The issue of HR transformation raises fundamental questions and requires that tough choices be made concerning the processes and activities to keep in-house and the ones to reengineer and outsource. More generally, HR transformation is primarily about reshaping the HR organization to ensure that it is best able to meet the business' needs.
Here you can explore the critical factors that contribute to the success of any HR transformation project: defining your future organization, the outsourcing models that will enable you to achieve your objectives, the technical solutions available on the market, and the fears and resistance often associated with change.
The New Normal Part 3: Embracing the Digital Age through Innovative HR Approaches
We are at the halfway mark in a revolution where all things are becoming digital.
The first part of the revolution has passed and the next leg will mark an increasingly digital society with fundamental shifts in attitudes and behavior. In twenty years’ time managers will have grown up with the New Normal and will be digital natives. However, the next few years will impact organizations significantly as they come to terms with how they need to be organized internally.
In this article, we look at how companies can embrace the digital age and cultivate the New Normal through innovative HR practices.
| 0 comments |The New Normal Part 2: Designing organizations to accommodate Digital Natives
The concept of the New Normal states: ‘We are halfway through the digital revolution.’ Over the next few years’ technology will become a part of everyday life, and the outcome will inevitably be a society without digital limits.
Digital has become the New Normal, and the next few years will impact organizations significantly as they come to terms with how they need to be organized internally. In twenty years’ time managers will have grown up with the New Normal and will be digital natives. But today, how can companies accommodate the New Normal generation currently entering the workforce while still meeting the needs of the analog generation?
In this article, we look at how to bring together the analog generation with the younger, networked generation and how HR will play a vital role in this process.
| 0 comments |The New Normal Part 1: Three new realities companies must embrace today
The New Normal refers to all things we call 'digital'. 'We are halfway through the digital revolution,' states the concept. Digital is becoming the new normal. In a society where technology is becoming a normal part of everyday life, the outcome will inevitably be zero tolerance for digital failure.
The next few years will impact organisations significantly as they come to terms with how they need to be organised internally, and address a society without digital limits. In twenty years' time, managers will be digital natives who have grown up with the New Normal. But at present, how do we bring together the analog generation with the New Normal generation and still serve both communities in organisations today?
In this article, we look at the three new realities companies must urgently embrace today to keep up with the New Normal.
| 0 comments |Trimming the Fat from BPO Transformation Part 2: Transitioning in 24 months maximum
Transforming your organization to international General and Administrative (G&A) BPO is about creating more efficient business processes. In the end, the transformation should mean reduced general and administrative operational costs.
Unfortunately, the actual process of transformation can be, if not handled carefully, time consuming and costly. The typical timeline for a large, multinational transition process can run in excess of 10 months per country.
However, when the five strategic transition waves suggested in this article are optimized for speed and quality, the timeline for the entire transformation can be reduced to a maximum of twenty four months, all countries included! Needless to say, this reduction in time equates to additional costs savings.
| 0 comments |Trimming the Fat from BPO Transformation Part 1: How to reduce the costs of the transition process
Transforming your organization to international General and Administrative (G&A) BPO is all about creating more efficient business processes. In the end, the transformation should mean reduced general and administrative operational costs.
Unfortunately, the actual transition from “as is” (existing organization and processes) to “to be” (optimized organizational processes that better serve the company’s business objectives and market challenges) can be, if not handled carefully, time consuming and costly.
However, with considerable upfront planning and a well-designed strategy, the transition is ripe with opportunities to not only drastically cut unnecessary costs, but to also simultaneously ensure the smooth and rapid success of the entire project. In the transition to G&A outsourcing, speed and quality are achieved by reducing timelines and producing quick successes.
This article offers six winning tips to help you improve speed and quality, saving both time and money.
