HR Transformer Blog

What will you Stop, Start and Continue in 2013 ?

AndySpence — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 18:49:19 +0000

This is the time of year when the turkey is a recent plump memory, the mince pies are all gone, the Christmas recycling is on an industrial-scale, and the champagne is in the fridge ready to bring in the New Year.

A question I usually ask myself is What will I Stop, Start and Continue doing the following year?

I find this is a useful exercise to carry out both personally and professionally.

So why not get some of that old Christmas present wrapping paper out, write down those activities and ask yourself the following :

What activities will I Stop doing ?

By this, I don’t mean the post-Christmas detox activities, like drinking horrible tea and running round the block. In a work context, list the activities and ask yourself – what would happen if you stopped doing this?

This is your New Year spring clean, clearing out the clutter to free up space to focus on better things.

So once you have done this, and crossed out a chunk of activities, (you will still need to pay people, so payroll stays on the Continue list, nice try!). Of course, most of what you do is valuable so will stay on the Continue list.

Now the fun bit, you have now created some space and energy, so think about What are the activities that you will Start doing in 2013 ?

Download our Stop, Start, Continue Worksheet below:

Here are some of our HR candidates to consider Stop and Start doing in 2013, we look forward to hearing yours.

HR Candidates to STOP
1.   The Annual Performance review – is this a meaningless paper chain, with low-value conversations with no discernible increase in productivity? If so, then dump it.
2.   Engagement Survey and Action Plan. Can you really demonstrate that this activity improves productivity, happiness or just improves the survey results every year? Cause and effect is too difficult to discern, so is time to do something more effective instead?
3.   Doing ‘line-managers work’ with basic employee performance issues. You have rolled out the training, had a ‘hand-holding period’ of 6 months to help less confident managers. Is now the time to take the hard decision and ask yourselves, if a Line Manager can’t do this now, then do they need to move on?
4.   Creating reports that add no value whatsoever. Unless there is a business reason, stop producing them and see what happens…

HR Candidates to START
1.   Conduct a “meaningful work” review. Ensure every employee understands how their work fits into the "Why" of your organisation. Get this right and you will have much more productivity, satisfaction and better results than putting free fresh fruit in the canteen!
2.   Review your HR Strategy to ensure it aligns with the latest Organisation Strategy (which has the habit of changing every quarter)
3.   Conduct a HR Assessment – do you know how much it costs to delivery your HR Services, compared to leading outsourcers or even your competitors?
4.   Check the HR Technology market for Talent Management tools and ditch those awful spreadsheets.
5.   Make more of an effort with Finance and IT…you will always need them, they will always need you…..surprise the CFO and take them out to dinner.
6.   Find out what your Managers really think about HR service – conduct a HR Importance vs Effectiveness Survey to help you hone in on what the priorities should be in 2013.
7.   Ring up your HR Transformation Consultant to help you set-up a successful HR Change Programme in 2013

Whatever you Stop, Start and Continue in 2013, I hope it is a happy and prosperous year for you professionally and personally.

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Most Important HR Outsourcing Contracts of the last 2 Years

AndySpence — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 19:05:39 +0000

Last year, we asked if HR Outsourcing could be on the verge of an upturn with our article, “Will HR Outsourcing ride the Third Wave?”

According to estimates by industry analysts, Everest Group, the multi-process HR Outsourcing market is worth about US$3.3 billion globally. We expect respectable single digit growth over 2011 and 2012.

The positive benefits and business case for HR Outsourcing is still there for organisations who currently have a need for:

- Standardised HR services
- Reduced HR Cost to Serve to its employees
- Access to new innovative workplace tools and technology

There have not been many mega-deals, but plenty of smaller contracts in the multi-process HRO Market. However, single process outsourcing including Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) is the fastest growing segment in HRO, as HRO Insights highlight in their article "RPO, A Bright Future on the Path to Business Impact"

In summary, we have had:

- Two large European deals
- Two in South America
- Two contract renewals

We have also seen some longer contracts including a 15 year contract, showing some confidence in the HRO market. IBM appears to be leading the way with 3 new contracts with Unilever in South America, Air Canada and Algar. IBM has also make a very good acquisition of Kenexa which should enhance their RPO and HRO offerings.

Two of these contracts were renewals with the incumbents here. We advise organisations with current HRO contracts and 2 or 3 years from renewal to see this as an opportunity to review all options. The market and conditions are very different to those when they originally signed the contract.

