It has been said that people are a company’s greatest asset. Being critical drivers of growth and performance, an organization’s talent, skills, and ability are directly linked to an organization’s success. It is worth more than any asset; therefore, it is an organization’s most significant expense, with as much as 70% of cost tied to operating expenses. While the CFO allocates the financial resources to match the organizational strategy, the CHRO is left to ensure the right people are in the right roles. Still, often these two leaders work separately with zero visibility into the factors that are driving each of their areas, leading to higher labor costs and drop off in employee engagement.

This is where these two worlds need to converge.

What are the unique factors driving the urgency for this unexpected partnership? High economic costs coupled with the intense corporate competition to attract and retain top talent are among the list of factors driving the need for CHROs and CFOs to link arms and take a collaborative, holistic view on how to engage and retain employees. By aligning their strategic focus this partnership ensures their workforce is uniquely positioned and productive with an outcome that yields both high performance and profit to the balance sheet.

But many leaders are hesitant to break away from the norm and take a modern approach to work in a more collaborative people + profit = ROI approach. While CFOs are focused on revenue, the benefit they would have by working alongside the CHRO is a more detailed view of the workforce, allowing them to understand the financial impacts and differences between high-performing and low-performing employees, and teams.

The same goes for CHROs. Having visibility and closer alignment with the overall corporate strategy and roadmap can aid in more targeted hiring and uniquely elevates HR from a supporting role to a crucial role in organizational decision-making. And the combination of these two leaders can aid in high performing success for the organization, but most importantly, for what matters most – their people (AKA – where performance and profit meet).

To do that, they need the data and information necessary to help shifts in strategic direction. But traditional employee engagement surveys barely skim the service of how invested an organization’s workforce is to their job and the company—leaving CHROs and CFOs guessing, and worse, in their silos. And this guesswork leads to misdirection. The need for this partnership to recognize the importance of a more comprehensive and data-driven employee engagement platform that identifies each employee’s key drivers of success is critical for organizational growth.

Below are three key areas where employee engagement data can be applied to improve performance:

Managing Attrition:

Many organizations have attrition as high as 19% and even more. This means that a significant amount of money is spent on recruiting and training to replace employees and train recruits. Using data from an employee engagement platform that allows CHROs and CFOs to examine trends or shifts in behavior, performance, or collaboration will enable these leaders to take swift action to move the needle in a positive direction and address warning signs early on.

Uncover Hidden Potential:

Having in-depth data on employees and what motivates, drives, and pushes them may help both CHROs and CFOs uncover hidden talent within their employees they may not have known otherwise.

Identify Process Deficiencies:

When new processes are put into place using employee engagement data and leveraging the power of an engagement platform as a basis for open collaboration and communication leaders can uncover gaps in structure and process that would ultimately lead to frustrated and dissatisfied employees.

Want to understand how both performance and profit are key drivers in an organization’s success? Want to know what key drivers might be impacting your employees? Click here to take our data-driven BOLD Method Assessment to quantify the elements of focus that will have the most significant impact on work-life growth.