What Finance did in 2008 provides practical lessons for HR now

Finance is there to calculate and pay our bonuses and taxes," a member of the leadership team told me when I started my career at Microsoft.

Yet there I was, showing up to a sales meeting uninvited. "And distribute luncheon vouchers on time," another ex-colleague added, humorously.

Meanwhile, my actual responsibility as CFO wasn’t just numbers; it was about business impact and strategic partnership.

Navigating the storm: Lessons from 2008

This was 2008, the year of the subprime crisis.

Productivity pressures and budget cuts were intense.

Cloud transformation was just beginning, bringing with it talent shortages, FOBO (Fear of Becoming Obsolete), and reskilling demands in IT.

Social media took off, sparking the era of Big Data and transforming fields, like marketing. Many marketers lost their jobs globally due to the changing landscape.

Who stayed? Those willing to reskill, becoming more data-driven and strategic.Who stayed? Those willing to reskill, becoming more data-driven and strategic.

Being in Finance back then was both thrilling and challenging. We had to downsize, reorganize, and align with new tech and business realities.

We were absorbed in core finance work—accounting, tax, reporting, compliance. But core finance is only impactful when things go wrong, which is not what anyone wants!

The goal was to earn that elusive "seat at the table". But how?

Is history repeating itself? A parallel for HR in 2024

Let's play a game: imagine replacing "Finance" with "HR', "2008" with "2024," and "cloud" with "AI". Sound familiar?

It should! HR today faces challenges akin to those finance encountered back then.

The pandemic barely ended, and already we've faced the 'Great Resignation', geopolitical uncertainty, inflation, and the explosion of AI.

Regulatory shifts like Pay Transparency, EU CSRD, and the EU AI Act add more pressure, alongside generational shifts, hybrid work, and productivity demands.

As HR professionals, you’re navigating not only your roles but also the broader implications of AI transformation.

It’s overwhelming—but it’s also a golden opportunity. Done right, HR can earn a genuine boardroom seat.It’s overwhelming—but it’s also a golden opportunity. Done right, HR can earn a genuine boardroom seat.

Done poorly, HR risks being sidelined, replaced by automation and business-driven strategic HR decisions.

As AI is increasingly capable of taking over entire workflows via AI-agents and as talent management insights become democratized through technology, HR must redefine itself and focus on where it adds strategic value to the business.

Otherwise, there’s little to justify its existence — let alone its position on the leadership team.

What Finance did in 2008: Practical lessons for HR

What did we do in 2008 that led to our success at Microsoft? We outsourced core finance functions, reorganized, downsized, and upskilled.

Instead of ten accountants, I hired three senior controllers who spent one day each week learning and engaging with the business. This required adaptability and persistence—traits not traditionally associated with Finance.

But after a short learning phase, we stopped being meeting-tourists and made sure to add value by delivering insightful data analysis.

When hiring those controllers, I prioritized adaptability, perseverance, ambiguity management, business acumen, and a willingness to challenge the status quo—skills that went beyond traditional controlling.

Our success metrics were business-impact KPIs. We went further, organizing CEO and CFO meetups to address partners' pain points and adjust our strategy as the crisis hit everyone.

The CFO Blueprint for CHROs

Just like Finance redefined its role in 2008, HR must now rise to the challenge. Here’s what HR professionals can learn from my experience:

Key Takeaways for HR Professionals

1. Business Mindset: Be the GM of your function. Understand the business strategy and priorities, and take a consultative approach. Don’t execute tasks in a silo.
2. ROI Focus: Speak the language of the business. Everything you do, whether a new initiative or a legacy project, needs to prove its worth. Planning a new wellbeing initiative? Define your success criteria, ROI, and cost savings or productivity gains.
3. Problem-Driven: Josh Bersin says it best—"Fall in love with the problem." Understand where the business hurts most and solve that problem. Don’t adopt AI just to stay current; adopt it if it solves a specific issue with measurable success.
4. Strategic Perspective: It’s easy to get tactical with AI. But your role isn’t to become a data scientist—it’s to understand and manage AI’s strategic impact on workforce needs, roles, performance, and diversity.
5. Data-Informed, People-Driven: Some HR professionals are still uncomfortable with data. It’s time to change that, but remember, data doesn’t replace the human factor. Creativity in marketing wasn’t erased by data, and neither is it in HR.
6. Question Legacy: Traditional HR structures may not support the changes AI brings. Be ready to realign your organization. This is about a genuine transformation, not minor tweaks.

The road ahead: Embracing change with grit

Change is tough and requires high self-awareness, commitment, and grit. You need to shift perceptions of yourself and those around you.

It’s not a popularity contest, especially at first. Think of it like a diet: success comes from a clear vision of who you want to be, and a plan to get there.

The motivation is simple: if you want to secure your future in HR, the time is now. The rest is up to you.The motivation is simple: if you want to secure your future in HR, the time is now. The rest is up to you.

There’s plenty of advice out there, but it often falls flat.

Start with a quick win to shift perceptions.

Seek support from your GM, share your goals, and ask for help.

As Peter Hinssen quoted Winston Churchill at UNLEASH World in Paris: "If you don’t take change by the hand, it will take you by the throat.