My experience of working with CEOs and CFOs reveals that business people find HR information more persuasive if it is presented in the language which is understood by them. That is the reason that business acumen is emerging as top competency to have a successful HR career. What constitutes business acumen is a common question? Here is a good starting point, in which you wish to tread this path.

1. 1
Zahid Ali Mubarik GPHR, HRMP
CEO HR Metrics
President SHRM Forum Pakistan
Chairman Technical Committee HR Standards Pakistan
Member ISO Geneva TC 260-HR Standards

2. What Constitutes Business Acumen?
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•Business value chain and shareholder wealth creation cycle
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•Accounting and fnancial management
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•Key components of balance sheet, income statement and cash flow statement
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•Difference between data, metrics and analytics
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•Financial Analyis Ratios: gross profit margin, ROI, NPV, IRR, Cost Benefit Analysis, Breakeven
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•Measure of central tendency in data (Mean, Median, Mode, Quartiles, Percentiles, Range)
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•Converting intangible HR data to financial information
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•Business communication tools (Histogram, Scatter Diagram, Pareto Chart, Gantt Chart, PERT)
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•Traditional vs contemporary HR Measurement
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•Human capital management gap analysis, benchmarking and action planning for improvement
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•Human capital investment and ROI calculation