Research

Previous APQC research has shown that future finance professionals will need skills in the areas of business process management, technology and automation, and advanced analytics. To expound on these findings, APQC conducted research into the talent needs of the future finance function. This research explores the most important skills for future finance professionals to possess and which talent management approaches—recruiting, development, and retention—finance functions are using to prepare. The research helps identify best practices for recruiting, developing, and retaining finance talent to meet evolving business needs.

In partnership with ERM subject matter expert and thought leader Dr. Paul Walker (Schiro/Zurich Chair in Enterprise Risk Management at St. John’s University), APQC launched its Evolving Practices in Enterprise Risk Management study to understand the current practices and tools of enterprise risk management (ERM) at organizations and how these practices are evolving in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. This project gathered both survey as well as interview data and focused on the following scope areas: ERM processes and practices; what organizations do to drive a culture of ERM; ERM tools and technology for understanding, modeling, and reporting risk; and how ERM teams measure their success and demonstrate the value of ERM in their organizations.

Business closures over the past year necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic have resulted in many back-office professionals working remotely, and APQC’s research finds that the virtual work phenomenon is expected to continue, with more and more finance professionals working in hybrid work environments (e.g., part-time in the office, part-time virtual). And as a result, many finance processes, such as closing the books, and the external audit of the financial statements, by necessity were also conducted virtually over the past year, resulting in some unanticipated challenges that had to be dealt with as well as unanticipated benefits. The purpose of this research collection is to convene/curate content to help finance functions conduct their processes better in the more virtual world of the future.

This research showcases findings from APQC's Current State of the HR Function Survey. Use the resources in the collection to understand how top performing HR functions handle core aspects of HR, including strategy, structure, staff, processes, technology, and analytics.

APQC's HR Customer Satisfaction Survey asked workers across industries and job levels about their experiences with HR. Their answers shed light on ways to improve and maintain a satisfying HR experience for employees.

Companies are increasing their focus on improving and expanding their DEI efforts across the organization. Using a survey and case studies, this research examined common DEI practices and challenges and identified key requirements for supporting DEI in spirit and practice. Using the research findings, organizations will be able to benchmark their DEI practices and progress against peer and best-in-class organizations.

KM programs are changing quickly, and KM leaders need up-to-date benchmarks to understand those changes and guide their programs in the best possible direction. This research explores how KM programs are currently structured, their investments in people, processes, and technology, and how those investments translate into ROI.

This research focuses on KM’s relationship with internal customer groups and how KM is applied in different parts of the business. APQC looks at which areas of the organization are ideal strategic targets for KM, which require specialized KM support, and how KM should work with each stakeholder group to help it protect and manage its knowledge.

Wasted time, duplicated work, and inefficient processes affect an organization’s bottom line. Small inefficiencies add up—and they also impede innovation, agility, customer experience, and other drivers of competitive advantage. In this research, APQC sought to gauge the impact of inferior knowledge and process management on individual employees and—by extension—business outcomes. This research assesses the relative value of various interventions to better define and standardize work and connect employees to one another and the information they need to work effectively.

If the rate of change outside is greater than the rate of change inside, organizations will quickly be surpassed by the competition.  Benchmarking accelerates the rate of change and supports large-scale transformation—it’s also now being performed at a rapid, cost-effective pace. Benchmarking is here to stay. However, the process for how we benchmark and what we benchmark has shifted. This research focuses on understanding the impact and importance benchmarking has on your ability to make important and informed decisions.

Most merger & acquisition (M&A) deals tend to fall apart in the integration phase. Whether it’s underestimating the costs of integrations, setting unrealistic timelines, struggles with merging cultures, or mis-scoping the integration process approximately 70 percent of integrations fail. This research includes findings from a survey conducted by APQC to understand the key practices for ensuring a successful M&A integration. In addition to best practices, it also explores the roles of data & analytics, process management, and knowledge management teams on value achievement.

An end-to-end process mindset is often necessary to help organizations achieve their goals because strategic goals are rarely functional in nature. They are large-scale issues such as improving organizational agility, becoming customer-centric, or entering a new market. Such goals rely on understanding how the organization creates value and aligns the purpose of its processes.

APQC conducted research, sponsored by Esker Inc., to understand how organizations can enable better customer service and alleviate critical challenges facing both customer service and order fulfillment teams. Organizations are facing changes in customer behavior resulting from the pandemic and global disruptions to supply chains. Because customer service interactions are moments of truth with customers, understanding how to optimize the surrounding processes is critical. This research in this collection focused on the context for the need for change in customer service organizations, aligning customer service strategy and measures, re-examining the role of customer service professionals, shifting behavior and rationalizing systems, and moving toward proactive customer service.

APQC conducts frequent quick polls to collect information about the use and planned adoption of key practices, tools, technologies, software, and other activities in supply chain to report out in a fast and meaningful way.