In a recent analysis, Deloitte explored a long-recognized but still growing challenge in the accounting and finance fields: attracting and retaining talent, especially in large public companies. More than 82 percent of hiring managers at public companies polled by the global technology consultancy reported that talent retention is a big challenge compared with nearly 69 percent of hiring managers at private companies.
For organizations facing this challenge, RPA and intelligent automation is becoming increasingly important to remaining competitive. While more than a third of hiring managers cited simply the need for more headcount to fill their vacant spots, more than 20 percent identified technological skills including RPA and AI as the biggest factor driving the kind of talent organizations are looking to attract.
More colleges and universities are recognizing the need for that kind of talent in accounting and finance.
“I know that a lot of the large companies are going through large finance transformation projects at this time,” Matthew Hurley, a senior manager at Deloitte Advisory, told Fortune in an interview. “They’ve got lots of new technology including A.I. and machine learning. They’re looking at ERP [enterprise resource planning] upgrades and updates. If you look at the curriculum of an accounting major today, at a lot of universities you’ll see that they’re taking courses on machine learning, robotic process automation, new analytics and statistics courses.”