Renewal is always good for business, particularly with such long contracts. In our article the “HR Outsourcing – The challenge of picking winners” we mentioned that you need to look at the market longer-term. Who is more likely to be in the HRO business in 13 years time IBM, HP, Ceridian, Infosys, ADP ? Take your pick…

Hewlett Packard stride back into the market with a large European deal. To our knowledge, there has been no new large multi process HR Outsourcing contracts for Northgate Arinso, Ceridian, Accenture, Xerox/ACS, or the emerging Indian providers such as HCL, Wipro or Infosys. With contracts running up to 15 years and an industry in the throes of consolidation, it is important to check the vendors’ long-term appetite for HRO.

We plan to publish more HRO Vendor Profiles and HRO Market analysis over the coming months. Get in touch with us if you have any particular questions and make sure you don’t miss out by signing up for our articles direct to your inbox.

Here, we dip into our “Glass Bead HR Outsourcing Database” to give the HR Transformer Blog view of the six most important HR Outsourcing contracts of the last 2 years.

1 – Hewlett Packard step back into the HRO market with a 15 year contract with UniCredit

UniCredit is an Italian based global service company. With strong roots in 22 European countries and an overall international network present in approximately 50 markets, 9,500 branches and 158,000 employees.

The 15 year contract was signed in May 2012, with about 98,000 employees mainly in Italy & Austria. The scope of the contract includes payroll, time and attendance, workforce administration, learning and development administration, mobility, and ex-pat services. The service will be delivered using a Joint Venture (JV), dedicated company called ES Shared Service Center SpA.

This is a large European contract and gets HP right back into the HRO market after no major deals for the last 4 years. It is significant because of the sheer scale of nearly 100k employees. HP beat IBM, the incumbent, demonstrating that organisations are willing to test the market rather than ‘stick with the devil you know’.

2 – BAE Systems changed their HR flight path with Logica, but, then changed their mind and stayed with Xchanging

BAE Systems is a global company engaged in the development, delivery and support of advanced defence, security and aerospace systems for air, land and sea. BAE are pioneers in the HRO market with an early contract with Xchanging at the beginning of this century. The Logica contract was signed in February 2012, and would have been based in the UK over 6 years and involved the design of a new system on Oracle’s Peoplesoft HCM and E-Business Suite Payroll. However, BAE, changed their HR flight path again, and have now confirmed that the deal will no longer go ahead.

“Following the acquisition of Logica by CGI Group Inc. on 20 August, BAE Systems has exercised its contractual right to terminate the contract for HR outsourcing services," the company said in a statement.

"We are now reviewing our HR business process outsourcing activity and have agreed a 12 month extension to the current HR Services contract with Xchanging HR Services (XHRS)," it added.

This is another large European contract with 83,600 employees, so it will be interesting to see BAE's approach in the next 12 months.

3 – Unilever produce a “HR Ice-Cream Sundae”, giving IBM the contract to provide HRO services in South America

Unilever has more than 171,000 employees globally, and incidentally is the biggest producer of ice-cream on the planet. This 5 year deal was signed in April 2011, and includes 27,000 employees in Latin America.

Back, in 2006, Unilever outsourced HR services to Accenture in 100 countries, however this did not include South America. The word by the 'HR ice-cream van' was that Accenture found this HRO contract with Unilever almost too big to digest, and left the organisation with some indigestion, too much ice-cream is not good for you….

What this contract does show is the maturity of HR Outsourcing pioneers such as Unilever who are willing to use multiple service providers globally. This mitigates the risk of having one global provider, enables some internal competition and keeps the HRO vendors on their toes. For others, this also helps to open up a more competitive HRO market. For large organisations like Unilever, and many Public Sector buyers, splitting up the scope was their only viable option as their ambitions are greater than the vendors’ ability to execute globally.

4 – Aon Hewitt are re-United with BMO Financials

This is a contract renewal for 8 years, signed in June 2012. A pat on the back for Aon Hewitt, who continue with BMO Financials, with 46,000 employees in North America. The scope includes payroll, workforce administration, health and welfare administration, recruitment services, and compensation administration amongst others.

5 – Air Canada board with IBM for an 8 year contract

IBM signed an 8 year contract with Air Canada in September 2011, dislodging Aon Hewitt. Air Canada, based in Montreal, have about 26,000 employees in North America.

The scope includes HR contact centre, employee data management, employee travel support, payroll, benefits administration, leave management, recruiting services (with select support from manpower), and software application support for the HR systems used to provide the services.

