Introduction
For many companies, the full transformation of HR has yet to happen, even though the transition of transactional process activity into regional Shared Services centers and the creation of Centers of Excellence for strategic processes for many has been a significant advance over the inefficient mix of centralized and decentralized processes that existed before Shared Services. However, many inefficiencies often remain. As one example, for many companies, when an employee moves to a new position within the company, [1] HR processes are so different it is more like starting a new job at a new company than it is completing an internal transfer where internal processes are consistent and familiar.
Full transformation suggests starting with a new blueprint to create a completely new HR Operating Model [2] to define HR Operations, Business HR, and Center of Expertise, and the interfaces between each component of HR Service Delivery.
Company Experience
A PeercastTM in our HR Shared Services area [3] featured a global company with over $15B in annual revenue with customers and operations around the globe, discussing candidly their experience with rethinking HR service delivery. The transformation had the support of the CEO, with the transformation of HR being undertaken as part of a company-wide transformation project. Because project effort was split between Process Redesign at 40%, Change Management at 40%, and New Technology at 20%, having senior-level support was critical to ensuring the Change Management component was addressed effectively.
The goal of the HR transformation project was to move from/to:
- A US-centric approach / Truly global data, processes, and capabilities
- Qualitative analysis (without data) / Data-driven decision making
- A US Transactional Service Center / A global service delivery model
- Locally customized tools and resources / Centralized tools and support
- Complex and inconsistent performance and pay programs / Simplified and common performance and pay programs
The major investments of the project included:
- Workday as the technology platform
- Using ServiceNow, implement an employee portal to provide access to tools and information
- Design and implement an HR global service delivery model
- Payroll vendor consolidation to reduce complexity [4]
- Simplify and align Pay and Performance processes
The results of the project for HR were to move to one operating model by leveraging two new technologies and defining and implementing forty global processes. Results for the business included reducing the time required by employees on the HR process; employees and managers getting the right answer at the right time, in the right way from HR; managers having the information they need to manage their teams; all leveraging a global design for a common look and feel across businesses.
Further details regarding our feature company’s experiences in this area, including the complete member presentation and PeercastTM recording, can be found on the Peeriosity member website.
Closing Summary
HR service delivery often includes a mix of Shared Services [5] activities with Centers of Excellence and local HR support, where each component operates without close coordination with other components, and without an overall blueprint for HR service delivery. While the change management issues can be significant, stepping back and redesigning HR service delivery from the ground up can yield significant savings and increased efficiencies, with a positive impact on company employees.
With regards to HR service delivery, has your company completed a full transformation, or are there significant opportunities remaining to be identified and realized? If you have considered this opportunity, what was the relative effort and investment to redesign processes, manage the change, or leverage new technologies?
Who are your peers and how are you collaborating with them?
____________________________________________________________________________
“PeercastsTM” are private, professionally facilitated webcasts that feature leading member company experiences on specific topics as a catalyst for broader discussion. Access is available exclusively to Peeriosity member company employees, with consultants or vendors prohibited from attending or accessing discussion content. Members can see who is registered to attend in advance, with discussion recordings, supporting polls, and presentation materials online and available whenever convenient for the member. Using Peeriosity’s integrated email system, Peer MailTM, attendees can easily communicate at any time with other attending peers by selecting them from the list of registered attendees.
Peeriosity members are invited to log into www.peeriosity.com [6] to join the discussion and connect with Peers. Membership is for practitioners only, with no consultants or vendors permitted. To learn more about Peeriosity, click here [6].