{"id":18294,"date":"2020-12-18T13:11:03","date_gmt":"2020-12-18T13:11:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/?p=18294"},"modified":"2021-02-09T11:14:59","modified_gmt":"2021-02-09T11:14:59","slug":"the-future-of-hr-shared-services-whitepaper-summary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/blog\/the-future-of-hr-shared-services-whitepaper-summary\/","title":{"rendered":"The Future of HR Shared Services | Whitepaper summary"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Is HR Shared Services simply a behind the scenes function? Supporting the administrative side of things and focusing on the \u2018hygiene factors\u2019 of HR? Well, that\u2019s the perception LACE Partners set out to challenge when they interviewed 25 global HR Shared Service directors from leading Private Sector and Financial Services businesses in early 2020.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They\u2019ve compiled their findings into this detailed whitepaper: <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/lacepartners.co.uk\/future-hr-shared-services-whitepaper\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Future of HR Shared Services: Becoming People Experience and Solutions Experts<\/a>. As we\u2019ve done with previous reports, we\u2019ve read it and picked out some of the key points we think you\u2019ll find interesting.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/lacepartners.co.uk\/future-hr-shared-services-whitepaper\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-18295 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/LACE-Whitepaper-Cover-1024x574.png\" alt=\"The Future of HR Shared Services\" width=\"780\" height=\"437\" srcset=\"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/LACE-Whitepaper-Cover-1024x574.png 1024w, https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/LACE-Whitepaper-Cover-300x168.png 300w, https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/LACE-Whitepaper-Cover.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h2><b>From cost effectiveness to effective engagement and use of technology<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Setting the scene before we dig into the findings, the shared services model has been a staple for 25 years or so and for much of that, cost was the driving factor and the reason a one-size model ruled. However, times are changing and engagement has overtaken the budget because it affects productivity and performance. The role of today\u2019s HR Shared Services leader is to bridge the two, creating more personalised experiences in a standardised way!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A huge part of that involves tapping into the rapid growth of artificial intelligence (AI) and technology overall. It\u2019s given those leaders both the tools and opportunities to rip up the old rules, disrupt and deliver a new way of doing things. It was this idea that inspired LACE and shaped the four focus questions for this research.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What activities is HR Shared Services focused on? How do we keep these services relevant and continuously improve?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How are HR Shared Services teams structured? What roles, capabilities and behaviours will be critical to success?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What tools and enablers are HR Shared Services using to optimise service delivery?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What can HR Shared Services learn from other \u2018shared\u2019 functions, in their organisations, such as Customer Services, Finance, Marketing?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>The disconnect between how Shared Services are perceived internally and externally<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How people refer to this department in their business is a giveaway of how they perceive it. LACE\u2019s research highlighted that \u2018HR Operations\u2019 (52%) or \u2018HR \/ People Services\u2019 (32%) were among the most common names, giving the impression that they \u2018keep the lights on\u2019 and run the day-to-day functions that support business needs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-18297 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/LACE-Whitepaper-1.png\" alt=\"Which roles does HR need to play in an organisation\" width=\"367\" height=\"501\" srcset=\"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/LACE-Whitepaper-1.png 367w, https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/LACE-Whitepaper-1-220x300.png 220w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 367px) 100vw, 367px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To sum up the above in a few words, maybe the HR Shared Services department needs a rebrand and renaming to truly reflect the role it has in your business. To reaffirm the purpose and reflect the areas people might not realise they have a key role in, such as people management, employee experience and strategy. The clue\u2019s in the name and if it isn\u2019t no wonder people misconceive what you do\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>The link between the customer and employee experience<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The respondents in LACE\u2019s research were in agreement, \u201cemployee experience drives employee engagement, which in turn impacts employee productivity and, ultimately, customer e<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">xperience.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And yet very few had successfully transferred their perceived values of a great experience into a formal vision or service promise for design principles. The way they\u2019d described this experience included transparent, empowering, frictionless and simple, but these were lacking from their experience\u2019s design principles.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How they\u2019ve been measuring performance could do with a shake-up too, a way to move from formal KPIs to metrics that reflect how their people feel. While 76% had operational measures in place, only 48% were collecting data on the employee experience. And while 68% had a formal performance scorecard in place, the study quotes one interesting exception to the rule:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cOnly one organisation had made a conscious choice not to embed a formal performance scorecard. For them, the absolute priority was to give employees the right answer and support, no matter how long it took\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">HR needs to focus more on the key moments that impact employees, not just the key metrics. LACE list four ways HR teams can score more points with employees and mark fewer scorecards.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-18298 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/LACE-Whitepaper-2.png\" alt=\"How can HR departments create better people experiences\" width=\"767\" height=\"359\" srcset=\"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/LACE-Whitepaper-2.png 767w, https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/LACE-Whitepaper-2-300x140.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 767px) 100vw, 767px\" \/><\/p>\n<h2><b>Interacting with the HR department on your terms<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Some people know the cost of everything and the value of nothing, and it\u2019s a problem for some businesses too! They\u2019ve made cost one of the primary drivers of their HR strategy and that often creates the one-sized service designs that inhibit flexibility and adoption through the business.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We hinted at it already, but businesses are waking up to the idea that a better employee experience could drive performance and productivity, yet they still want these personal experiences within the purse strings.