Human Resources and Finance Working Together Equals Savings ...

In order to rein in health care costs, human resource and finance departments are developing more cooperative working relationships at many companies, according to business observer Sarah Fister Gale.

The continuing weakness in the economy, skyrocketing healthcare costs, along with uncertainty in healthcare reform efforts, are the prime movers in the increasing joint efforts among human resources and finance. Each department complements the other in helping to deliver healthcare to employees ? human resources, with knowledge about employee demographics, will take the lead in determining what types of health coverage to invest in, while finance plays more of a role in choosing the plans based on costs, according to Gale.

And a recent survey of HR and finance leaders confirmed the close working relationship, noting that HR sets the strategy for healthcare, while finance handles the budgeting.

Working together is easier if HR people know something about the language of finance and are able to quantify their reasoning, according to some HR professionals. For example, one HR official works together with his company?s chief financial officer to do a cost-benefit analysis of the firm?s healthcare program. The packages includes a wellness program, which includes health education, exercise classes and incentives for getting regular checkups and watching what you eat.? This HR person was able to gain support for the wellness program by showing how much healthcare costs at the company have dropped since the program began ? even though the company began offering increased coverage to employees. The program essentially paid for itself through reduced costs.

The cooperation between HR and finance also can lead to some unconventional changes that have not only improved the healthcare for employees but also led to steep reductions in costs. For example, Harris Corporation, an IT company located in Florida, has built a medical imaging center at its business. The project worked so well that the company has since added a pharmacy and a healthcare clinic staffed by doctors. The project came about through the efforts of HR and finance working together.

This project not only has saved the company millions of dollars, according to company officials, but has also improved employee healthcare, because the company is able to more closely monitor what services are needed the most and customize what it delivers to meet employee needs.

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Source: http://blog.trinitystaffing.com/2012/02/human-resources-and-finance-working-together-equals-savings/

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