Gain a seat at the executive table!! Connect the dots between HR and Finance. As a human resources professional, you need to build a structure to ensure employees' actions are moving the ledger in a positive direction and enhancing your company's bottom line. HR pros like you stand as an essential link between your company's employees and its profitability. Personnel costs typically account for 40-60 percent of a company's total outflow. This spending, just as any other investment, should generate a positive net return for your company, as the personnel create profit and cash flow that far exceed the expense. HR professionals have the unique ability to maximize ROI. And to be such an effective partner, you must understand numbers. Learn how to create and interpret streams of data, including internal financial statements and reports, and data from external sources, to find the stories within the numbers and read between the line items. You can enhance your company's personnel ROI, incorporating financial knowledge and applying it to your particular HR strategy to improve your company's financial performance.