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ata analytics is useful not
only to inform strategic
decision-making, mitigate
risk, and increase operational
D efficiency but also to help
ferret out problems that prompt
resignations and contribute to employee
turnover costs that are high in the best of
times.
Recruiting, onboarding, and training
new hires can be expensive. In addition,
nonfinancial costs include the loss of
skills and lower morale and engagement
among remaining employees who must
take on extra duties, lost relationships
with clients or vendors, and potentially
missed opportunities when a team is not
fully staffed. The departing staffer also
takes away institutional knowledge that
a new person may take months or years
to gain.
“It all equals to a slowdown in
productivity,” concluded Brenda Morris,
CPA, CGMA, partner, CSuite Financial
Partners, Manhattan Beach, California.
As versions of the Great Resignation
play out worldwide, putting companies
under pressure to fill open positions,
finance professionals can play an
important role in using data analytics to
reduce employee attrition and turnover
costs — with benefits for their own
teams and their entire companies.
Having a stable and agile workforce
helped many companies to be more
resilient during the uncertainty and
disruptions of the past two years.
Finance team members “are data-
savvy and curious, and they have the
ability to solve problems with numbers”,
said Alastair Woods, the London-based
joint global PwC leader for people
analytics and partner in PwC UK’s People
& Organisation consulting practice.
“That’s already a win.”
How to bring to bear your expertise
Here is best practice that finance team
members can put to work:

Broaden your perspective
The typical focus for finance and
accounting leaders tends to be on timely
and accurate financials, good modelling,
and supporting business strategies,
Morris said. “They may support the
human resources or payroll team around
metrics for retention or other areas, but
most haven’t really used data or
predictive analysis to help companies

FM-MAGAZINE.COM June 2022 I FM MAGAZINE I 9