If HR wants a CFO to sign off on a new wellness program, “making employees happier” is rarely enough.
Finance leaders want the business case: what it costs, what it replaces, and how it will pay off. That’s the message BambooHR CFO Justin Judd has for HR executives making the pitch. A happier workforce may be a worthy goal, he says, but it is not enough on its own.
“The piece that has to come along with it is: Bring me the business case,” says Judd.
One way HR leaders can build credibility with finance is by showing they understand tradeoffs. Rather than simply asking for new wellness spending, Judd advises them to identify which existing initiatives are not delivering value, suggest where cuts could be made, and make a clear case for why a new program deserves investment.
That means going beyond the headline cost. CFOs want to see measurable return: whether a program could improve employee health, reduce absenteeism, lower healthcare claims, boost productivity, or strengthen recruiting and retention.
Just as important, Judd says, is confidence that employees will actually use the benefit. If adoption looks shaky, approval likely will be too.
“It has to have something that you can pull it all the way through to actual execution and then have checkpoints to make sure it’s actually delivering value,” he says.
At BambooHR, one such initiative that resonated is its “Paid Paid Vacation” program, which gives employees a $2,000 annual stipend to cover vacation expenses during paid time off. To qualify, employees simply share about their trip on Slack.
Judd says he already sees the perk paying off a return on the investment already, particularly because it helps the company stand out in a competitive job market. Plus, he notes, burned-out employees are less productive, and those who return from real time away tend to do better work.
For Judd, that is the clearest tell of all. If a wellness benefit is working, it should help the business, too.
P.S. We’d love to hear about your hiring and talent management priorities over the next 12 months. Please take this short survey to share your perspective. Your responses will remain anonymous and will only be reported in aggregate. Thank you in advance for your time.
Kristin Stoller
Editorial Director, Fortune Live Media
[email protected]
Around the Table
A round-up of the most important HR headlines.
More HR leaders are being appointed to executive officer roles and becoming some of the highest-paid executives. HR Brew
Fed up with politics and the U.S. job market, American workers are now considering restarting careers abroad. Wall Street Journal
A new Melbourne law will soon give employees the legal right to work from home two days a week. Bloomberg
Watercooler
Everything you need to know from Fortune.
Best in class. Those on Fortune’s Best Companies to Work list are doubling down on human perks in an AI era. Check out which workplaces made the cut. —Orianna Rosa Royle
Buzzword BS. Workers who love incomprehensible, corporate-speak language tend to be bad at decision-making. —Jaqueline Munis
Four-day feeling. The world may be moving closer to shorter workweeks in some places, thanks to the economic fallout from the Iran war. —Orianna Rosa Royle
