HR Budgeting Guide
From necessary cost to strategic investment: shifting the perspective on HR budget.
- Every organization has unique processes and timelines that impact how the budget is created and allocated to departments, often leaving HR unsure about its role in financial decision making.
- Traditionally, HR leaders have had minimal input into organizational budgeting due to perceptions of HR as a necessary expense or cost center rather than a strategic partner.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- Organizations that fail to identify the talent implications associated with strategic investments risk prioritizing short-term financial gains while ignoring long-term consequences.
Impact and Result
- Outline the organization’s budgeting process and identify key decision-makers and timelines.
- Develop HR’s role as a strategic partner to influence internal stakeholders and align HR spending with strategic goals and objectives.
- Create an HR budget that aligns HR spending with organizational strategy.
About McLean & Company
McLean & Company is an HR research and advisory firm providing practical solutions to human resources challenges via executable research, tools, diagnostics, and advisory services that have a clear and measurable impact on your business.
What Is a Blueprint?
A blueprint is designed to be a roadmap, containing a methodology and the tools and templates you need to solve your HR problems.
Each blueprint can be accompanied by a Guided Implementation that provides you access to our world-class analysts to help you get through the project.
Need Extra Help?
Speak With An Analyst
Get the help you need in this 3-phase advisory process. You'll receive 8 touchpoints with our researchers, all included in your membership.
Guided Implementation 1: Introduction to organizational budgeting
- Call 1: Discuss the roles and responsibilities of key stakeholders in the organization’s budgeting process.
- Call 2: Identify and document the organization’s budgeting process to inform next steps.
Guided Implementation 2: Develop HR’s role as a strategic business partner to support organizational and HR’s budgeting processes
- Call 1: Identify opportunities to strengthen HR’s business acumen skills.
- Call 2: Analyze internal and external factors that will help HR influence the budget.
Guided Implementation 3: Create and allocate the HR budget
- Call 1: Review strategic documents to uncover budgeting needs and identify and evaluate HR’s administrative and initiative costs.
- Call 2: Assess the effort and impact of initiatives to create a shortlist.
- Call 3: Build a business case to gain buy-in for HR’s budget request.
- Call 4: Create a communication plan to share the impact of the finalized budget with HR stakeholders.
Contributors
- Shirley Slavens, Director, HR, Scotiabank
- Rushita Patel, Management Consulting, Deloitte
- 1 anonymous contributor
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