| 0 comments |Overcoming resistance to Shared Services Centers initiatives
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.| 0 comments |Transforming the finance function through Shared Services Centers
George Connell, Royal Dutch Shell’s Head of Strategy and Business Development in Finance Operations, talks about transforming the finance function through a global network of Shared Services Centers. Royal Dutch Shell Energy currently has 5 Shared Services Centers around the world for the finance function. They handle a large number of processes including accounts payable, data management, general accounting processes and management information for the group. The Finance Shared Service organization was established in 1998. It more recently progressed to become the Finance Operations division with sharp focus on excellence, reflected in its process-based structure and orientation. Shell’s Shared Services journey has certainly benefited from senior leader support. George Cornell believes this is essential as the Shared Services Centers have brought about a fundamental change in the finance footprint. To make Finance Shared Services a success, Shell also learned from experience. They made the decision to follow the branded captive model, having the centers in-house, to help integrate Finance Operations with other organizations within Shell. Today, Finance Operations are taking over new processes and entering new areas including information management, planning and budgeting.| 1 comments |The challenge of Shared Services Centers? Controlling information! Cost reduction? A natural spin-off
Groupe SEB’s Deputy General Manager of Finance Jean-Pierre Lac discusses the challenges Shared Services Centers are facing. “The real challenge of Shared Services Centers”, as Jean-Pierre Lac insists, “is to control information. The challenges are not only financial, but also operational. Anyone can understand that unity is strength, but resistance to change is even stronger. Jean-Pierre Lac explains that the accounting departments must not cost more than the Research and Development. Harmonizing procedures and centralizing are not enough. A Shared Services Center is a third type of entity, both custodian of the group’s rules and service company working for its internal clients. The same logic now also applies to Human Resources (HR), with the same challenge and with the same natural spin-offs: controlling information…and reducing costs.| 0 comments |Building an effective Shared Services Center Transcript
In this video transcript, Borderless Executive Search’s Consultant Director Andrew Kris talks about setting up a client relationship and delivering the right set of services in a Shared Services Center. Shared Services Centers are all about change in behaviors and attitudes that comes from delivering shared services with cost, quality and timelines that are more competitive compared with alternatives—in other words, it is all about running a business. Shared Services Centers often enable companies to benefit from lower cost as well as better quality, but it’s important to benchmark this performance with what was delivered by the former organization. Customers need to see the added-value they get. Shared Services Centers are not only about delivering services to customers. They have to deliver services people want at the right price. They also need to establish relationships with your customers. This means having people manage relationships with a particular customer or a group of customers. You will need to establish relationships with your customers, which probably means having people manage relationships with a particular customer or a group of customers.| 0 comments |Building an effective Shared Services Center
Andrew Kris, Consultant Director of Borderless Executive Search, identifies ways of building an effective Shared Services Center. Shared Services Centers are about much more than just consolidating to gain efficiency. They are also, primarily, about running a business. Businesses tend not to be very useful or sustainable without customers. The same thing applies to Shared Services Centers. The reality is that even before you start your Shared Services Center, you have to assess the current internal cost of services that are going to be delivered by the center. Bear in mind that even if not visible, all processes and services delivered internally have a cost. Shared Services Centers are not only about delivering services to customers. They have to deliver services people want at the right price. They also need to establish relationships with your customers. This means having people manage relationships with a particular customer or a group of customers.| 0 comments |Shared Services Centers, a complementary path to outsourcing
Christine Stanowski, Vice President of Global Consulting, ADP, discusses how Shared Services Centers and outsourcing work in tandem in order to optimize payroll systems. Companies often weigh the pros and cons of Shared Services Centers (SSCs) and outsourcing as alternatives to in-house operations. By choosing to outsource the company’s non-core processes and boosting or reassigning resources to activities with a high added-value, Human Resources (HR) managers optimize their teams’ potential and fulfill their primary duty of using the company’s human capital to their best advantage. A multinational deploys a project to optimize multi-country payroll function on a Shared Services Center to reach these four objectives: support growth, allocate human capital to enhance performance, reduce technological risks, and meet legal compliance and governance requirements. Local requirements are critical for accurate payroll processing. Their complexity makes it a challenge for multinationals to run one worldwide payroll system in-house. The Shared Services Center has two essential roles: restructure retained processes and act as the interface between the company and its service provider. To sum up, a project to create or extend a Shared Services Center in the context of global payroll outsourcing is multi-faceted. The company must anticipate the challenges it will face as it advances toward the target organization.| 0 comments |2009 Global HR Transformation Report
