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The intersection of people and profit: Trends shaping HR, payroll and finance collaboration

May 3, 2025
Sara Maginn Pacella

When human resources (HR), payroll and finance departments can connect and contribute to their organizations together instead of operating in siloes, organizational efforts and performances can reach new highs.
Organizations that keep an ear to the ground for opportunities and proactively adopt innovations can remain ahead of the game in effectively navigating new challenges and attracting top-tier talent.

In this article, we will discuss the emerging trends of learning and development, data-driven decision making and automation and artificial intelligence (AI) at the intersection of HR, payroll and finance and how they can contribute to the ongoing success of an organization.

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Learning and development (L&D) investments

A company willing to develop its staff has also embarked on a fantastic recruitment and retention strategy. A recent Pew Research study revealed that a lack of opportunities is one of the driving factors pushing people to quit. The survey also shows that those who leave their jobs for other employment opportunities are more likely to say that their new job offers more advancement opportunities, flexibility and work-life balance than better pay. Investing in a learning and development program can give people a sense of direction and ownership over their role and future.

Reiterating the importance of training and development as it relates to profit, a LinkedIn Learning survey found that “94 percent of employees would stay at a company longer if it invested in their career.” 

Learning and development programs for staff in human capital management (HCM) can be geared toward helping adjacent departments better collaborate and foster strengths for potential cross-training initiatives. 

Learning management systems (LMS) software platforms designed to deliver and manage educational and training content can help support these efforts. The popularity and availability of these platforms has grown exponentially over the past decade, with some of the prominent providers being Axonify, Brightspace, Canvas, Blackboard and Moodle. 

These systems can automatically provide relevant content and feedback on performance, assign new tasks and track a person’s progress toward their professional development goals. Trends also continue to emerge in e-learning and mobile app learning to facilitate the needs of hybrid and remote staff.

” Organizations that keep an ear to the ground for opportunities and proactively adopt innovations can remain ahead of the game in effectively navigating new challenges and attracting top-tier talent ”

The importance of making data-driven decisions

A data-driven approach to the performance of an organization isn’t new. In 2018, Statistics Canada celebrated a century of data collection and analysis and of using this information to better understand the Canadian economy. Since the advent of widespread data collection, basic data has become more sophisticated, and so have the tools and techniques used to gain valuable insights. Today, data analytics is the cornerstone of strategic decision-making everywhere allowing organizations to identify trends, predict upcoming needs and enhance efficiencies.  

The use of data analytics is often seen as a sign of a high-maturity organization (an established organization that has defined and developed its processes and continues to refine and improve them over time). 

Data analytics can aid in the following areas across payroll, finance and HR:

  • Detailed analysis of data on labour costs, recruitment and onboarding expenses, employee benefits and employee compensation can help streamlining financial planning and budgeting. Well-established, clean data in these areas can enable more accurate budget forecasting and the anticipation of costs for the organization. For example, data from HR on turnover rates can enable other departments to budget for retention initiatives and recruitment and onboarding costs.
  • Implementing predictive modelling of labour costs by examining data on overtime, hours worked and staff absenteeism can help anticipate staffing needs, budget for peak seasons within an organization and accurately allocate staffing costs within the overall budget.
  • Connecting the dots between profitability and productivity by taking a big-picture look at data within all three departments can be the key to unlocking profitability opportunities. For instance, HR data showcasing employee performance and turnover rates can allow for targeted retention strategies to attract and retain the best employees. Meanwhile data from finance on profit margins by department and revenue per employee can inform the company’s best possible labour investment decisions, driving overall profitability.

Embracing automation

It can be easy to get weighed down with administrative tasks, no matter your department. According to Deloitte, HR-related staff “spend as much as 57 per cent of their time on administrative tasks, leaving little time for more strategic tasks.” 

Teams that effectively use AI software to unburden themselves from administrative tasks can see an impact on their workload and overall profits within their organization. Payroll platform providers such as Deel boast that a global payroll platform such as theirs can save an organization as much as 120 hours each month in administrative tasks.

This is a prime example of optimizing AI use within business processes to allow staff to focus on other, more tactical, elements of running their departments. 

Most notably, leaders report that AI has elevated their analytics, allowing them to:

  • Make data-driven decisions
  • Heighten the quality of learning and development programs
  • Alleviate the workload of onboarding staff
  • Refine performance management results 

Conclusion

Whether it’s collaborating to create meaningful learning and development opportunities, effective use of data or a willingness to embrace AI, recent trends showcase how HCM professionals are most effective when they work together.

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