Overview
Human Resources leaders are increasingly expected to think beyond policies, hiring, and employee relations and to speak the language of business performance. This practical two-hour virtual seminar gives HR professionals a clear, approachable introduction to the finance concepts that matter most-budgets, headcount costs, labor metrics, forecasting, margins, and the financial impact of workforce decisions.
Participants will learn how to connect HR strategy to organizational results, communicate more confidently with Finance and executive leadership, and make stronger people decisions grounded in financial reality. Whether you are building a business case for talent investments, evaluating staffing levels, or explaining the cost implications of turnover, compensation, benefits, or training, this session will help you understand what the numbers mean and how to use them more effectively.
By participating, you will:
- Understand the core financial terms and concepts HR professionals should know, including budgets, revenue, expenses, profit, cash flow, margin, and return on investment
- Read and interpret basic financial information so you can better understand how workforce decisions affect organizational performance
- Recognize the financial implications of headcount planning, compensation, benefits, overtime, turnover, recruiting, onboarding, and training investments
- Strengthen your ability to build and present a credible business case for HR initiatives using data, cost estimates, and expected outcomes
- Partner more effectively with Finance, department leaders, and executives by asking better questions and communicating HR recommendations in business terms
- Identify the workforce metrics and financial indicators that help HR contribute more strategically to planning, budgeting, and organizational decision-making
Why should you Attend
Would you like to understand the core financial terms and concepts HR professionals should know, including budgets, revenue, expenses, profit, cash flow, margin, and return on investment?
What about recognizing the financial implications of headcount planning, compensation, benefits, overtime, turnover, recruiting, onboarding, and training investments?
Could understanding how to partner more effectively with Finance, department leaders, and executives by asking better questions and communicating HR recommendations in business terms be helpful?
If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, come laugh, listen and learn as Chris DeVany helps us improve performance!
Areas Covered in the Session
- Why Finance Matters in HR
- Why HR is expected to think like a business partner, not only a people advocate
- How HR decisions influence cost, productivity, retention, risk, and growth
- The connection between workforce planning and organizational performance
- Finance Fundamentals in Plain English
- Key terms every HR professional should understand: revenue, expense, fixed and variable cost, margin, profit, EBITDA, and cash flow
- How to interpret a simple income statement, budget report, and variance summary
- What Finance is tracking and why those numbers matter to HR leaders
- The HR Cost Structure
- The full cost of an employee: salary, taxes, benefits, equipment, space, and support costs
- Direct and indirect costs tied to recruiting, onboarding, training, and turnover
- Common hidden workforce costs that HR leaders should anticipate and explain
- Budgeting, Forecasting, and Headcount Planning
- How annual budgets and rolling forecasts work
- The role of HR in headcount planning, salary planning, and workforce scenario analysis
- Examples of how hiring delays, attrition, overtime, or compensation changes affect the budget
- Making the Business Case for HR Initiatives
- How to frame HR proposals in financial terms senior leaders will understand
- Estimating costs, benefits, savings, and risks for HR programs and talent initiatives
- Examples: retention initiatives, manager training, recruiting investments, and employee development programs
- Metrics, Dashboards, and Questions HR Should Be Ready to Answer
- Workforce metrics that matter: turnover, time to fill, cost per hire, absenteeism, productivity, engagement, and labor cost ratios
- What executives may ask HR about costs, staffing, performance, and ROI
- How to present HR data more clearly and credibly in business discussions
- Closing Takeaways and Q&A
- Key lessons HR professionals can apply immediately
- A practical checklist for becoming more financially fluent in your HR role
- 10-minute Q&A at the conclusion of the seminar
Who Will Benefit
Speaker Profile
Chris DeVany is the founder and president of Pinnacle Performance Improvement Worldwide, a firm which focuses on management and organization development. Pinnacle's clients include global organizations such as Visa International, Cadence Design Systems, Coca Cola, Sprint, Microsoft, Aviva Insurance, Schlumberger and over 500 other organizations in 22 countries. He also has consulted to government agencies from the United States, the Royal Government of Saudi Arabia, Canada, Cayman Islands and the United Kingdom.
He has published numerous articles in the fields of surviving mergers and acquisitions, surviving change, project management, management, sales, team-building, leadership, ethics, customer service, diversity and work-life balance, in publications ranging from ASTD/Performance In Practice to Customer Service Management. His book, "90 Days to a High-Performance Team", published by McGraw Hill and often accompanied by in-person, facilitated instruction, has helped and continues to help thousands of executives, managers and team leaders improve performance.
He has appeared hundreds of times on radio and television interview programs to discuss mergers and acquisitions (how to manage and survive them), project management, sales, customer service, effective workplace communication, management, handling rapid personal and organizational change and other topical business issues.
He has served or is currently serving as a board member of the International Association of Facilitators, Sales and Marketing Executives International, American Management Association, American Society of Training and Development, Institute of Management Consultants, American Society of Association Executives, Meeting Professionals International and National Speakers Association. Chris is an award-winning Toastmaster's International Competition speaker. He recently participated in the Fortune 500 Annual Management Forum as a speaker, panelist and seminar leader.
Chris has distinguished himself professionally by serving multiple corporations as manager and trainer of sales, operations, project management, IT, customer service and marketing professionals. Included among those business leaders are Prudential Insurance, Sprint, BayBank (now part of Bank of America), US Health Care and Marriott Corporation.
He has assisted these organizations in mergers and acquisitions, facilitating post-merger and acquisition integration, developing project management, sales, customer service and marketing strategies, organizing inbound and outbound call center programs, training and development of management and new hires, and fostering corporate growth through creative change and innovation initiatives.
Chris holds degrees in management studies and organizational behavior from Boston University. He has traveled to 22 countries and 47 states in the course of his career.
Instructor
Chris DeVany
