HR Shared Services: The Foundation for Integrated Talent Management and High Performance

Accenture explores the challenges of implementing HR shared services and how best to address these challenges to create a foundation for integrated talent management across the organization.

The multi-polar world brings competition from both established players and aggressive up-and-comers to a truly global arena. To survive, organizations everywhere need to be more strategic and leverage their internal processes and talent optimally. Accenture believes that an effective shared services capability streamlines and standardizes data and processes, thereby creating a solid foundation for HR to provide integrated talent management capabilities that can help set organizations apart from their peers. In Accenture’s experience, successful HR shared services outcomes occur when leadership takes a holistic approach. Such an approach focuses not only on cost, but also on developing a comprehensive HR strategy which seeks to transform people, end-to-end processes and technology to create a service-oriented model valued by the broader business. When the HR function is viewed as a peer—and given an equal voice at the leadership table—it can directly impact the bottom-line performance of an organization. This point of view explores the challenges of implementing HR shared services and how best to address these challenges to create a foundation for integrated talent management across the organization.

When operational efficiency is coupled with strong governance, enabling technologies and reliable data, HR shared services provides a strong foundation for talent management. However, moving the HR function to a shared services model poses a number of challenges:

• HR is viewed as high touch. HR is often regarded as a function that should be physically close its customers.
  
  
• Scope of roles and responsibilities is broad. The full scope of HR processes and corresponding split of strategic and transactional HR activities between business partners, centers of expertise, shared services and local HR delivery must be designed to capitalize on available skills and knowledge, economies of scale and labor arbitrage.
  
  
• Shared services back-office requires functional expertise. Unlike many other back-office functions, HR shared services requires a higher degree of functional expertise.
  
  
• Differentiated service users. The end users of HR services and information comprise a diverse group. Service to each group of users must reflect their particular needs and available communications channels.
  
  
• HR service growth and adjustment. HR shared services must be designed within a flexible framework that can accommodate the shifting HR landscape due to changing governmental regulations and organizational policies.
  
  
• Complexity of multinational deployments. For multinational organizations, HR shared services must accommodate disparate financial, tax, data privacy and labor laws.

The key to addressing the challenges inherent in such a major initiative is to use HR shared services as a catalyst to transform the whole HR function, including the HR service delivery model, enhanced HR roles and competencies, common policies and processes, and integrated HR information systems. In addition, Accenture believes that organizations should concentrate on:

• Vision and sponsorship. Senior leaders must promote the strategic role that HR plays in the organization’s success.
  
  
• Business decision-making. HR must think and act like a business within the business.
  
  
• Governance. Significant HR changes require strong oversight.
  
  
• Skill level. HR employees must have, or be given the opportunity to develop, the right skills to perform their new activities.
  
  
• Technology. Common HR technology platforms and enablers challenge traditional thinking about HR delivery—HR organizations need a clear technology strategy.
  
  
• Progress tracking. Organizations must establish measures and goals and track results to ensure progress.