Benefits of customized “Finance for Non-Finance Learning”

So, your organization adds your name to the list of delegates to attend the Finance for Non-Finance Learning or the lengthier Finance Programme offered by an esteemed Business School…

You’re totally anxious about this, as you remember doing Accounting at school, and the bit of Finance you learnt after school, but that just went in one ear and out the next, and you just don’t see the point in this. Your Finance Team has tried to explain things in the past, but that also wasn’t done very well and you’re afraid to keep asking them for fear of ridicule.

You get by each year and make it through the budget process, you sign off expenses, you make decisions that impact the bottom line, and you provide monthly feedback to the best of your knowledge to the Finance Team… but you feel like you’re “winging” it most of the time.

Does this resonate with you?

Do you truly understand:

• where the numbers come from?
• where they go to?
• all the terminology like accruals, return on investment and EBIDTA?
• what they mean? and
• how to interpret them?

in order to make more informed decisions that will result in a healthier organization or department?

More importantly, do you understand it enough to be comfortable in your job, confident that you know what you’re doing, and not to be anxious about it?
Why do you need finance skills?

To…

• Understand the language spoken by the Finance Team
• Break down silos between non-Finance Teams and Finance Teams
• Be more informed to make decisions
• Be more confident to make decisions and understand the numbers
• Understand the numbers for the benefit of your Organization
• Realize that every decision we make has a financial impact
• Converse better and negotiate with customers and clients on pricing
• Negotiate that sales deal with a client
• Converse with a banking client on their financials
• Sign off on the financials as an EXEC
• Understand what the CFO is saying at Board Meetings so you can ask important questions
• Help your organization to get out of difficult times when the going is tough
• Help to enhance revenue / income
• Help to contain costs / OPEX
• Make more profit!

If you’re the person that’s just getting by, you’re not alone. Finance is a secret language reserved only for the inner Finance Club. The Finance Team may try to explain it to you, but most of the time they don’t succeed as they have studied it for 5 years and practiced it, but unfortunately, they don’t know how to bridge the divide from speaking Finance, to explaining Finance for everyone to understand.

Back to the “Vanilla” Learning

So, to get back to the training you’ve been enrolled in…… you sit in the lessons, listen to the facilitator, do the exercises and they make sense eventually. You get to scrutinize the P&L and the Balance Sheet, you have a few “AHA” moments and get to understand finance far better than you did last week.

But this is far more information than you need or you will ever use, it’s probably not going to be retained and how the heck are you going to use all of this new knowledge in your job?

How can you apply it? Does it even apply to your role in the organization? Yes, there may be a few case studies that are applicable to your role, but it’s not customized to your organization or to your responsibilities.

It’s “VANILLA”, and it’s not going to help as it was supposed to.

This is the reason why so many organizations are opting for customized finance learning solutions. Learning that is designed to educate the basic finance principles, but is also customized using the organization’s transactions, reports, case studies and Finance processes. This ensures the learning is real, usable from day 1, and highly impactful. Some post-learning coaching and integration is sometimes also necessary to ensure the learning is embedded and fully utilized.

Some learning organizations are also gamifying the learning, and this is also a fantastic way to ensure engagement during the learning process.

WINNING OUTCOMES of Finance Learning Customized for your Organization.

Gamified + Customized = Winning Outcomes

Addresses specific tailored learning outcomes

• Empowering
• Highly relevant
• Highly effective
• Gets employees back to work ASAP
• Makes a difference to the bottom line
• Cures financial anxiety
• Helps ensure happier employees

Financial education offers powerful benefits to the organization and establishes that every employee is a decision-making agent. For the best outcomes, create learning experiences that stick and make teams financially savvy and confident.