Finance asks for ROI; rightly so. But isolating the impact of assessment isn’t as clean as a pilot A/B test. Performance moves because capability, context, and support interact. Still, you can tell a responsible ROI story that resonates with a CFO and helps your business leaders see the value.

Anchor the case in value streams you already track: mis‑hire reduction, time‑to‑ramp, internal mobility, and voluntary attrition in key roles. Each stream has a baseline, a measurement window, and a translation to money. You may not capture every effect, but you can demonstrate movement that plausibly ties to better selection and development.

A pragmatic sequence:

1. Pick one role cohort with material cost—sales, frontline leaders, product managers.
2. Define one metric to start—e.g., first‑year voluntary attrition, or ramp to quota.
3. Introduce the competency stack (weighted profiles + assessment + anchored interviews).
4. Track deltas vs. baseline over two or three hiring cycles.
5. Expand carefully if the signal holds; refine if it doesn’t.

Use ranges, not single‑point claims. Say, “We expect 15–25% reduction in mis‑hire costs over 12 months in this cohort,” and show the arithmetic. When challenged, welcome the scrutiny. It keeps the story honest and builds trust.

Done well, your ROI narrative won’t feel like a sales pitch. It will read like responsible stewardship of people decisions—exactly the space HRBPs should own.