ADP in partnership with HROA conducted a survey of 188 executives from around the globe, to produce the 2009 Global HR Transformation Report. The survey examines trends in Human Resources transformation practices (which we define as any concerted effort to change and improve Human Resources operations, whether through outsourcing, shared services, internal reengineering, or a combination of these strategies) in organizations around the globe. The 2009 report provides insights into market trends and changes, particularly in light of the recent global economic situation, and offers perspective on future plans. The report addresses reasons organizations transform, as well as the barriers that limit their transformation. It also includes transformation, timing, cost and satisfaction. Other factors to consider are the impact of recent global economic changes on transformation plans, the engagement of external resources and experience, current and future transformation scope, and Human Resources outsourcing and Shared Services strategy.| 0 comments |Measuring the success of HR Outsourcing
Stelios Milonakis, Senior Consultant of EquaTerra, discusses ways on how to measure the success of Human Resources outsourcing. With several hundred multi-process Human Resources outsourcing (HRO) deals marketing the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) landscape, and a factor of at least three times as many single-process deals, it is an undisputable fact that HRO is here to say. Once the decision to outsource is made, the three key questions organizations tend to ask are: “How much will I save? How quickly will I get my Return on Investment (ROI)? Will my service quality improve?” The success of the transaction comes from building what you are going to measure into making of the deal, combine that with the right processes and approach and you remove much of the risk from your transaction. The art of managing providers and realizing true benefits from Human Resources outsourcing is becoming increasingly important. Human Resources outsourcing is an area that needs to be addressed and readdressed throughout the life of any sourcing contract.| 0 comments |Transitioning to multi-country HR BPO - The Microsoft case
During this 60 minute webcast, Bonnie Skelly, Director, International Payroll, Finance Operations at Microsoft, Barbara Paterson, Director and People Development Specialist for Paterson Consultancy Ltd., and Patrick Nolot, Global Program Director at ADP, discuss HR BPO hot topics such as: dealing with the complexity of transitioning multi-country HR BPO projects, managing the challenges related to people and transition, and maintaining employee engagement over time.| 2 comments |People and transitioning, the psychological factors never to ignore
Barbara Paterson, Director of Paterson Consultancy, discusses people and transitioning—the psychological factors that we can’t afford to ignore. Globalization, technological change, merger, downsizing and outsourcing: the buzzwords of business made it all too easy to forget that essentially commercial success depends on people. Transition is what occurs during the time when the old and the new ways of doing things are being sorted out and is a process with many implications for business strategy and people in the workplace. One major energy group redefined its structure, relocated departments, closed offices and moved Human Resources (HR), Information Technology (IT) and Finance into a shared services arrangement. As a result, staff movements were managed effectively. People were redeployed across the group, while others moved on to new pastures with their self-esteem intact. Good employee engagement as a desirable outcome of transition is fast creeping up the strategic agenda of all organizations. Good engagement makes for successful business. To manage change sensitively and positively should be the goal for every good leader. Good management of the psychological aspects of transition makes the greatest contribution to organizational effectiveness before, during and after the implementation process.| 0 comments |Transitioning your organization to international HRO
ADP’s Global Program Director Patrick Nolot discusses main tasks involved in transitioning your organization to international Human Resources Outsourcing (HRO) in this article. Human Resources Transformation and one of its main components, Human Resources outsourcing, are all about going from where you are to where you want to be. Transition, the step that consists in transferring some of your tasks and processes to a service provider, is often associated with the technical implementation of a new solution. Managing a Human Resources outsourcing project involves taking local legislation into account and making sure the new services are compliant with the relevant legislation. There are five keys to your organization’s successful transition to international Human Resources outsourcing. These are: find a sponsor at top, develop mirror organizations in collaboration with your service provider, plan to support your subsidiaries at the local level, use shared and standard transition tools & methods, and focus tightly on data migration. Transition to international Human Resources outsourcing is hardly an easy task. The human dimension of HRO transitioning is too often put aside and neglected, not because companies do not care but because transition to Human Resources outsourcing is usually approached from a technological angle.| 0 comments |Strategic levers to optimize your HR processes
In this white paper, SAP reports about strategic levers to optimize Human Resources Processes. This paper examines how you can decide on standardization and in-house centralization or outsourcing for your business. Human Resources leadership must carefully evaluate which processes are going to remain “as-is” versus which should be standardized and centralized or outsourced. Outsourcing peripheral activities—business process outsourcing (BPO)—to external providers is becoming an attractive, cost-effective alternative to handling them internally. There are many challenges and trade-offs associated with making scope choices for your Human Resources delivery strategy. While analysis requires time and effort, doing the work gives you a better line of sight on which Human Resources service delivery strategies are best for your organization. Stronger scope choices are a necessary foundation for process reengineering. They help you focus the transformation efforts on target that is both realistic and rewarding.| 0 comments |Quantifying the retained organization
