Dive Brief:

• In the past, the CFO and the leader for HR may have been put in silos away from one another. For today’s workforce, CFOs and HR need to work together to create a more competitive workforce, reports Business Insider.
• Business Insider interviewed CFO Chris Gobalakrishna from Workstride. “A strong HR focus can strengthen a company's ability to find and retain top employees, cut down on training expenses, and deliver a higher level of employee value,” Business Insider reported.
• Gobalakrishna revealed four ways that HR and the CFO can forge a stronger connection that helps the whole workforce, including: involve HR in planning, share key metrics with HR, push HR to meet quantitative goals, and having the CFO advocate for employee development when speaking with their executive team.

Dive Insight:

HR often has a lot of questions, particularly concerning metrics, that the financial analytic side can easily assist with.

“HR needs information from the executive team as to what resources, capabilities, and skill sets will be needed to keep the company competitive,” Gobalakrishna told Business Insider. “The CFO usually has insights into all of these areas because of his or her involvement in budgeting."

But in turn, HR needs to track its own clearly defined metrics, such as retention, employee satisfaction, and compensation analysis, so that it can be held to the same rigor as other departments, Gobalakrishna said. That way, the CFO can serve as an advocate for HR in the executive suite – though, of course, companies could also consider hiring a CHRO, too.