Standard Bank: Shared Services

Standard Bank Limited of South Africa is the largest subsidiary of Standard Bank Group, one of the big four full-service South African banks. Listed on the JSE Limited, the Group has total assets of R970 billion, 42 000 employees worldwide and a market capitalisation of R129 billion, and is the largest South African banking group ranked by assets and earnings. The Group operates in a range of banking and related financial services and has a presence in 39 countries, 18 in Africa and 21 outside the continent, with the focus on emerging markets.

In the increasingly competitive banking market, in South Africa and internationally, a core element of Standard Bank’s business strategy is to leverage skills, economies of scale and synergies in support of optimal customer service, cost-effectiveness and greater operational efficiency. In seeking opportunities to achieve greater economies of scale, Standard Bank identified Human Resources (HR) as a critical area of centralisation and consolidation.

Until early 2003, Standard Bank had driven HR through a combination of centralised and decentralised structures. These consisted of a large, centralised corporate HR division responsible for functions such as payroll and retirement fund management, and three decentralised HR components, one for each of Standard Bank’s three business units (do we need to say what these are perhaps?).

This organisational structure posed a number of challenges, the main ones being a lack of standardisation across the business units in implementing HR policy and the high HR head count. This was due not only to the existence of four separate HR divisions but also to the emphasis on transactional and administrative functions such as the processing of leave and overtime. As most of these functions were handled manually, they were labour-intensive, leaving little time for proactive activities such as policy interpretation and high-level consulting to the business units.

Standard Bank selected Accenture to collaborate in the transformation of the HR organisation, with a view to moving HR from paper-driven administrator to a strategic partner to the business units. A critical part of this transformation was the creation of PeopleServe, Standard Bank’s HR shared services centre.

A joint team from Accenture and Standard Bank developed and implemented a customised model to establish PeopleServe as a single, centralised point for the delivery of transactional, administrative and specialised consulting services to all three business units. Approximately 28 HR services, including leave, overtime, payroll and retirement fund administration, were consolidated into PeopleServe, whose role is to provide these services across the group at optimum cost and service quality.

To ensure a single point of access for employees and managers across the group, the team established a contact centre called PeopleLink. Unlike conventional call centres, where agents are typically generalists without subject-specific knowledge, PeopleLink is staffed by trained HR consultants. This means they have the skills and insight to deal immediately with most queries as they are logged, escalating only the most complex issues to the next organisational level.

Furthermore, assisted by tools such as automated tracking, the contact centre team is able to monitor the status of all queries, including response and turnaround times. Service level agreements are in place to set minimum quantitative and qualitative service standards, monthly customer satisfaction surveys are conducted and team performance is measured through the use of a customised score card incorporating key performance indicators.

Since going fully operational during July 2004, Standard Bank’s PeopleServe HR shared services centre has achieved many of the synergies and economies of scale initially envisaged. Standard Bank’s corporate HR component is substantially smaller than before, and its skills mix more strategic, translating into cost savings and a greater focus on strategy instead of delivery. Similarly, the centralisation and consolidation of HR services into a single centre has helped give Standard Bank a single view of human resources management across the Group, while removing past inconsistencies stemming from the decentralised application of policy. The business units are benefiting from one-stop access for query resolution, advice and human resource consulting services, as well as from improved HR response and turnaround times. As for HR itself, staff are spending far less time on routine, labour-intensive functions and focusing instead on value-adding services that enhance the performance of Standard Bank’s business units and so their ability to deliver inspired, motivated and involved service to customers.