Eric Chin - "A CFO's Playbook: Essential Advice for HR and Recruitment Leaders"
Eric Chin, Chief Financial Officer at Akido Labs, brings unique insight as both a CFO and former Head of HR. He explains how HR leaders can frame proposals in terms of net savings, ROI, and measurable outcomes to gain CFO support. Eric also outlines strategies for building stronger cases around training, development, and retention by linking them to financial impact. He also highlights timing, proactive planning, and continuous improvement as essential elements for long-term success.
EPISODE: Eric Chin Chief Financial Officer @ Akido Labs A CFO's Playbook: Essential Advice for HR and Recruitment Leaders A Conversation with Eric Chin 41
Eric Chin, Chief Financial Officer at Akido Labs, brings unique insight as both a CFO and former Head of HR. He explains how HR leaders can frame proposals in terms of net savings, ROI, and measurable outcomes to gain CFO support. Eric also outlines strategies for building stronger cases around training, development, and retention by linking them to financial impact. He also highlights timing, proactive planning, and continuous improvement as essential elements for long-term success. Episode Description
Introduction to Eric Chin (00:46) Full Podcast Episode (29:35) Episode Highlights (02:20) The Net Savings Strategy for HR Leaders (05:47) Using Data and Benchmarks to Persuade CFOs (02:19) Budget Season: HR’s Strategic Window of Opportunity (06:00) Driving HR Impact Through Technology and Innovation (04:50) HR’s Role in Building a Championship Team (04:19) Why Continuous Improvement Matters for HR Leaders (01:48) Short - The Net Savings Strategy for HR Leaders (00:58) Short - Budget Season: HR’s Strategic Window of Opportunity (00:58) Table of Contents
(00:46) Introduction to Eric Chin “Leading HR during the pandemic was not an easy thing by any means.”
Full Episode “You really need to try to empathize with that CFO and show them what they love. That's going to be numbers and data-driven metrics because that's what they do all day and that's how they're going to calculate the ROI from their perspective.”
(02:20) Episode Highlights
(05:47) The Net Savings Strategy for HR Leaders “You're going to have to focus on what is currently costing the money that gets fixed by this rollout, and then you can also add in some estimates for indirect cost. You're turning something that was a “spend” in the finance world, to a “net savings” to the company.”
(02:19) Using Data and Benchmarks to Persuade CFOs “With AI, a lot of data is at your fingertips. You can cite credible sources and those are things that CFOs enjoy because they tend to be very fact-based and evidence-based. So, when you can cite a resource, that's going to carry more weight than “This is what I feel.”
(06:00) Budget Season: HR’s Strategic Window of Opportunity “The key time to make your ask is when the budget is getting compiled. You want to be proactive and be the first manager in the company there because like with anything, the early bird gets the worm. If you can get some wins and convince people that your projects are important to the company, it's going to go into an early draft and it's going to take up a spend for the company.”
(04:50) Driving HR Impact Through Technology and Innovation “In both HR and accounting, that tends to be the easy button if you look for things that are very manual in nature. It almost always tends to be a net cost savings when you bring technology into the fold.”
(04:19) HR’s Role in Building a Championship Team “You're not going to win the championship unless you have a strong team and you can keep them together. Anonymous surveys are wonderful because that's a way to go with the team mentality and just get the voice of the team in a candid, fact-based, data-driven manner, and helps build a case.”
(01:48) Why Continuous Improvement Matters for HR Leaders “Let's not be resistant to change. Let's keep improving day by day, and if it's small improvements every single day, those all add up over time and compound.”
YOUTUBE SHORT: “You're going to have to focus on what is currently costing the money that gets fixed by this rollout, and then you can also add in some estimates for indirect cost. You're turning something that was a “spend” in the finance world, to a “net savings” to the company.” - Eric Chin
YOUTUBE SHORT: “The key time to make your ask is when the budget is getting compiled. You want to be proactive and be the first manager in the company there because like with anything, the early bird gets the worm. If you can get some wins and convince people that your projects are important to the company, it's going to go into an early draft and it's going to take up a spend for the company.” - Eric Chin
Eric Chin Eric Chin, Chief Financial Officer at Akido Labs, brings unique insight as both a CFO and former Head of HR. He explains how HR leaders can frame proposals in terms of net savings, ROI, and measurable outcomes to gain CFO support. Eric also outlines strategies for building stronger cases around training, development, and retention by linking them to financial impact. He also highlights timing, proactive planning, and continuous improvement as essential elements for long-term success.
About Eastridge Established in 1972, Eastridge Workforce Solutions is an employee-owned provider of full-service talent acquisition and management solutions for companies globally. Eastridge provides a full range of solutions including professional / technical and industrial staffing. We also provide workforce management solutions such as employer of record, recruitment process outsourcing, as well as managed service provider programs. Our services are backed with Talient, a proprietary workforce technology that streamlines every step of managing your extended workforce.
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