In this article, ADP’s Senior Director of Global Consulting, discusses the model the company has developed in quantifying the retained organization. Stepping up in the Human Resources Transformation, and more specifically Human Resources Outsourcing (HRO), raises fundamental questions and implies to agree on the processes and activities to keep in-house and the ones to reengineer and outsource. Quantifying and designing the retained organization go hand-in-hand with the project’s business case and require adopting a structured approach. The roadmap to design the retained organization begins with the definition of the project’s scope (service model, tasks to outsource, and project’s footprint). Understanding and defining your project’s scope is the fundamental phase in the design of your future organization. In order to get a clear picture of the future organization, it is usually good to start by focusing on how the work gets done today. Outsourcing HR means changing the roles and tasks of your retained Human Resources staff. An anticipated reduction in headcount is often central to the business case for moving to a Human Resources outsourcing model. There may be no such thing as a “typical” impact on labor, since the outcome is highly dependent on the organization’s structure, previous degree of centralization, functions being outsourced and the assertiveness in redefining new roles and responsibilities.| 0 comments |Quantifying the retained organization
ADP’s Senior Director of Global Consulting Christine Briody discusses how to quantify the retained organization. Once you have clearly defined both geographical and functional scope of tasks and processes as well as selected the service delivery model or the service provider, the next step is to work on the “to-be” stage, in other words, designing the organization that will remain in-house once the outsourcing contract goes live—we call this phase the mapping process. The responsibility matrix is not the only consideration to take into account in the process of quantifying your true Human Resources organization. You also need to understand how the work is getting done today. A task versus time audit of current activities will help you to understand where outsourcing will generate the greatest benefits. Companies that have allocated Process Owners and implemented Governance Boards to guide the retained organization structure are increasing their levels of standardization to lower overall costs.| 0 comments |Quantifying the retained organization
Christine Briody, ADP’s Senior Director of Global Consulting, explains factors in quantifying the retained organization. Quantifying your retained and future Human Resource organization requires adopting a structured approach. A prerequisite is to have clearly defined both the geographical and functional scope of tasks and processes to be outsourced. The service provider will be able to assist you in this mapping process as they will clearly document the tasks which will remain your responsibility and the tasks which will be outsourced. The responsibility matrix or detailed statements of work, with defined roles and responsibilities, should be a contractual document. The ultimate goal of the mapping process is to ensure that the tasks performed by your service provider do not overlap with those that remain in-house. It may also identify broader opportunities for the advancement of existing staff. To wrap up, designing the retained and future organization needs careful planning in order to achieve your strategic goals and reduce your total cost of ownership.| 0 comments |Getting the business case right
Michele Gray, Senior Director of Global Consulting for ADP, discusses the factors on getting the business case right. Depending on needs, two types of business cases can be identified. The first one is the high-level and indicative business case. Another form is the detailed business case. Both forms of the business case are useful and have to be used according to whether the situation calls for securing funding at the initial stage of a project or having a project finally validated by the board members. The business case is designed to determine future costs, split responsibilities and detail the savings as well as the way they will be generated. The role of a business case is to enable a company to articulate different objectives in a single document in order to validate the feasibility of its project. A business case is designed to offer a detailed view of a problem and the potential solutions for the company.| 0 comments |Payroll Outsourcing in Europe
In this whitepaper, Anish Rajparia, President of ADP Employer Services in Europe, discusses the emergence of payroll outsourcing in Europe. For a company to run steadily and implement ambitious Human Resources Strategies, paying everyone accurate and on time is a basic requirement. Payroll is at the center of the relationship between companies and employees. At the European scale, Payroll is a particularly complex exercise. When was payroll outsourcing invented? One thing is certain: payroll outsourcing has been around for a while. Demand for this kind of service remains strong today. More and more companies consider payroll a non-core function that could be outsourced. In fact, it remains the most outsourced function. In Europe, the payroll outsourcing adoption rate ranges from 1% (Switzerland) to over 80% (in Belgium and Denmark). The payroll outsourcing wave spreads from northwest to southeast of Europe. Payroll is the central component in 94% of Human Resources multi-country Business Processing Unit deals. Payroll outsourcing has become an industry. Solution providers keep on innovating to meet the needs of their clients and comply with regulatory changes. Getting ready for payroll outsourcing requires preparation and method. An outsourcing plan cannot be reduced to a “lift & shift” operation with a procurement-oriented view. For a successful long-term service, the client and service partner must agree on a clear governance mode, designate people “owning” the relationship and conduct regular performance reviews.| 1 comments |Getting the business case right
