Addressing issues with Shared Servi

Addressing issues with Shared Service

Determine a clear case for creating shared servicesthat is based on the value-added to the business not just cost.
• Design the whole thing for service as well as efficiency and then build a service oriented culture in the delivery team.
• Pay more attention to customer feedback and less tothe ratio of HR practitioners to other staff in measuring success.
• Think through the right structure and location to meet business needs – local, regional, global, business line.
• Recognise that HR has a number of different customers to be convinced and, in particular, that senior management has to
support the concept in theory and practice.
• Find an approach that fits within the organisation,its aims, its managers and its culture.
• Determine what processes are competitive differentiators, consolidate the remainder of the processes, eliminate overlaps.
• Offer easy-to-use and personalised services to a broad user base.
• Don’t underestimate the scale of resources required: budget, HR time, Central IT time/commitment.
• Take care in determining the best design and choiceof operator and integrator: in-house or outsourced(in whole or in part).
• Be wary of IT delivery times, and be cautious whether the system will be fully operational on time and to specification.
• Avoid the temptation to design and implement a unique HR data portal and service, or to significantly customize one. Many
effective products are on the market, and adapting one of them is much simpler, less expensive and more likely to succeed.
• Recognise that whatever you chose will have an impact on processes, indeed this is an opportunity to re-engineer them.
• Remember that IT is a channel for providing and disseminating information but it is the content and analysis of the information
that drives business performance.
• Data integrity and ownership is critical not just in HR but also in the line – ‘garbage in garbage out’.
• Plan to analyse the data. Data does not improve decision making unless it is used. If warehoused it might as well not exist.
• Pilot rather than roll it out in one go. This keeps up the momentum for change, minimises disruption to the business, identifies
early problems and is an opportunity to validate existing data before transferring to the new system. Accept that the roll out
will not go as expected.