Expert report
The importance of investing in corporate tax technology to meet employee expectations today — empowering them to be the tax team of tomorrow.The corporate tax function brings unique challenges for its leaders. For some time, in-house tax functions have laboured under growing and enormous pressure from tax regulators globally to deliver greater tax governance with fewer resources.
As organisations continue to navigate out of the pandemic and operate in the new norm, a concerning trend has appeared globally, with many professionals seeking new employment opportunities in their post-pandemic lives. In a 2021 survey, 65% of professionals said the pandemic made them rethink the importance of work and its contribution to their lives. The scale of resignations globally is record-breaking, with one survey in the UK indicating one in four professionals are considering resigning. This is a concern for organisations and leaders on the potential implications it will bring for productivity and talent management for the teams.
Forward-thinking tax leaders should be prepared to tackle this challenge — especially if their corporate tax function relies heavily on labour-intensive and out-of-date reporting and compliance processes. To meet talent retention goals and maintain positive employee sentiment, tax leaders should evaluate the employee experience they are providing their teams. Tax professionals increasingly place importance on team culture, opportunities for growth, training, career development, and critically, the resources and digital tools provided to complete their complex tasks. Organisations cannot afford to lose talented corporate tax professionals to competitors or other fields. Forward-thinking tax leaders will need to ensure they meet their team’s expectations on how they want to be enabled to do their jobs successfully. Technology can and will play a critical part in allowing tax teams to succeed by automating boring, manual and complex tax reporting processes. It can also play an essential role in improving team morale, engagement, collaboration and overall employee satisfaction.
Automation of tax processes offers people a better, more varied work experience. It provides an opportunity to step away from the ‘business as usual’ to more value-add activities. In this sense, it is important not just for efficiency but in many ways for people’s job satisfaction.
