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Developing IT Skills and Financial Skills for a Career in HR

Laura

Hi there,

I'm working towards an assignment for my MSc HRM course that involves creating a development plan for the skills needed to progress to be a Human Resources Business Partner when I graduate.

I have identified the following skill sets as areas of weakness:

Skill set 5 - Interpret financial information and manage financial resources

Structure, content and interpretation of simple balance sheets, profit and loss accounts and trading statements; ratio analysis; basic costing concepts and techniques; cash flow and cash budgets; budgetary planning and control.

Skill set 6 - IT proficiency

Information-handling skills, commonly used IT applications and software packages, statistical techniques and the presentation of statistical data.

Can anyone give me some advice about what the most important IT skills and skills for interpreting and managing financial resources needed for a career in HR might be?

Suggestions about effective ways to advance these skills, e.g. LinkedIn Learning courses, specific workshops to attend or books to read, would also be appreciated!

Many thanks,

Laura

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  • Sound advice from Elizabeth
    I would add that as you progress in your career you will only be able to act as a genuine business partner to management if you are able to demonstrate that you understand the operational and financial levers that are relevant to the business you are in, and how HR actions can contribute to them. Some examples:
    Running a consultancy service is driven by occupying all consultants as much as possible on work that can be charged out to customers. At the same time, experts need to keep their knowledge up to date to be able to sell it. Financial levers here are efficient cashflow and investment in knowledge acquisition.
    Running a call centre is about operational efficiency and cost optimisation.
    Running a power station is about massive capital investment where return on investment takes decades, so operational efficiency and preventive/corrective maintenance are the drivers.
    These different contexts call for different managerial approaches and thus different types of HR contributions.
    Wherever you work, spend time with the finance team to make sure you understand how THIS company makes money, not only will you get Brownie points in the eyes of key deciders, but you’ll be better placed to build HR solutions that are appropriate to the business context.
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  • Sound advice from Elizabeth
    I would add that as you progress in your career you will only be able to act as a genuine business partner to management if you are able to demonstrate that you understand the operational and financial levers that are relevant to the business you are in, and how HR actions can contribute to them. Some examples:
    Running a consultancy service is driven by occupying all consultants as much as possible on work that can be charged out to customers. At the same time, experts need to keep their knowledge up to date to be able to sell it. Financial levers here are efficient cashflow and investment in knowledge acquisition.
    Running a call centre is about operational efficiency and cost optimisation.
    Running a power station is about massive capital investment where return on investment takes decades, so operational efficiency and preventive/corrective maintenance are the drivers.
    These different contexts call for different managerial approaches and thus different types of HR contributions.
    Wherever you work, spend time with the finance team to make sure you understand how THIS company makes money, not only will you get Brownie points in the eyes of key deciders, but you’ll be better placed to build HR solutions that are appropriate to the business context.
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