 Walking into Standard Bank's Human Resources (HR) Shared Services (PeopleServe) offices in Simmonds Street, Johannesburg, there's no mistaking the air of cheerful briskness among its staff. If you fail to notice it though, the slogans on their brightly coloured chair-covers spell it out: "No trouble at all!" reads one. "Talk slow but think fast," says another.
Small as such details may seem, they capture the fresh new style of Standard Bank's HR organisation since the launch of a transformation project three years ago to support high–performance delivery to the Retail, Corporate & Investment Banking and Corporate Services business units. Note that Standard Bank does not use the word "transformation" lightly. The changes have been fundamental, taking HR from paper-pushing administrator to a strategic partner that is saving the business units time and money. "In the past, HR was heavily focused on administrative and transactional activities such as leave and payroll functions, and lacked a strategic focus," says Emil Strydom, director of personal markets in the Western Cape and executive sponsor of the HR transformation project. "There were long turnaround times for completing HR functions, which hampered the effectiveness of the business units, and a lack of clarity between centralised and decentralised HR functions, resulting in duplication and inefficiencies." The main problem was that Standard Bank had been using an assortment of disparate HR legacy systems, including four different payroll systems and 47 different leave schemes for the 27,000 employees in its South African operations. Apart from lacking a single view of headcount, Standard Bank had difficulty extracting reliable information for management decision-making and was saddled with high HR costs as a percentage of total operational cost. In 2002, Standard Bank took the decision to transform HR delivery and implement SAP HR across the Group, choosing Accenture as its implementation partner. Essentially, the new delivery model would see Standard Bank replacing its disparate legacy systems with a single integrated system and organisation structure, driving routine administrative functions online, and introducing self-service technology for Standard Bank staff. For instance, instead of knocking on HR's door for their salary slips and leave requirements, staff and managers would have the tools to help themselves. As for HR staff, their hands freed from paper-driven routine, they would focus instead on value-adding services such as talent management, policy interpretation and high-level consulting and problem-solving. New-style HR Service Delivery
Code-naming the project People Online, the implementation team drew up a business case for HR transformation, developed the new HR delivery model and prepared an implementation plan that would involve staggering the implementation in three releases, or phases. Each release went hand-in-hand with intensive business process design, system configuration, technical architecture design, performance testing and, critically, change management so as to prepare Standard Bank's employees for the new-style HR service delivery. For Release 1, which went live in July 2003, the emphasis was on improving efficiency and eliminating duplication. The four different payroll systems were replaced with one and the 47 leave schemes trimmed to four. Similarly, standardised time and leave processes were introduced, along with a single Standard Bank-wide organisation structure for better headcount management. Release 2 followed in July 2004 and focused on further reducing HR administration, improving cost control and enabling line managers to take ownership of people management through Employee Self Service (ESS) and Manager Self Service (MSS). At the same time, an HR shared services centre, known as PeopleServe, was formed to provide transactional, administrative and specialist consulting services. "Overall, we consolidated around 28 services into PeopleServe, which provides these services across the Group at optimum cost and improved service quality," says Madelaine Ellis, who heads up PeopleServe and was a leading member of the implementation team. As part of this release, the team also set up a contact centre, called PeopleLink, as an online HR consulting service. "For the first time, we had a single point of contact for all HR queries, as well as the tools to track and analyse trends, improve our response times and set service level agreements," Ellis says. Four months later, in November 2004, Standard Bank went live with Release 3, focusing on specialised talent management functions such as personnel development, compensation management and e-recruitment. Banking on Business Benefits
From an implementation point of view, People Online was a highly successful project. "We had an excellent working relationship with Accenture, who delivered on time and within the budget," says Strydom. "There are not a lot of projects of this size and complexity which can claim that." More telling, perhaps, are the business benefits that are accruing. According to an independent cost analysis by Gartner Consulting, Standard Bank's return on investment for Release 1 alone was 91 percent. "You can imagine the cost of supporting 47 leave schemes and the savings that can be achieved by reducing them to four," Strydom says. "We also closed three of the four payrolls, resulting in only one, again with cost savings and efficiency improvements." Meanwhile, the shift in focus that Standard Bank was aiming for is taking shape. HR response rates are rising, HR consultants are more proactive and less reactive, and managers' confidence in online people management is growing fast. "Initially, some of the less change-averse managers started using MSS for e-management," Strydom says, "but most were just using the technology for transactional-type activities, such as printing payslips." He says the turning point came in mid–2005 when Standard Bank conducted a dry run on the performance appraisal component of MSS, specifically the Multirater tool. "For the first time, many managers realised what a valuable tool they have in MSS. This was the first major breakthrough for managers in terms of extracting full value from People Online." To Top |