HR as vital as finance, claims expert

The HR director and the finance director are roles that should be treated as equally important.

That’s the opinion of thirdsector.co.uk columnist Gill Taylor, who believes that HR directors should be placed at the top table and ‘inner circle’ of all businesses.

First of all, Taylor wants chief executives to recognise HR as a profession. She believes that lots of people think they know how to do HR but it takes a “skilled, experienced professional” to deliver such a service to an organisation.

“The chief executive has hired a specialist who can deal with people – and so should let us do it,” she said.

Secondly, HR professionals should be at the ‘top table’ of a businesses. Taylor would rather executives speak to HR before they put any change programme in place or agree other such deals. She does concede that this may sound slightly “intrusive” but highlights how it is the job of HR to manage risk.

“HR should be able to tell chief executives when they are heading for choppy waters. They might not get the solution to an issue that they want, but at least HR can usually help them find a safe path through the hurricane,” explained Taylor.

So, for example, the director of a driver recruitment franchise should always run big issues by the firm’s HR director so they can work together.

In addition, managers and executives should trust HR more – the more managers trust HR, the sooner they will learn to be proactive in HR, she added.

Taylor’s comments follow an article by monster.com which suggests HR and finance have a “vital relationship”.