A survey of over 290 HR Directors, professionals and company managers has revealed that 94% believe HR and finance teams should work together more closely to help optimise company performance and profits. A further 87% stated that Finance Directors could do more to approve and drive the implementation of HR technologies.
The survey, carried out by leading international HR and finance software solutions supplier Talentia Software, examined both the financial and recruitment challenges faced by HR departments during recent years of economic instability.
Asked about HR’s role within organisations over the last three years, 29% of respondents felt that HR was given less prominence in the boardroom, with only 24% believing that more resource was committed to it during the downturn. 70% of HR professionals revealed, however, that finance and senior management executives were supportive of the HR function – even if the investment in additional resource was not being made.
The survey also revealed interesting findings regarding future business growth and recruitment. 58% of respondents said that their organisations had found it more challenging to recruit the right talent into their business compared with three years ago – yet only 17% believed that their organisations were more likely to look at the 50+ age bracket for future recruitment in order to expand HR capabilities.
The results follow findings published recently in a Talentia Software whitepaper that asked Finance Directors and Chief Financial Officers about the challenges faced by finance departments. This highlighted widespread demand for greater transparency between departments and mirrored the software company’s latest HR survey, albeit to a lesser extent, with 54% of respondents believing that greater collaboration was needed.
“The feedback received from HR professionals that responded to our survey clearly demonstrates the importance of cross-departmental collaboration in order for businesses to achieve their collective goals,” says Julie Windsor, Managing Director at Talentia Software UK.
“As the economy shows signs of recovery, the results gathered from this survey illustrate the challenges that many businesses have faced in attracting and retaining key staff in recent years,” adds Julie Windsor. “With today’s organisations demanding more of their HR professionals than ever before, it is essential for businesses to have appropriate and flexible solutions in place to enable them to identify and increase the key skills needed to achieve strategic goals. Recruiting the right people into the right positions in the right time frame is critical to this.”
