	9%
None of these	..............................................	4%
Don’t know/Other	..............................................	13%
		100%

“The combination of compliance mandates, traditional projects and shifting priorities has challenged accounting and finance professionals to keep up with their growing workloads,” said Max Messmer, chairman and CEO of Robert Half Management Resources and author of Human Resources Kit For Dummies^®, 2nd Edition (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.). “The problem is further compounded by a shortage of highly skilled candidates in many specialties.”

Messmer continued, “Managers should closely monitor employees’ workloads to right any imbalances and maximize the productivity of the entire group. This might include realigning responsibilities, reprioritizing assignments and bringing in temporary support during peak activity periods.”

About the Survey
The survey was developed by Robert Half Management Resources, the world’s premier provider of senior-level accounting and finance professionals on a project and interim basis. It was conducted by an independent research firm and is based on more than 270 telephone interviews with CFOs from a random sample of Canadian companies with 20 or more employees. For the study to be statistically representative and ensure that companies from all segments are represented, the sample was stratified by industry and number of employees. The results were then weighted to reflect the proper proportions of the number of employees within each industry.