How to Build a Business Case That Actually Gets Approved
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For everyone who's ever sat in a meeting watching executives' eyes glaze over whilst you passionately explain why your brilliant People Ops initiative is exactly what the company needs right now.
Right, let's be honest about something: most People teams struggle with building business cases. Not because we're not smart (we absolutely are), or because our ideas aren't brilliant (they regularly are!), but because we've been trained to think that "employee satisfaction" and "workplace culture" are compelling business arguments.
Unfortunately, the way the world is going, if we defend our work on these outputs alone… they're not as compelling as they could be.
If you’re running a healthy company, I’m going to bet that your CEO doesn't regularly wake up thinking, "Gosh, I really hope our employee engagement score goes up this quarter." They wake up thinking about revenue, profit margins, and whether they'll hit their targets. And until we start speaking that language, our excellent People Ops transformations are likely to keep getting stuck in the "we'll circle back on that" graveyard.
I've seen too many brilliant People leaders present beautifully crafted presentations about employee experience improvements, only to watch their proposals get quietly shelved because they couldn't connect the dots between better onboarding, benefits, or offsites, and actual business outcomes.
So let's do a bit of work to see if we can fix that, shall we?
The Uncomfortable Truth About Business Cases
Here's what I've learned after years of getting business cases approved (and rejected): there's a hierarchy of persuasion in the business world, and it looks something like this:
Most Compelling: More Revenue "This will help us make more money."
Second Most Compelling: More Profit "This will help us spend less money while maintaining quality."
Least Compelling: More Time "This will save us time" (which, in my experience, almost everyone translates to "this is nice to have" - because if we could save headcount or money, you would have said that).
Notice what's not on this list? "Better employee experience" or "improved culture" or "increased engagement scores." These things matter enormously—they're genuinely important—but they're outcomes, not business cases. They're the how, not the why.
When you can draw a direct line from your People Ops initiative to revenue or profit, you will begin to see more momentum behind the work you’re doing. And trust me, that line exists. We just need to get better at finding it. And sometimes we don’t find it perfectly, but what we can learn from our friends in Brand Marketing, we should!
The "So What?" Test
Before you write a single word of your business case, run your idea through what I call the "So What?" test:
You: "We want to implement People Ops as a Product to improve our employee experience."
Your CEO's Brain: "So what?"
You: "Well, it will make employees happier and more engaged."
Your CEO's Brain: "So what? How does that help us hit our numbers?"
You: "Happy employees are more productive and less likely to leave."
Your CEO's Brain: "So what? What does that actually cost us right now, and what would we save?"
Keep going until you hit something that makes the finance team perk up. That's where your business case lives.
Building Your Business Case: The Anti-Corporate Template
Note: I'm going to use the transition to People Ops as a Product as our example, but this framework works for any People initiative.
Executive Summary: Lead with the Money
Don't write: "This business case outlines our transition to a People Ops as a Product model to enhance employee experiences and align HR with organisational goals."
Do write: "By transitioning to a People Ops as a Product model, we project £450k in annual savings through reduced turnover costs, plus an estimated £280k revenue increase from faster time-to-productivity for new hires."
The Problem: Make It Reasonable
Your job here isn't to list every People Ops pain point you've discovered. Your job is to put a realistic price tag on the problems you're solving. You don’t want to be a 2021 startup growing into a 50x multiple… you want to be a team hitting and achieving their goals. Be realistic about what you think you can impact, and make that impact clear in your business case.
Example: Current state analysis reveals three costly inefficiencies:
Turnover costs: 23% annual attrition costs us approximately £520k annually (£22.5k average replacement cost × 23 departures)
Lost productivity: New hires take 16 weeks to reach full productivity vs. industry benchmark of 8 weeks, representing £156k in lost output annually
Management overhead: People Partners spend 67% of their time on administrative tasks rather than strategic initiatives, equivalent to 2.3 FTE worth £184k annually
Total annual cost of current approach: £860k
We predict this solution has the ability to reduce this by 20%, so we will price it in at £170k benefit
Every problem comes with a number. That's not accidental. In my experience in leadership and on boards, people think in numbers. Numbers are a clear and demonstrable way to think about a problem in terms of opportunity and scope, so try your very best to use these to lead decision making.
