The Future of Work: TD & Finance De-Siloing

For today’s sophisticated organizations, maintaining traditional silos within the talent development (TD) and finance departments is an outdated practice and a liability. The most innovative companies, those creating the future of work, use finance-TD cross-collaboration to co-create high-impact, organization-wide human capital investments.

How and in which ways? The TD team leverages financial metrics and organization-wide goals to quantify financial impact, and the finance team evaluates human capital investments with their extraordinarily high rates of return against a wide array of investment options. L&D programs are now evaluated against the more typical investment targets such as research and development and hard assets.

Organizations that fail to collaborate in the above ways will fall behind their competitors in employee turnover, efficiency, innovation, and, ultimately, retained earnings. How do we know there’s a quantifiable cost to minimal professional development? Twenty years of human capital research and case studies.

What does TD-finance collaboration look like in the future of work? It begins with a conversation on aligned goals and evolves to develop verifiable tests that prove or disprove the theses. Once the return on investment (ROI) is quantified using metrics or key performance indicators (KPIs) using a control group, the L&D program can be rolled out to a broader population to super-charge organizational impact.

Finance & TD’s New Imperative: Value Creation

When finance and TD agree on the relationship between wages, productivity, and employee turnover, organizations can expect to realize the following key benefits:

• Strategic Alignment. TD programs are directly tied to business goals, ensuring workforce initiatives drive measurable economic value.

• Data-Driven Decision Making. TD investments are assessed like any financial asset, ensuring accountability and maximizing impact.

• Agility and Adaptability. Programs are continuously refined using real-time analytics, allowing organizations to pivot in response to market shifts.

• Stronger TD Advocacy. With finance’s backing, TD initiatives receive executive buy-in and sustained funding, reinforcing their strategic importance.

• Illustrating TD-Finance Cross-Collaboration. For those who’d like to understand what finance-TD cross-collaboration can sound like, imagine a conversation between Angela, Nirvana’s head of L&D, and Dan, the company’s chief financial officer (CFO).

Angela and Dan have historically operated in different silos within Nirvana. When it comes to developing initiatives for L&D, Angela designs and advocates for robust learning programs within the talent development budget. Dan spends a portion of his time evaluating and prioritizing the organization’s investment opportunities. Today they’re meeting to align their goals.

Angela enters the meeting prepared. She has data, case studies, and a clear vision of how learning investments can contribute to Nirvana’s growth.

Angela: “Dan, thanks for taking the time. I wanted to pitch you on a program of professional development initiatives with a high expected return on capital. I think it could be an incredible win-win for both of us.

We want to attack the problem of burnout. Our frontline managers have been struggling with burnout, and our leadership pipeline is underdeveloped. I believe we can solve both problems at once by developing a hybrid training and coaching program. I envision a program with instruction, expert and peer feedback, and opportunities for integrating employee development into quarterly reviews.

We believe we can achieve at least a 150 percent return on the investment, and I’d like to test out my thesis with a small control group. If we’re able to demonstrate significant change and quantify the direct and indirect benefits we’re expecting, I’d love to roll it out to the entire organization.”

Dan: “That’s compelling. How do we create a policy and process for this to ensure that these improvements are sustained in the long term? Also, how long does it take for the investment to be repaid?”

Angela: “I’ve been thinking about that too. We believe that finance should think about it as allocating a portion of each employee’s salary, say 4 percent, towards L&D. As you know, that would be a small percentage of the cost to replace employees who leave, and it would function as insurance against voluntary turnover. My research suggests that the resulting direct and indirect improvement to the various metrics will repay the investment within three years.

Of course, we’ll be monitoring the following metrics: sick days, voluntary employee turnover, time to replace vacancies, and customer experience ratings. If the metrics don’t conform to our expectations, you and I will discuss options.”

Dan: “I like that you’re tying the program to how we think about our investments. What about agility? What if my department needs to limit investment in the program due to market forces?”

Angela smiles, anticipating this concern.

Angela: “We’re designing programs with minimal overhead spend. If the budget needs to be reduced, we can reduce the cadence of the learning modules or increase the group-to-instructor ratio to reduce the cost-per-person.”

Dan nods, impressed by the foresight.

Dan: “Alright, Angela. I see the value. Let’s work together on a plan to measure impact quarterly. If the numbers hold, I’ll advocate for a larger L&D budget to roll out the program to the broader organization.”

Angela beams.

Angela: “That’s exactly the kind of partnership I was hoping for.”

The Takeaway

When L&D and the CFOs office collaborate effectively, expect to see the following results:

• Investments in upskilling become strategic, data-driven, and aligned with financial goals.

• L&D initiatives are tied directly to business objectives.

• Learning investments are measured against productivity, retention, and financial performance.

• Programs evolve with the company’s needs.

• Learning programs gain executive buy-in and sustained funding, with the potential for true cultural change.

By fostering productive conversations like the one between Angela and Dan, organizations can ensure that learning isn’t just an expense—it’s a critical driver of business success.