Best practices in Shared Services Centers

Overcoming resistance to Shared Services Centers initiatives

Article

Webster Co-Founder of Webster Buchanan Research Keith Rodgers discusses the causes and sources of resistance and ways of overcoming them to Shared Services Centers' initiatives.

Ask a Human Resources or payroll manager about his/her experiences in setting up and managing a Shared Services Center (SSC), and at some point the conversation will invariably turn to people-related challenges. Every transformational change project runs into some level of internal opposition, but resistance to change in Shared Services Center projects can be particularly strong.

The first step toward overcoming resistance is to understand the drivers. What is it that makes some top executives, line managers, and employees—even entire business units—rigidly oppose to change?

A second set of drivers of resistance comes from the business case, where cost savings tend to dominate the internal debate at the expense of factors that may have a stronger appeal for those directly impacted by the initiative.

Even with a sound business case, full backing at the executive level and an experienced project team, some level of resistance is inevitable in a Shared Services Center initiative. By understanding and predicting the causes, establishing a comprehensive communications plan and adopting best practices and pragmatism in people management, the impact of resistance can be mitigated.