The Solution: Focus on Outcomes, Not Features
Don't explain what People Ops as a Product is. Explain what it does for the business.
Don't write: "We'll implement cross-functional squads using product management principles to deliver employee experience improvements through iterative development cycles."
Do write: "This approach will, based on market research from X, Y and Z company, reduce our time-to-hire from 45 to 28 days (saving £67k annually in contractor costs), decrease new hire time-to-productivity by 50% (£156k value), and reallocate 40% of People Partner time to revenue-generating activities like talent pipeline development."
ROI That Actually Makes Sense
ROI calculations are where most HR business cases go fuzzy and a little off the beaten path in my experience. Instead, what I aim to do is use conservative, verifiable numbers:
Year 1 Investment: £125k
Technology implementation: £45k (broken down in a sheet)
Training and change management: £35k (broken down by time or resources)
External consulting support: £45k (annually, to deliver on projects in place of perm headcount)
Year 1 Returns: £347k
Reduced turnover costs (20% improvement): £170k
Reduced People Partner headcount: £73k
Reduced contractor spend: £40k
Net ROI Year 1: 144%
Risk Analysis: Be Honest, Not Optimistic
Nobody believes a risk analysis that basically says "everything will be fine." Address real concerns:
Risk: Team resistance to new operating model
Impact: Medium - Could delay implementation by 2-3 months
Mitigation: Involve team in design process, provide clear career development paths within new structure
Risk: Technology implementation challenges
Impact: High - Could reduce first-year benefits by 40%
Mitigation: Phased rollout starting with pilot team, dedicated technical project manager
Risk: Leadership attention diverted by other priorities
Impact: High - Without executive sponsorship, initiative likely to stall
Mitigation: Regular steering committee meetings, quick wins in first 90 days
The Presentation That Gets Approved
When you present your business case, remember:
Start with the ending. Lead with the ROI and work backwards.
Use visuals that show money. Charts showing cost savings hit differently than charts showing engagement scores.
Anticipate the "yes, but" questions. Have backup slides ready for questions about implementation risks, resource requirements, and alternative approaches.
Make it easy to say yes. Propose a pilot program or phased approach so they're not betting the farm on your untested idea.
What Good Looks Like in Practice
Here's how this sounds in the real world:
"We're proposing a £125k investment that will return £347k in year one and £520k annually thereafter. The core issue we're solving is that our current People operations cost us £860k annually in turnover, slow productivity ramp-up, and inefficient resource allocation.
We'll implement this through a three-phase approach starting with a pilot team, so we can validate results before full rollout. The key metrics we'll track are time-to-hire, time-to-productivity, and voluntary turnover, all things that directly impact our bottom line.
The risk is minimal because we're starting small, and the upside is substantial. We're essentially asking for permission to save money whilst improving what our team experiences day-to-day."
The Follow-Up That Seals the Deal
Getting initial approval is just the beginning. Here's how to maintain momentum:
Week 2: Share detailed implementation plan with clear milestones
Month 1: Report early wins and metrics improvements
Month 3: Present pilot results and expansion recommendations
Month 6: Deliver comprehensive ROI analysis with actual vs. projected results
Your business case isn't just about getting approval, it's about building credibility for every future People initiative. Deliver on your promises, and the next business case becomes infinitely easier.
The Bottom Line
Building compelling business cases isn't about learning to speak "business." It's about connecting the human work we do to the commercial outcomes that keep businesses alive.
Your People Ops initiatives do drive revenue and reduce costs. They do create measurable business value. The challenge isn't proving that connection exists—it's getting better at articulating it in language that makes finance directors nod instead of yawn. Stop apologising for asking for investment in people systems. Start demonstrating why that investment is the smartest money your company can spend.