Finance and HR Integration
Prime Chocolate started as a microbusiness and established a combined director position of Finance and HR when the organization had only 30 employees. At present, the company has approximately 225 workers with six employees in Finance and HR as separate areas. HR and Finance director guides the team comprised of the two departments and ensures communication and collaboration. Thus, taking into account the number of employees, combining the Finance and HR departments would distribute the workforce unevenly and obstruct the principles of agile development (Rigby et al., 2018). In other words, talent acquisition and financial planning in a medium-sized company with more than 200 employees require different skillsets and competencies. While establishing a single director position is beneficial for the company, combining the two teams would most likely make finance and HR processes more chaotic and less flexible (Rigby et al., 2018). It is particularly significant to Prime Chocolate due to the emphasis on talent acquisition based on passion and appeal to artisan chocolate. Ultimately, the present structure of separate Finance and HR teams guided by a single director position encompasses agile development principles better.
Nevertheless, it is essential to maintain dynamic communication between the two departments to maximize the productivity and speed of emergency response. The research transparently indicates that the relationship between Finance and HR is crucial to the organization’s success, demonstrating the most productive results as a collaboration rather than combination (Milian, 2018). At present, businesses need to adapt to rapidly changing technologies and environments, making flexibility and communication the most desirable qualities of the company (Rigby et al., 2018). Thus, in the case of Chocolate Prime, two distinct departments guided by one combined director position would arguably provide the most amount of organizational flexibility. However, it would also require the director position to be competent in Finance and HR, leadership methods, and stress management due to high responsibility.
Wider HR Position
Finances and Human Resources (HR) are interconnected areas that need to establish proper communication to ensure the success of the organization’s objectives. From these considerations, it is possible to combine the responsibilities of the two functions into a single director-level position, as demonstrated in the example of Chocolate Prime. Furthermore, agile development and collaboration between various organization departments have seen a drastic increase in popularity in recent years (Rigby et al., 2018). Nevertheless, the scope of the position and the number of employees are two primary factors that define the necessity of combined functions. In other words, combined roles might perform significantly better in start-ups and small-sized companies due to increased control of hiring decisions and financial awareness (Garafalo, 2021). Therefore, a person knowledgeable in finances, HR, and data analysis would be able to adjust the workforce planning and adapt to the rapidly changing environment.
On the other hand, in larger companies, the integration of wider HR positions with Finance might lead to undesirable consequences. Depending on the organization, it might be complicated to build a comprehensive structure of combined functions following a proper business subordination (Garafalo, 2021). In such cases, the combination of HR and Finance would be less effective than collaboration between the respective departments (Garafalo, 2021). Partnership allows the teams to work together, make strategic workforce decisions based on financial data, and it also provides more flexibility than unification in a single director position (Garafalo, 2021). Ultimately, combining Finance and HR might be highly productive in smaller companies; however, the efficiency of the approach gradually decreases with the increased number of employees and scope of organizational operations.
References
Garafalo, J. (2021). HR and Finance: Why collaboration is key to strategic workforce planning. ChartHop. Web.
Millian, V. (2018). How the collaboration between HR and Finance can improve business. ADP. Web.
Rigby, D. K., Sutherland, J., & Noble, A. (2018). Agile at scale. Harvard Business Review, 96(3), 88-96.