Relational versus Return on Investment HR professionals
The following paragraph is from my first blog several months ago. The next three paragraphs are taken from a Society HR Management article that I read recently. The relationship between the two will be quite obvious.
In my 20+ years of being the VP of HR for four different companies I have heard the following from CEOs and CFOs: “HR has no idea how much they are costing us!!” “Do they have a clue how much it takes to pay for the stuff they do?!?” “I asked HR what the Return on Investment was on a project and they had no idea!!” “Don’t they understand that they have to bring Value to the table?”
A recent survey of corporate CFOs highlighted financial executives' concerns about rising health and pension benefits costs, while a poll of HR managers showed their top rewards priority to be helping employees to better understand their benefits.
The Grant Thornton survey of U.S. CFOs, conducted in June 2012 with results released at the end of September, revealed that U.S. CFOs believe the biggest barrier to employee and company financial growth is the cost of employee benefits, with 56 percent identifying health care and pensions as the prime culprits.
In contrast, a September 2012 poll of HR managers showed that educating employees about their benefits was a top goal, while controlling costs, either for the organization or for plan participants, ranked low on their scale. (Emphasis added.)
Communication of an employee’s benefits are clearly important. However, in the current economy, the implementation and cost increases inherent in Obamacare and other taxes that are increasing – the financial implication of compensation and benefits must be the first priority.
Clark Ingram, MBA, SPHR, CEBS, CPCU is the Founder and President of People Profits, LLC which is a financially oriented Human Capital Strategy and Planning firm based in the OKC metro area. www.PeopleProfits.com. ©2012 People Profits
