05Feb
By: Cherry Birch On: February 5, 2020

I am delighted to be the guest speaker for Lorissa Garcia later this month at her HR Round Table. I am excited to be addressing the financial aspects of being perceived as a trusted business partner.

If you are in an HR role, then you have probably heard:

“HR people need a better understanding of the business.”

“HR people need to be more commercially savvy.”

But what does this even mean?!

To become a more trusted HR partner, HR practitioners need to understand the basics of how their businesses work – the people, the money AND the metrics. They need to understand the terminology, financial objectives, key business drivers, the financial strengths, constraints and challenges and how their decisions as people partners impact the bottom line.

I rather like this quote from Dr John Sullivan of San Francisco State University:

“HR professionals need to decide if they are protectors of the people or working to drive business results.

Many would argue they should be both.

However, to be able to be perceived as the latter requires demonstrating a strong understanding of the business and its financial strengths and challenges – which is impossible without sound financial acumen. How else can HR be confident in its communication of the positive impact which can result from people centric initiatives? I would argue that HR business partners should have a seat at the senior executive table, even at the Board table, but that sadly is not often the case.

The HR Round Table is scheduled for 10.00 AEDT on February 18, 2020 and it is free. Here is the link to the Eventbrite booking page.

See you there!