CFOs can immediately improve HR with these 4 simple changes

The role of the CFO is changing. Among those changes is the need to more closely align finance with strategy.

One of the areas CFOs tend to overlook the most is human resources.

A strong HR focus can strengthen a company's ability to find and retain top employees, cut down on training expenses, and deliver a higher level of employee value.

Business Insider spoke with Workstride CFO Chris Gobalakrishna about how CFOs can become an integral part of the human resources equation.

Workstride is an incentive and recognition firm that works with companies to deliver an improved workplace culture through recognition software for enterprises.

Here are the four ways CFOs can work with HR to create a more competitive workforce:

1. Involve HR in the planning process for future company goals.

Gobalakrishna says the HR department needs to understand company goals so it can "be more effective in strategic areas such as succession planning, talent sourcing, employee satisfaction, and retention."

He argues that HR and finance need to share information so the right hiring choices can be made based on the most pressing needs of the organization.

"Finance works with quantitative data, but does not always have the insight into employee issues that will have an impact on the budget," Gobalakrishna says.

"Meanwhile, HR needs information from the executive team as to what resources, capabilities, and skill sets will be needed to keep the company competitive. The CFO usually has insights into all of these areas because of his or her involvement in budgeting."

2. CFOs need to share key metrics with HR so they can understand immediate talent requirements.

The CFO has excellent insights into key business priorities that should dictate the company's people strategy.

Gobalakrishna explains that HR needs a lot of questions answered in order to determine a strong hiring trajectory.

"Are you trying to onboard new customers faster? Add more prospects to the pipeline? Improve your product? The type and quality of talent HR recruits is essential to achieving these goals," he explains.

3. The CFO must push HR to meet quantitative goals to keep the company competitive.

CFOs must understand that HR needs to have its own clearly defined metrics that measure its success.

"HR should be held to the same level of rigor and discipline [as other departments] by the CFO," Gobalakrishna says. "Sales has quotas to meet; marketing has costs per acquisition; operations has time from scoping to launch or quality metrics."

To reach this goal, he counsels CFOs to push HR to track retention, measure employee satisfaction, and do compensation analysis at the company versus the rest of the industry.

4. The CFO must advocate for employee development when speaking with their executive team.

The CFO needs to be an advocate for employee career development.

Many of these programs will cost the company money upfront, but they can be invaluable in terms of retaining employees and building new skill sets among employees.

"The CFO can advocate for employee development within the executive team to ensure that HR gets the needed resources," Gobalakrishna says. "Because there is often no immediate return on investment, the CFO may need to give weight to the initiative to get executive buy-in."