Finance is a profession under pressure. We know that the level of stress and burnout is a serious concern across the workforce in general – and there’s mounting evidence that the problem is even more widespread in finance and accounting jobs.

In the UK, Labour pledged to introduce a right to switch off, preventing staff from having to respond to messages from work outside their contracted hours but that measure did not make it into the Employment Rights Bill.

It’s unclear whether the idea has been dropped entirely, but on its own, it surely would not have been enough to tip finance people’s work-life balance in a healthier direction.

What the data tells us

One in three adults suffered high or extreme levels of pressure or stress ‘always’ or ‘often’ last year, according to a survey of 4,000 people by Mental Health UK. That brings the risk of burnout – defined as a state of physical, mental and emotional exhaustion experienced by people under long-term stress and constant pressure.

We recently commissioned research into 1,000 CFOs specifically, which revealed the scale of the challenge facing the profession, with a staggering 82% of finance leaders saying they feel stressed out at work, either often/all the time (40%) or sometimes (42%).

The likelihood of burnout is clear. 93% of leaders surveyed said they work more hours than contracted and almost a third put in a day’s unpaid work every month.

Regularly working unpaid hours is recognised as a common source of workplace burnout, as are staff shortages, talent shortfalls, digital skills shortages and a lack of workers’ rights. Gartner found that a third of accountants admit to ‘at least a few’ financial errors a week because they are overstretched, speaking to the far-reaching impacts of burnout.

It’s not hard to think of some factors that might make finance an inherently stressful job. There’s the need for accuracy. The pressure of audit and compliance. The pass/fail nature of accounting, where something either adds up or it doesn’t. Some of these may be in the nature of the job – but can we avoid making the work more stressful than it needs to be?

Challenging the stigma

It’s hard to know how widespread stress and burnout were in the past. There has historically been a reluctance to talk about mental health in the workplace.

Recently I talked to Becky Glover, director of finance and technology and board member at Yutree Insurance, about the attitude towards mental health in the insurance sector. ‘Sadly, there is still a stigma when it comes to talking about stress in the finance space,’ she admitted.

The finance profession comes with its own set of challenges and stress drivers. The finance function has evolved significantly in recent years, becoming central to the success and resilience of the organisation. With this comes greater pressure and heightened expectations.

Those in senior positions often feel they should be taking the brunt of the stress on behalf of their team, too, leaving many to cope as best they can in silence.

But a new generation of employees is challenging the status quo. ‘Luckily, the younger generation entering the workforce today appears to be more comfortable talking about stress and are more aware of its far-reaching negative effects,’ Glover said.

When systems make things worse

Plenty of people in finance would welcome an official right to switch off. Everyone needs healthy boundaries between work and personal life.

But that kind of official measure will not do the job on its own. Often, the reason people cannot switch off is not that they have a boss who won’t let them. It’s that there is a mountain of unfinished work nagging away at them.

When we look at SME finance teams specifically, it does not help that many have a productivity problem linked to outmoded systems. In a lot of midmarket organisations, finance teams spend a great deal of time on repetitive manual tasks or wrangling data in spreadsheets.

As a result, 30% of midmarket finance leaders say it can take over two weeks to complete month-end processes. Although seven days is considered best practice, 13% say that month-end can take more than three weeks. There’s a legion of stressed-out finance people working unsustainable hours to get these monthly processes over the line.

But digital finance transformation offers a hopeful future for midmarket finance teams. Modern finance systems that allow for automation can streamline many of the time-consuming manual tasks that finance teams are burdened with monthly. This means there’s no need for things like bank reconciliation, accounts payable or intercompany eliminations to be done the old-fashioned way.

Better tech attracts talent

Clunky systems don’t just add to the pressure. They also risk putting off the new talent that could be key to solving the stress problem.

And a people shortage is contributing to burnout in finance teams. So much so, that 80% of the CFOs in our survey were concerned about a lack of new talent in the sector.

The solution lies with a new generation – the same one that is more prepared to talk about mental health and stands up for its own wellbeing. However, young professionals that have grown up with user-friendly, intuitive software on their smartphones may well run a mile from the manual processes and unwieldy systems that still exist in many midmarket finance departments.

As Glover said: ‘Embracing technology will be key. The younger generation is used to using technology in day-to-day life, and if a workplace isn’t tech-forward, it will fail to attract, retain and upskill these candidates.’

Clunky processes do nothing to change the perception of finance as a tedious job, preoccupied with tiny details. And there’s a vicious circle at work here: stressful, outmoded ways of working make the profession less attractive, fuelling a skills deficit, which in turn adds to the stress.

The joined-up solution

A more joined-up approach is needed to tackle stress in finance. Clearer workplace guidelines and better practices will be part of it. But there will have to be technological transformation.

Digital finance transformation that can shrink hours of work into moments will be part of the solution. Modern finance systems can take care of the most time-consuming, error-prone manual tasks – freeing up time for more strategic, value-adding work. But also relieving staff of the anxiety about what mistakes might have got into the system.

We know there’s a stereotype that finance and accounting jobs are tedious and monotonous. Technology that really does make those jobs tedious and monotonous won’t do.

Better finance systems are not about replacing people. They’re about releasing people to do their best work; the work that only humans can do well.

That’s important at a time when the remit of the finance team is getting bigger. With an increasing need for real-time, actionable data; integration and cross-functional collaboration with other departments; and major legislative changes coming down the line. Not to mention data-driven issues such as ESG and gender pay handed to finance to report on.

By freeing up people to do more strategic work, the organisation gets better value, while the individual benefits from more rewarding jobs and a sensible work-life balance.

Everybody wins.

About the author

Olivia McMillan, chief operating officer at iplicit. Download the Adding to the Pressure iplicit report