At the highest level an organisation needs to decide whether temporary recruitment, permanent recruitment, or both will be included. At a more detailed level the types of roles that should be included need to be decided. Where roles are not being included alternatives need to be considered. For example, a local authority that employs 100 temporary staff on a rolling basis for catering jobs across the area might decide that rather than including these roles in a shared service centre, it may be more cost effective to award a contract to an organisation to carry out all catering for the area.

It is very easy at this stage to exclude large areas either to avoid upset among hiring managers or because of insufficient research leading to confusion over how people are recruited and what their employment status is. One justification often used on the temporary side by many hiring managers is that they employ consultants rather than temporary staff, therefore they should be able to continue to recruit independently of any shared service centre. In this case it is extremely important that large areas of recruitment where significant cost savings can be made are not ruled out. There must be a very clear definition of what the shared service centre covers to ensure that users of the service are clear on exactly when they are required to use it.

Which departments/organisations/external companies are suitable for the shared service centre?
In addition to deciding which types of role will be included in the service, organisations should also consider whether other organisations should be included. For example, companies that are part of a larger group may consider whether other group companies may be included from service go live, or an organisation may consider whether they will be able to offer their services to other similar organisations at some time in the future. It is important, however, to ensure that the business case and projected savings are based on those organisations that will definitely use the service, with any additional savings that may result being projected separately.

How will the shared service centre be staffed?
This will depend largely on how recruitment will be carried out. Will it be direct, through agencies or both? Will recruiters be responsible for carrying out any interviews? Will it be necessary to run aptitude tests or assessment centres? In addition to the recruiters there will be a need for somebody to manage the centre and administrators, for example to ensure that timesheets for temporary staff are in on time, to produce reports or to field queries.

The reporting lines from the shared service centre to the rest of the organisation must also be defined. Who will the centre manager report to? Who from the organisation will discuss any issues with the centre manager/team? Who will receive reports and how often? It is usual in an outsourced deal to have 3 levels of governance – one at a day to day level, one for monthly meetings and one for quarterly meetings. This should be replicated for a shared service centre to ensure that it is running as effectively as possible.

Is an IT system required to underpin the shared service?
Beeline, Hays Workflow, Chimes,

The answer to this will usually be yes. If an organisation carries out enough recruitment to warrant a shared service centre then a system will be required to store CVs, log candidate progress and provide reports on recruitment. The questions will usually be whether current internal systems are sufficient or whether a new system, such as Chimes, Fieldglass or one of the many other online recruitment systems on the market, is required.
The system that is used will affect service take up, satisfaction and reporting capability, therefore, it is important to think about what is required from it aside from the basics:

• Security – Where will users be able to access it from? Does this compromise your IT security? Is it possible for unauthorised users to be able to see restricted data?


• Audit trail – How does the system store information? If data is changed will an audit trail of previous entries be kept? How easy is it to access this audit trail?


• Reporting requirements – Can the system store all of the information that is required for your reporting needs?


• Usability – Who will the users of the system be? How IT literate are your users?

How will the service be measured?
It is very tempting to save time and effort during the implementation of a shared service centre by not defining service level agreements and reporting requirements. However, defining these is crucial to ensure that objectives are being met and that current issues are not being transferred to a central unit with no incentives to make any improvements.

Defining how the service is measured and what reports are required will also feed into the detailed solution design, particularly in terms of the IT solution. It will make life much easier for the team running the service to provide metrics if they can be produced automatically at the push of a button rather than having to employ somebody to key information into spreadsheets.

Consideration should also be given to what information is really required and what it will be used for. All too often organisations request reports on every imaginable metric, which are then either filed or thrown away without being used. Similarly, for service levels it is necessary to take into account whether they are really measurable, whether they provide a real indication of how well the service is running and whether there are any current statistics to compare them to.

Communication

As well as carrying out research and thinking about how the solution would work it is essential to start thinking about communications from very early on. The National Outsourcing Association says mishandling people issues is the biggest cause of disasters and damage to reputations. Without clear and effective communication to ensure buy in from the organisation a shared service centre will be a waste of time and effort.

Who?
This will depend on the organisation, but will typically include:

• Project sponsor – somebody visible within the organisation to champion the project and ensure that it is given due attention and credibility.


• Departmental heads/senior management team – to cascade messages down within the whole organisation.


• Hiring managers – particularly those who are frequent/volume recruiters.

When?
This will depend on who is being communicated to, but the general rule is the earlier the better. It is important to ensure people feel involved and is very useful to get input to the service design. If people have been involved in designing the service they will be more likely to use it. It is also important to ensure that updates are provided throughout the project, including after service go live to provide feedback on how effectively the service is running.

How?
Again, this will depend on who is being communicated to, but a variety of tools should be used to ensure that all audiences are reached. This may include from interactive workshops/feedback sessions, intranet, newsletters, presentations and email updates.

Summary

The key to setting up a successful shared service of any type is preparation, research and planning, and ensuring that there is a strong business case to move forward. The resource and time that needs to be dedicated to such a project is often underestimated. Obviously, there will be the resource required to carry out the day to day roles within the shared service centre. In addition to this, as outlined above, the following work will have to be allocated:

• Carrying out research and preparing a business case.


• Design and delivery of communications strategy.


• Detailed solution design, including input from HR/recruitment and procurement to design processes, IT to design the solution and finance to ensure that any suppliers are still invoiced and costed correctly.


• Project managing the solution implementation.


• Independent monitoring and review of key performance indicators and service level agreements.

In order to implement and run a successful solution, adequate resource must be allocated to each of these activities. This will ensure the best start for the shared service centre, and hopefully, ensure long term success.

About the Author

Gina Gill is a Senior Consultant and business process outsourcing specialist at Alsbridge Europe, the premier consulting firm providing unbiased advice on Outsourcing, Shared Services and Offshoring.  Gina has worked on recruitment and finance outsourcing deals across a number of large multi-site clients.  She is Prince 2 qualified and has experience across the full lifecycle from discovery and business case development through implementation to post implementation review.  Gina can be contacted on 020 7242 0666 or at gina.gill@alsbridge.com.