April 2025 Member Spotlight – Becky Haight, CFO, HRCI®

-A conversation with Shannon Minifie, Box of Crayons

Becky Haight’s the CFO at HRCI®, the premier HR credentialing and learning community for the human resource profession. Because I don’t often get to chat with people in the finance seat, I thought it might be helpful to ISA-ALP folks to dig into some of the challenges we face in our own business—and see what a CFO has to say about how she deals with them.

Shannon Minifie: Becky, thanks for agreeing to do this. Before we dig into some of the things on my mind, maybe you could share some of the projects at HRCI that you’re most excited about?

Becky Haight: Absolutely. We’re currently focusing on expanding our products to cater to the diverse learning preferences of today’s professionals. This includes not only traditional course formats, but also interactive webinars that foster community engagement. I’m most excited about us innovating in response to all the ways users want to learn these days—not just in the “classroom” model of years past, but also in a way that connects them more deeply to their professional peers.

Additionally, our international growth has been gaining steady momentum, particularly in the Middle East, which is truly exciting for us.

SM: That sounds promising. What challenges have you been facing around that kind of market expansion?

BH: One significant challenge is maintaining the personal touch as we enter new markets. Ensuring we understand and meet the unique needs of these regions requires dedicated effort.

SM: I couldn’t agree more. We’ve had a few clients where ensuring that our learning experiences landed in specific geographies required us to take on total not just translations but localizations of our learning. These are big projects and take a lot of resources.

BH: Yes, they do.

SM: How do you handle compliance, especially with tax, privacy, and insurance regulations across various jurisdictions? I know that’s been an ongoing piece of work for us at Box of Crayons, in the relatively few geographies we currently work across.

BH: Compliance is a priority for us. We frequently consult with legal experts and insurance brokers to navigate the complexities of different regions. When working with vendors, we require they adhere to our stringent privacy policies to protect our stakeholders’ information. Our internal team also follows a clear privacy policy that is updated as needed.

SM: So, I know that at least since I was head of sales here at Box of Crayons, and even more so in the last six years that I’ve been CEO, unpredictable revenue is a huge challenge for our business, as I’ve heard it is for many other ISA-ALP firms. Clients will sign multi-year MSAs, but SoWs—where the work is really articulated and the commitment is made—tend to be created quarterly or annually or sometimes ad hoc/as a particular initiative is given the green light. Plus, outside licensing agreements, much of the services most ISA firms provide could be cancelled if the business needs to—if there are budget cuts, or uncertainty hits, or a new leader takes over.

I know me and our VP of Finance spend a lot of time with our sales leader trying to plan off the back of a forecast that can’t always be relied upon 100%. How do you approach forecasting at HRCI, Becky?

BH: We’re a little luckier here, as our model is a bit different—the individual market is different from the organizational market. Most of the time, we’re selling directly to the end user. Most HR professionals find us because we’re well known as The Place to get credentialing and learning. Otherwise, they find us on social media, or at HR conferences and other events.

These certifications and recertifications—which are key revenue drivers—also occur on a three-year cycle, complemented by our learning courses, so there’s some built-in predictability there. For individual clients, payments are typically upfront, aiding in cash flow management. While we don’t operate on a membership model, this structure allows us to maintain financial stability.

Because of our global presence, HRCI partners with companies that prepare HR professionals for certification. We partner with them to bundle our resources into their offerings. That model is a bit more forecastable, too.  HRCI has been around for over 50 years, so we have a lot of historical data to work with, and we’ve developed a deep understanding of market trends and seasonality, enabling us to prognosticate revenue with reasonable accuracy.

SM: Gotta love those up-front payments. That sounds like you’re about as close to a membership model as you could get. The predictability not only from the seasonality but those 3-year cycles is handy, too. We have a good sense of our seasonality broadly and then sprinkle into that the buying patterns (fiscal years) of our key clients to fill in the picture. But definitely that such a key part of HRCI’s business is D2C and up-front payment is immensely helpful in alleviating some of the planning challenges I know a lot of us firms have—this challenge around predictability.

SM: What other industry trends are influencing your financial planning, and how is HRCI adapting?

BH: The intersection of HR and technology, particularly genAI, is a significant trend. As AI reshapes job functions, there’s a growing need for HR leaders to understand and manage these changes. We’re committed to equipping professionals with the knowledge and skills to navigate this evolving landscape, ensuring they remain effective in their roles.

AI is also a focal point for us internally.  Internally, our finance team is using an in-house AI product that even allows us to import excel spreadsheets and analyze data more efficiently, providing deeper insights and expediting decision-making processes.

SM: Oh, interesting. Box of Crayons has so far taken advantage of the language models, but we haven’t dipped our toes into the numeracy capabilities of any of the genAI tools. What kinds of tools are you using, and can you give an example of the kind of analysis you have the tool perform for you—something that those of us at home can think about applying in our own businesses? Is there a particular decision you made using AI recently that you can think of?

BH: We modify tools in house that are built on existing software platforms, such as OpenAI. HRCI has adopted AI across multiple departments, helping not only finance, but other departments like IT and Marketing. Our decisions are not made by AI, rather AI is helping speed up the decision process, allowing us to move faster.

SM: One last closing question for you: how has the ISA-ALP been beneficial to HRCI, to you?

BH: The ISA-ALP has been invaluable, particularly in connecting us with other learning providers. Plus engaging with peers, especially during events like the Annual Business Retreat, offers fresh perspectives and insights. And while many companies operate quite differently, the Member Financial Benchmarking Research studies are still really useful – we particularly like to compare metrics like gross margin and revenue per FTE to see where we stack up.

SM: Yes, I love the Financial Benchmarking Research myself—it provides great data points for us around how we’re doing relative to other firms in our space. It’s a fantastic perk of being an ISA-ALP member and (I’m sure my colleagues would agree) well worth the effort to participate in.

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