Before the covid-19 pandemic, the Finance sector was already undergoing a transformation. With this in mind, Robert Walters conducted a survey of more than 5,500 professionals and 2,200 global companies in 31 countries to find out what factors will continue to drive change in the Finance function in the coming years.

The study shows that the five ''soft skills'' most in demand in the finance sector are Leadership & problem solving (48%); Risk assessment & analysis (36%); Research & reporting (24%); communication skills (23%) and business knowledge (20%).

The study reveals that the COVID-19 pandemic affected all business functions in organizations across all sectors. In some cases, the changes brought about by this pandemic proved positive for revenue growth, particularly economically critical sectors such as financial services and healthcare, while the performance of other sectors such as leisure & tourism and events were impacted significantly.

The impact was global and the resulting shift in priorities caused changes in business models and supply chains, as well as in back office functions such as finance.

For sectors that have been negatively impacted, such as retail, construction and leisure and tourism, the change in business is reflected in the decline in hiring of accounting and finance professionals in the past year.

However, in many other sectors - including venture capital & private equity (+6%), investment banking (+4%), online and digital (+4%) and healthcare (+3%), recruitment for finance professionals has gone against the general trend, and indeed we have seen an increase in job openings in the past year.

The study reveals that the sectors with the largest increases in Finance vacancies (2020-21) are:

Venture Capital & Private Equity +6.27%

Investment Banking +3.77%

Online & Digital +3.7%

Health +3.31%

Renewable Energy & Environment +3.14%

Financial Services +1.8%

Government Relations +1.7%

Search +1.2%

The sectors with the largest decline in Finance vacancies (2020-21), meanwhile, are:

Leisure, Travel & Tourism -4.7%

Hospitality -3.30%

Events -2.8%

Entertainment -1.7%

Clothing & Fashion -1.5%

Automotive -1.00%

The study also indicates that 40% of the world's companies have temporarily frozen finance hiring.

The hospitality & leisure and sports sector showed the highest rate of employee freezes within the finance function, with up to 90% of companies ceasing to actively hire finance professionals in the course of the pandemic.

The sectors that took the least action in relation to the finance sector to contain any impact of COVID-19 were banking & financial services, technology, legal, insurance and large accounting firms.