A high proportion (95%) of HR and finance teams are championing a more collaborative approach to working, despite the two departments clashing on what should be priorities.
A report by Oracle has revealed that 71% of employees in the HR and finance space are focusing on quarters and results rather than long-term strategic direction.
The biggest barrier between HR and finance working together is a culture clash, although to overcome this, both parties need to adopt a more forward-thinking approach, Oracle said.
The study explained that HR teams need to be adaptable and embrace the potential of analytics technology, skills and processes. Specifically, they need to consider long-term goals rather than short-term fixes and this can be achieved through shrinking skills gaps.
According to Oracle's report, 49% of HR and finance employees cannot currently use analytics to forecast outcomes, while 81% lack the predictive data skills to determine what they should be doing in future to meet objectives.
"HR and finance departments bring different, yet complementary skills to the table. While they traditionally have not worked together closely, that needs to change in order for organizations to create a competitive advantage in today's evolving market and talent economy," said Donald Anderson, director at Oracle's organization & talent development division.
"The first step to overcoming traditional barriers and bringing HR and finance teams together is having a collaborative mindset with the right skillsets to both gather and analyze data so that it can be used to make impactful business decisions. That alone will deliver significant benefits to an organization's performance."
AI is increasingly being used by HR and finance departments to boost business results. 71% of businesses said they're planning to use AI to recruit higher-skilled and better matching candidates in the next 12 months. More than half want to implement AI to model their talent pipeline and identify at-risk employees.
"The world of analytics and AI opens tremendous doors for HR to harness meaningful insights in order to make smarter decisions and create a talent advantage," said Tom Davenport, Babson professor and analytics expert. "Seeing that so many HR professionals are planning to invest heavily in AI over the next year is promising. It means we'll begin to see more strategic results and businesses competing on an entirely new level to find the right talent."
