Board Games
An Insider’s Strategy for Persuading Executives to Fund Your Workforce Initiatives
There is always a cost associated with HR programs such as learning management. Even if the world economy is
booming, any HR manager that requests an increase in budget to pay for a learning management program has to
convince either a board of directors or executive management why it’s beneficial to spend the money on the program—
and that requires a presentation.
Doug Reed, Vice President of HR Operations at commercial real estate ser vices firm CB Richard Ellis, has given and
received these presentations. Based on his experiences, the most successful presentations are the ones that offer
good data-driven recommendations for management. By seeing and discussing hard numbers tied to recommendations,
management is more likely to act in a way that benefits the company as a whole. “Boards are concerned with strategy,”
says Reed “and they expect you [the presenter] to communicate at that level.” According to Reed, the best way for HR
managers to successfully persuade board members and other executives is to develop their presentations using these
three strategies:
1.Relate to a business need — As previously mentioned, board members and executives in general are strategically
minded. They need to know the value of your information immediately, so your presentation must “speak the language
of the business” and discuss benefits in terms of what they care about. For example, if return on equity (ROE) is the
metric used most often by the board when making strategic decisions, then make sure your presentation explains how
your workforce initiative specifically drives ROE.
2. Provide holistic recommendations — Successful workforce initiatives
are about enhancing the profitability and efficiency of the company
as a whole. The board will need to be shown exactly how your new
workforce initiative benefits people in Sales, IT, Finance, etc. and not
just the HR department. Craft the presentation so that it explains how
your initiative will not only help the workforce attain strategic business
goals, but show the business impact to the company as a whole.
3.Convey your message visually — Because executives and board
members have a “big picture” worldview, the best way to communicate
“Successful
presentations are
the ones that offer
good data-driven
recommendations.”
to them is with high-level messages and visuals. Slide deck text should
be succinct, offer strategic benefits and always come with supporting
data in a clear, easy-to-read chart or graph.
Doug Reed notes that although board members will often lose interest in a presentation that is too technical and detailed,
they will often ask to drill down into the specifics of a presentation at a moment’s notice. “You need to be flexible, brief
and ready to answer questions,” Reed explains. “A presentation is a discussion and not a speech.” He recommends that
presenters be prepared to discuss the data with the board—and always include the detailed information and statistical
data in either an appendix to the slide deck or in a written report.
Persuading with Data and Visuals from Aquire InSight
Aquire InSight, a software as a service (SaaS) delivered workforce planning
and analytics solution, helps organizations to organize and visualize their
workforce data. InSight gives HR professionals unparalleled abilities to
visualize analytics. InSight leverages a “Business First” design philosophy
that goes beyond just gathering metrics. InSight’s innovative Monitoring
Agent system makes it simple to set and track workforce performance to
your company’s strategic goals. The Agents are fully customizable with user
“A presentation is a
discussion and not
a speech.”
configurable performance thresholds that alert you if any key performance
indicator (KPI) goes out of threshold or is simply trending in the wrong
direction. These tools and dashboards enable you to quickly visualize the root cause of workforce performance issues and
easily export the data as charts, graphs or innovative “boardroom-ready” dashboards for presentations.
For more information on Aquire InSight and other workforce planning and analytics solutions,
visit aquire.com
About Aquire
Aquire, the leader in workforce planning and analytics, helps companies attain wisdom—the most desired attribute in business.
Our workforce planning and analytics solutions produce information-rich, visual reports that reveal the information you need to
make wise decisions at every point in your organization. From our people, to our products and professional services, everything
we do for our customers revolves around accessing the insight they need to optimize the per formance and profitability of
their workforce.
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