ADP’s Senior Director of Global Consulting Michele Gray discusses the importance of business case as well as getting the business case right. It is crucial to understand the timing for the business case as well as its decision-making cycle. Put simply, the business case makes sense only if its purpose is clearly identified. Companies that are working on detailed business cases are often doing it when they are in the contract finalization phase with their service provider. The business case is used to validate the savings that can be expected in the end. The high-level form of the business case is often used as the first justification for a project. In most situations, putting together a business case is the best opportunity to assess the quality of the information available in a company. After all, building a business case is all about putting the right data together in order to make projections. Getting the business case right is all about timing and purpose. The purpose of the business case won’t be the same according to your project’s status and the objectives you want to achieve in your organization. The ultimate goal of any business case is to convince an audience to support a specific project.| 0 comments |The role of governance in outsourcing contracts
In this article, Mike Friend, Managing Director of M3C Consulting, discusses the role of governance in outsourcing contracts. Customers entering into outsourcing agreements, knowingly choose to sacrifice direct control of their business processes in return for lower cost and/or better quality services. However, approaches to governance vary widely. Good governance requires the establishment of a joint contract management committee that meets regularly to monitor contract performance against defined Service Level Agreements and addresses key issues from a strategic to an operational level. When outsourcing contracts fail as they do from time to time, then the finger of blame is frequently pointed at the role of governance. While a contact is the product of two organizations seeking a mutually beneficial agreement, the success of that contract comes down to the dedication of a comparatively small number of people—how they interpret that contact, and how they engage with one another. Inevitably, the complexity of any contact will determine its risk profile, governance requirements and to a large degree of its success. Rather than being overly fixated by such a headline number, customers should work with a bottom-up approach. Only then will they gain a better idea of the number of customer representatives required to sit on the governance committee.| 0 comments |In-depth analysis of HRO options and business models
Christine Stanowski, Vice President of Global Consulting in ADP, provides an in-depth analysis of Human Resource Outsourcing options and business models. Stepping up in Human Resources Transformation, and more specifically Human Resources Outsourcing (HRO), raises fundamental questions and requires agreement on the processes and activities to keep in-house and the ones to reengineer and outsource. Human Resources Transformation is about deciding on the organization to implement to fit the new business needs. Designing and managing your retained team correctly is often the most difficult and poorly planned aspect of the transition to Human Resources Outsourcing. The first step to design your retained organization is to understand the different outsourcing options available on the market. The chosen service model will have a significant impact on the way to handle procedures and tasks once the HR Outsourcing contract has been implemented. One may consider that the direct consequence of Human Resources Outsourcing is to enable companies to benefit from a stripped down organization. Reality is often more complex. HR Outsourcing can take many forms which may generate some confusion. The decision to make is whether to choose the one-to-one or the one-to-many model. The level of service models will then depend on a combination of targets and timing.| 0 comments |Selecting the right HR outsourcing options
ADP’s Vice President for Global Consulting Christine Stanowski discusses steps in selecting the right Human Resources Outsourcing options. The first criterion in designing your future Human Resources (HR) organization is to identify the responsibility you want to transfer, while the second criterion is to know in which environment you want the service to be delivered. There are many factors that can lead to failure of your outsourcing project if you don’t identify them from the beginning. The service level selected will have an impact on the transfer of responsibility from your organization to the service provider. More and more companies use outsourcing as a way to streamline and regroup some functions at the regional level in shared services centers. The stress has to be taken into account and be managed by a team that will guarantee that initial goals are met within budget and in a timely manner.| 0 comments |Selecting the right HR outsourcing options
Christine Stanowski, Vice President of Global Consulting in ADP, explains steps in selecting the right HR Outsourcing options. A critical step in designing your future Human Resources organization through outsourcing is to understand the options available on the market. There are many outsourcing options, from Application Management Outsourcing to the full Human Resources outsourcing (HRO) of a function. It is also important to understand what is in place at your organization today. Do you know what is your Human Resources function’s Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)? How many full-time employees are assigned to that function or process you want to outsource? The functions that will be handled by your service provider will enable you to benefit from economies of scale, streamline processes, and enjoy flexible and more accurate maintenance and upgrade of your Human Resources Information System (HRIS). From beginning to end, outsourcing requires support and follow-up. In most cases, outsourcing contracts fail or don’t deliver on all their promises because of the absence of the governance team responsible for the timely delivery of within-budget outsourcing implementation.| 1 comments |