The human resource department is complex for a number of reasons, centered on the fact that people are complex, their motives are complex, and their decisions are complex. Not surprisingly, whether you’re a large or small company, your finance and human resource executives likely have a love/hate relationship. You’re not alone.
A controversial article by David McCann discussed a very interesting viewpoint arguing that human resources have been poorly managed for decades and should evolve to be driven more metrics, similar to the departments of finance.
I personally don’t side so strongly with David that most HR departments aren’t run strategically, but I do acknowledge that I have seen many departments that put the company at a greater financial and legal liability than they are intending. I absolutely think that all high-level, strategic HR decisions should be made by an executive team with metrics and impact reports provided by the head of finance, namely the CFO.
For those businesses too small to have a full-time CFO, the advice and perspective of a part-time, experienced CFO should be consulted. The potential savings, potential costs avoided or potential benefits to the employee talent pool to be garnished will be well worth the money.