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That\u2019s where the idea of \u2018contact your way\u2019 enters the picture. And it\u2019s something that has driven a self-service, digital revolution in employee resolution, how they access HR and information searching. The image below reflects this idea, but also the generational divide between how employees like to engage with HR. For example, 40% of Millennials\/Gen Z typically resolved issues using messaging, compared with only 20% of Baby Boomers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-18299 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/LACE-Whitepaper-3.png\" alt=\"Which channels can employees use to access HR?\" width=\"450\" height=\"383\" srcset=\"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/LACE-Whitepaper-3.png 450w, https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/LACE-Whitepaper-3-300x255.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Managing these channels efficiently requires you to get the right balance between the employee preference (push) and a level of ease that drives adoption (pull). LACE\u2019s tips for pulling this off include making experiences personal when it\u2019s not viable to personalise, a consistent feel across channels and clearly signposting response times or methods in order to manage expectations.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Keep improving the digital experience<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What\u2019s interesting is how many respondents had implemented a knowledge management tool (88%) and document\/file management system (also 88%). However, as this whitepaper highlights, these are areas that require ongoing management and improvement &#8211; otherwise it\u2019s tricky to truly build communities, drive collaboration and tap into AI.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A lot of companies are clinging onto the raft of reporting but far fewer have dipped their toes into the pool of analytics. 40% use the visualisation capabilities of their tools, but just 17% were using more advanced analytics software &#8211; providing a huge opportunity for HR, especially in understanding people and behaviour better.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lastly, AI presents a bit of a dilemma &#8211; a head-scratcher for the heads of HR! A recent Shared <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Services &amp; Outsourcing Network report revealed that 42% were not yet using AI but were planning to, and only 3% had implemented it. In LACE\u2019s study, 28% were using AI but it was the bottom priority, likely because many lack the capabilities to use it effectively: \u201c63% of\u00a0 organisations do not have ready access to the data required to leverage new intelligent such as AI and chatbots.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Although AI can make HR life easier, it takes time to create the processes, build it out and train the people. It\u2019s an activity worth investing the time in and a huge untapped resource for most HR departments.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Hello Business Advisor, goodbye Business Partner\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If there are two sections of the report I\u2019d recommend you check out for yourself after this, it would be this one and the next! They\u2019re the most data and chart heavy sections, so they go into the most detail. However, here\u2019s a high-level summary.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Operational excellence (37%) and service excellence (35%) were the two areas viewed as of most critical importance. The former because it\u2019s viewed as a foundation of the HR function and the latter as it highlights that delivering an exceptional employee experience requires going beyond the basics. This means thinking about what your people value, framing HR interactions as part of a journey and not a process, and moving the mindset away from siloed working. It also means reviewing the perception that data analysis is a specialist skill set, and tapping into its power to identify areas for improvement.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">HR teams need to relax a little when it comes to process and focus more on the creative mindset. Anyone can learn a process, but a creative mindset is something much harder to develop over time, and much needed to find new ways of continuous improvement. Over two-thirds of global shared services organisations leverage a Centre of Expertise (i.e. specialist skillsets internally within shared services), with 32% of these supporting continuous improvement and process design.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They also need to focus on creating career paths for their best internal talent and ensuring they\u2019re hiring people with the right business experience. Remembering that certain things can be taught easily and others come naturally, each role will have a balance between the two when it comes to skills.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Becoming People Experience and Solutions Experts<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Essentially, this section argues that with digital technology and AI freeing up time and capacity for HR teams, they can invest that into other areas outside of the traditional support model. These new roles might include becoming a coach\/confidante to people managers, more specialised in key areas like wellbeing and recruitment, more adept at people analytics, and better at project\/change management.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So, how might HR Shared Services structure their new model or approach to offer great people experiences and solutions? LACE suggest the following structure, and just below that some more practical tips on how to deliver it.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Organisation effectiveness\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wellbeing and Engagement<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pay, Recognition and Benefits<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Development and Progression<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Attraction and Onboarding<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">People Advisory<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-18300 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/LACE-Whitepaper-4.png\" alt=\"Practical tips for HR departments to deliver a better experience to employees.\" width=\"366\" height=\"563\" srcset=\"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/LACE-Whitepaper-4.png 366w, https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/LACE-Whitepaper-4-195x300.png 195w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 366px) 100vw, 366px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<strong>If you want to read it for yourself, you can download the full PDF whitepaper <\/strong><\/span><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/lacepartners.co.uk\/future-hr-shared-services-whitepaper\/\">here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Is HR Shared Services simply a behind the scenes function? Supporting the administrative side of&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":437,"featured_media":18295,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3115],"tags":[1595,1261],"yst_prominent_words":[355,1768,345,349,2614,1192],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18294"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/437"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18294"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18294\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18342,"href":"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18294\/revisions\/18342"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18294"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=18294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}