HR and Finance will partner more closely in future, survey says

HR, meet Finance. You two are going to be spending a lot more time together over the next few years.
That’s the upshot of a recent Towers Watson/Forbes Insights study, which indicates that the implications of healthcare reform will likely forge a tighter partnership between corporate finance and human resource executives.
The research shows that today, the majority of HR executives (81%) and finance executives (55%) agree that setting benefits/reward program strategy is largely driven by HR.
In terms of the budget process, however, a greater number of finance respondents (53%) say they’re more involved, compared with 47% of HR executives who see themselves in the lead.
The picture will likely change somewhat over the next several years, the survey says.
More than one-third (38%) of finance executives believe strategy development will be much more of a shared role. That compares with just 24% of HR respondents, who mostly believe they will continue to drive the process with minimal involvement from finance executives.
In the area of budgeting, more than half (53%) of finance executives expect to have primary responsibility, while 40% of HR respondents say budget setting will remain more of a shared role.
The survey found numerous areas of confluence to serve as the foundation for closer collaboration. Cost was by far the most important factor for both groups in making decisions about health care reform.
In fact, more HR executives (82%) emphasized cost than did finance leaders (69%). Moreover, two-thirds (67%) of both HR and finance leaders expect to maintain health care benefits for their active employees despite their common belief that costs will continue to rise.
Despite the expectation that per-employee investment in rewards to rise — regardless of their decision to continue providing health care benefits — neither group expects health care costs to consume a significantly larger share of the total rewards pie.
The full survey, Joining Forces: Forging an HR/Finance Partnership to Shape Rewards for the Future, can be found here.