How CFOs Can Develop a Talent Strategy for Diversity and Growth

Attracting and keeping a talented and diverse team requires more than just competitive salaries, although pay without a doubt plays a key role as costs rise for companies and workers alike. 

Building diversity, equity, and inclusion at your company – possibly seen as just the province of HR – is a responsibility that should extend into the realm of finance leaders. After all, job dissatisfaction and lower morale can reduce productivity, hinder growth, and influence whether talented people want to become part of your business. 

“Every business investment, technology choice, or strategic decision doesn’t have to come down to strictly money,” observes Peter Habelitz, CFO of Cycas Hospitality BV. “There are many more qualitative factors in talent management that also impact financial performance indicators.” 

Informed by research and insights from Habelitz and other CFOs around the globe, the latest in our CFO Insights Series, How Talent Management Can Drive Financial Opportunity, focuses on three key areas for finance leaders to consider. 

It’s Not Just Money: Making Workplaces Diverse, Inclusive, and Attractive 

Read the paper to learn more about the connections between a diverse workforce and good business.  

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1. Weigh Business Costs and Benefits Beyond the Balance Sheet 

Monitoring and managing spending and other key performance indicators are, of course, at the core of a finance leader’s responsibilities. But indicators that go beyond the numbers can provide a more rounded view of the company’s health and help guide its talent strategy. 

For example, alongside travel and expense data you can measure how employees view their jobs and assess why people leave – or stay – with the organization. Or provide a deeper understanding of what people want from their current roles and how they’d like their careers to develop. 

With better systems in place to gauge the employee experience, you might learn your team members value flexible work environments and the ability to concentrate on higher-value tasks – something intelligent automation can bring –as much as they value monetary rewards. With motivated employees, productivity and profitability can grow. And those are things both finance and HR leaders can measure. 

“The advantage of having a diverse organization is clear – both within the finance organization and the business itself,” observes John DiPlacido, CFO of SAP North America. “When bringing different perspectives and backgrounds to the table, you find new ways to solve problems while driving productivity with innovation, creative thought, and generational insights.” 

2. Consider DE&I as a Contributor to Financial Performance  

Research shows that diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) can make good business sense, establishing a link between the right thing to do and committing dollars to such efforts. 

Gender, age, and race are just a few of the focuses of an effective DE&I strategy that can play roles in financial performance and make a company attractive as an employer. Fostering and supporting flexible and hybrid work environments can be part of making your company more inclusive, as our parent company has found.  

Last year, for example, SAP reported that its ongoing commitment to flexible, hybrid, and trust-based work schedules had increased its attractiveness as an employer of choice to 80% and that 81% of its employees maintained or improved their productivity.¹

“Nowadays, discussions around building and supporting a diverse and inclusive workforce are becoming commonplace for executives,” says Gina McNamara, CFO of the Asia-Pacific region and Japan at SAP. “But for finance leaders, they are opportunities to partner with their CHRO, showcasing how employees help increase profit, profitability, and financial performance when supported with the right training, education, and work assignments.” 

3. Help Employees Secure Their Physical and Mental Health and Safety 

With 46% of employees saying it takes so much time and effort that they don’t bother to seek reimbursement for smaller amounts², many companies clearly have a quality of work-life issue. 

There are bottom-line costs to processes and technology that complicate life for employees, like the 91% who are more likely to book outside of company policies to if they think their health, safety, and work-life balance would be negatively affected³. That’s the type of concern that can affect compliance, budgets, and duty of care. 

“When people understand why they should adhere to finance processes and policies, they can weigh their expense decisions more creatively, strategically, and compliantly,” Habelitz observes. 

With intelligent T&E solutions and processes, companies can improve efficiency and the employee experience. And the employees can see that their concerns have been taken seriously because expense processes become less frustrating at the same time that they are provided valuable information on such things as medical assistance and safety of the places they might travel. 

More Insights for CFOs 

Download How Talent Management Can Drive Financial Opportunity to learn about best practices fueled by research and insights from finance leaders at SAP and other businesses.  

For additional CFO insights on other topics of the times, read other parts of our recent series:  

• CFO Insights: How to Navigate Inflation and Other Signs of Economic Change  

• CFO Insights: In Another Year of Uncertainty, CFOs Become Paragons of Business Resiliency 

• CFO Insights: How to Steer Sustainability Performance with a Financial Agenda 

1. “Moving Towards Greater Impact: 2022 Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) Report,” SAP, 2023. 
2. “Expense Management in Times of Inflation: How to Improve Employee Experience,” SAP Concur, 2022. 
3. “Global Business Travelers Report,” Wakefield Research sponsored by SAP Concur, 2023.