Business leaders discuss interdependence of finance and HR departments

The ICMA International and HR Dost on Saturday organised a talk on ‘collaborative leadership on finance and HR’.

HR experts and finance officers of various organisations participated in the event and expressed their views on the interdependence of HR and finance departments in organisations.

It was said that HR professionals knew the language of talent but the chief executive officers (CEOs) and chief finance officers (CFOs) were not expected to speak that language of talent.

Speakers agreed that it would be great if the CEOs and CFOs understood the talent management from the HR’s perspective.

The speakers included Assistant Manager of the HRBP PTCL Telecom Sector Hina Maqbool, HR Head of Mustaqeem Dying Textile Saba Umer, Head of the HR legal TCS Ahsan Shiekh, VP Finance of the Soorty Enterprises Yousuf Dayala, Genex Pharma CFO Khurram Ansari and Cherat Cement CFO Ijaz Ahmed Khan. The talk was moderated by Sataish Aim and Ayaz Ali of the HR Dost.

Khan said that if the HR and finance departments worked closely, they would uplift organisations and would certainly bring stability in the financial affairs while Ansari was of the view that the HR and finance departments needed open communication and trust so that they could handle employees and manage the cost and expenses.

Hina said that the gaps between HR and finance could be filled by creating HR domains such as data mining, IT and technology. The two should work closely to understand each other’s work, she remarked.

Shiekh was of the view that with the passage of time, organisations learnt from their experiences and now the issues between HR and finance were being debated. He said the challenges of gaps and overlap could be addressed with the passage of time.

Saba said that the HR’s basic role was to engage the employees, look for talented employees, and make the employees more productive while Dayala said students should think thoroughly before starting their professional careers in finance and HR of any specific company. Switching from textile to any pharmaceutical company won’t be easy practically, he remarked.