The work model can be turned into a growth engine
Moran Sherf-Blau, CPA, founder and CEO of Total Finance, explains how to achieve a balance between home and work, and how to turn employees into a team that successfully meets challenges and helps commercial organizations push forward.
Gali Levita Leibovich, in collaboration with Total Finance | Sponsored content | July 12, 2023
A study measuring employee output, published in 2022 by Harvard Business School, found higher productivity at workplaces that adopted the hybrid model. The gains showed up in the three categories examined: emails sent, employee satisfaction, and product or service quality. Additional benefits were a better work–life balance and a reduced sense of "being alone." The results also pointed to a gain for employers, who rated these employees as high-quality and efficient.
"I'm proud of the environment we've created." Moran Sherf-Blau, CPA. Photo: Rami Levy
The study's findings do not surprise Moran Sherf-Blau, CPA, founder and CEO of Total Finance – one of the pioneers in Israel promoting the hybrid model. The company, owned by Sherf-Blau, provides business guidance and financial services – including CFO services, controllership, bookkeeping, and payroll – to international and Israeli companies across a range of industries, from the growth stage through IPO support and beyond. Its clients include public companies traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, Nasdaq, Canada, and London, as well as many startups.
"Long before COVID, we recognized the value of hybrid work and a flexible work environment that enables a balance between career and family. I am proud of the environment we have created, and of the fact that we lead the field with a female majority in management positions and a very high rate of employee and client retention," says Sherf-Blau.
Family photo. Photo: Livnat Baram
She adds that in her work at a leading accounting firm, she came to appreciate the added value of guiding businesses toward success, and became aware of the lack of representation of women in key positions at public companies, government companies, and boards. These insights underpin the founding vision of Total Finance – which addresses them, from empowering professionals and managers to creating a work environment that is both professional and family-like.
A real community and family
Sherf-Blau explains that the results of a healthy balance can be seen in employees' commitment and in their level of involvement in key processes with clients. This is also supported by the investment in finding the right candidates – professionally and interpersonally – as the basis for a successful model built on responsibility and trust. "The feedback we get from clients, and the fact that the growth in the company's activity comes mainly through recommendations and referrals from existing clients, is proof of how important the balance our employees and managers enjoy really is," she emphasizes. She adds that focused effort goes into creating a genuine community and family in which the team, the children, the families, and the clients all take an active part. This finds expression in a monthly activity devoted entirely to giving – such as distributing food to families in need, volunteering at various nonprofits, taking part in Good Deeds Day, meetings with Holocaust survivors, and more. In addition, a summer camp for the company's children is held at Sherf-Blau's home. The camp runs in August – a particularly challenging period: the long school holiday and the time when public companies' first-half reports are due.
How do you enable a family atmosphere without compromising on professionalism?
"That is a question I ask myself every day. As a mother of six, I know it is possible to create a balance between the desire to build a career and the home and family. The source of that balance is recognizing the need to invest in both worlds – and efficiency and flexibility are the key. Just as I want to be very present and dominant in my children's lives – something that, for me, comes at a personal price measured in hours of sleep – so too the children of all our employees and managers are an inseparable part of the office landscape. Professionally, too, when setting goals, each person is given the option to choose the path most comfortable for them to achieve objectives that are personally tailored and take into account the broad, personal considerations unique to each employee."
As a company that guides public companies traded on the stock exchange and leads top clients in Israel and abroad, how do you make this model succeed?
"I attribute the increase in output mainly to the way employees are measured, and to the importance of measuring success based on outputs and inputs rather than on where an employee happens to be at a given moment. That is in addition to assessing client satisfaction and measuring professional deliverables both quantitatively and qualitatively. To enable a balance that does not detract in the slightest from our success metrics, we also create a supportive environment and a real community with mutual responsibility, even in especially challenging times. One example is the rounds of fighting that affect us as a company based primarily in the city of Ashkelon. During those periods, including the COVID crisis, our work and service were not harmed, because the team did everything to meet its tasks – and it all begins and ends with the relationships we have managed to build together."
Why do you think the balanced model is still relatively rare in the job market?
"I believe this is a process that will gain momentum as more companies adopt our model. COVID offered a glimpse into a world we have been living in since the company was founded. It also showed that when you want to, you can provide the essential, important balance between family and community and a high professional level and meeting targets. The meaning is that, on the one hand, companies will adopt recruitment processes oriented toward the employee and toward hybrid work, and on the other, they will adopt tools for accurate, reliable measurement of output. In this way, both the employees and the company's owners come out ahead."
A female majority
Total Finance employs about 50 people, more than 90% of them women. Sherf-Blau, who founded the company, guides various companies through IPO processes on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, and serves as CFO of UserWay Ltd., a public company whose shares are traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. Her academic background includes an M.A. in accounting and honors in business administration with a specialization in accounting (B.A.). Her professional experience includes the PwC Israel accounting firm and more than 15 years providing accounting and economic services to a variety of private, public, and government bodies across various fields.
The company's head office is located in Ashkelon – Sherf-Blau's hometown – and the company has an additional branch in Ra'anana. In December 2022, the subsidiary Total Finance Inc. was launched, providing these financial services to American companies. Across all of this extensive activity, the vision that places employees' well-being at its center is put into practice.