Creating a Strategic Advantage Through CFO/CHRO Alignment

In this day and age, it's critical for Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) and Chief Human Resources Officers (CHROs) to partner together with a shared sense of purpose to ensure a strategic advantage for their organizations. 

Consider the role of each in managing one of the largest costs to organizations today: healthcare benefits.  Due to the increasing cost of employer-sponsored healthcare, employee benefits are now often the third or fourth largest line item on an organization’s P&L. CFOs cannot ignore such a sizable expenditure, and must take a keen interest in understanding the underlying cost factors of providing medical coverage to workers.

CHROs are in a unique position to provide insight into these cost factors. Thus, CFOs and CHROs share the responsibility of managing human capital costs appropriately. Only with solid alignment between the objectives of the CFO and the CHRO will organizations continue to grow and prosper in today’s hyper competitive corporate climate.

We recently released an in-depth ebook which addresses not only the obstacles to creating CFO/CHRO alignment, but also the commonalities the two functions share, and the steps that must be taken to achieve proper alignment and sustainability of both financial resources and human capital resources in the coming years. You can download this free ebook/white paper simply by clicking here. It covers all of the following:

• The rise, fall, and rise (again) of HR
• CEO perceptions of the relative positions of Finance and HR within an organization
• Obstacles standing in the way of alignment
• Factors which promote alignment
• Where CFOs and CHROs stand in terms of what they want
• Key steps for collaboration
• How alignment benefits compensation, corporate strategy and employee benefits

With regard to this last bullet point, in particular, results of a recent IBI survey, according to WorldatWork, show most CFOs consider their health plan as an important tool to achieving strategic business goals and attracting, retaining, and engaging talent. In this view, they are in agreement with the beliefs of CHROs.

As CFOs and CHROs collaborate on appropriate benefits packages for employees, it is advantageous to partner with an experienced benefits broker to ensure the best compensation and benefits plan available. When CFOs and CHROs are both part of the conversation, skilled benefits brokers get a clearer picture of what is needed and how best to meet the challenges of the company.

Skilled benefits brokers can:

• Identify creative, lower-cost options for employee benefits, without raiding the benefits portfolio.
• Bend the cost curve through sustainable, ongoing efforts which provide in-year savings and cost protection over the long haul.
• Develop plan designs that provide for better cost-sharing between employer and employee.
• Provide benchmarking data to ensure that the organization is remaining competitive in its industry.

The partnership between CFOs, CHROs, and a professional benefits broker will result in significant cost savings and contribute to overall company growth. You can read more on this topic by downloading our latest white paper, or by contacting us to learn more.