Emerging 'partnerships' between HR, finance leaders.

• Position: HUMAN RESOURCES

Human resources officials are still most involved in setting up employee rewards programs, and that's not likely to change anytime soon. But financial executives are playing a greater role in the area of budgeting of such programs and the attendant corporate spend/according to a new study that analyzes rewards pro-grams and corporate funding.

As a result, study collaborators Forbes Insights and global professional services firm Towers Watson predict a growing partnership between corporate finance and human resource executives as American companies start to address the implications of health care reform for their reward programs and talent management strategy.

The study, joining Forces: Forging an HR/Finance Partnership to Shape Rewards for the Future, found that both groups of executives expect increases to their health care and other reward budgets over the next few years. Yet neither sees any change in the cost allocation for their reward grams overall

The study is based on a survey conducted through interviews with more than 300 HR and finance executives at U.S. companies. It concluded that both groups of respondents see changes ahead in their own rotes when it comes to reward programs.

Currently 81 percent of HR executives and 55 percent of finance executives agree that setting reward program strategy is largely driven hv HR. But, when it comes to budgeting for such programs, a majority of finance respondents:--53 percent--say they are...