Why is IBM continuing its MPHRO winning streak?

According to Kevin Howlett, Air Canada’s senior Vice President of employee relations, “IBM’s core strengths as a market leader in innovation played an important role in our decision-making process.” It also helped that the client felt IBM also had the strongest service offerings, a commitment to transformation, and the proven ability to ensure delivery performance and lower cost.”

6 – IBM sign 13 year deal with Algar Group in Brazil

Another contract for IBM signed in March 2012, with the Algar group. Brazilian holding company Algar is comprised of four business units: IT and telecoms, agribusiness, tourism, and services. This is a 13-year multi-tower award from Algar Group in Brazil that covers HR, F&A, and procurement supply chain management. The contract covers seven of Algar’s business segments and 13,000 employees.

The scope for HRO includes call centre, personnel management, benefits administration, payroll, training, and performance management.

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Impact of an Ageing Workforce on HR

AndySpence — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 12:41:51 +0000

In our article on Working Late – The Impact of an Ageing Workforce we highlighted some research initiatives in this area.

A key question for us is:

“What is the future impact of an ageing workforce on HR?”

For HR departments, the ageing workforce is a very current topic with a focus on developing retirement policy in line with regulations, pay and pension reviews and recruitment policy to avoid complex age discrimination cases. This research on the ageing workforce also raises longer-term questions for future HR Operating Models. In HR, how do we ensure structures, services and tools are reasonably future proof to deliver organisational goals today and in the future?

An ageing workforce will impact current Talent Strategy, for example attracting applications from older workers and supporting recruiters to change their perception of older workers. A clear theme from the Working Late interviews was “homeostasis of career” – workers happy to do their role with no prospect of promotion. It is a challenge for organisations to manage the uncertainty around the end of employees working lives. What will be the impact on the Talent pool? Line Managers need support in managing performance and improving productivity of older workers to build diverse inter-generational teams.

Our view is we need to rethink our change management approach when dealing with different generations of workers. Even though the change management principles may remain the same, it is clear that different tactics are required with older workers than when dealing with Generation Y.

Some challenging questions for HR professionals are “How do we ensure we have a good understanding of our own workforce, so we can anticipate changes?”, “How robust is your HR data, are you able to conduct analysis on your workforce, including age and skills profiling?” For some, this puts an uncomfortable spotlight on current HR Systems.

We encourage the periodic review of HR tools and technology to support a productive workforce, but before we “bet the farm” on our new HR Technology Mobile strategy, we need to assess whether this will be successful for all our categories of workers or is a different approach needed.

There is evidence that there is discrimination against both younger and older workers, for example research by the UK Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), Attitudes to Age in Britain 2010.

One issue for HR is how to best fight discrimination and negative attitudes to older workers. Any attempt to change attitudes is complex and part of the solution should be to highlight the benefits of employing older workers. These include retention of key organisational knowledge and skills, and opportunities for coaching and mentoring.

In summary, the ageing workforce is one factor of many influencing future HR Operating Models, however we do need to think about:

1. Clarity in roles around what we expect HR and Line Managers to do around key organisational activities such as improving performance and productivity.

2. Choosing the right tools and technology to enable us to manage our workforce, from excellent analytics, to skills tracking and performance management.

3. Deciding as an organisation, how you will deliver excellent change management.

We would be very interested to hear examples of how your organisation is dealing with some of these challenges?

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Working Late – The Impact of an Ageing Workforce

AndySpence — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 09:59:32 +0000

When I get older losing my hair,
Many years from now,
Will you still be sending me a payslip,
Performance review and benefits plan?

*Loosely based on the work of Sir Paul McCartney

In 2020, nearly a third of the UK workforce will be over 50.

The idea of working into our later years is not a new one, but it has significant knock on effects for the future of work.

The UK is not alone – this pattern also continues across much of Europe. This means that HR Directors and other leaders must recognise the need to explore the challenge of the ageing workforce.

Sir Paul McCartney celebrated his 64th birthday 8 years ago and shows no signs of slowing down. For every millionaire, there will be millions of workers who are eligible to retire but will not necessarily be financially able to do so. The number of older workers will only increase as time goes on as retirement age steadily creeps up.

To this end a research project has been created at Loughborough University called simply
“Working Late”. It aims to explore the various issues and concerns around older workers and develop strategies to ensure we have productive and healthy environments for the older workforce, and is funded by the New Dynamics of Ageing Programme. The research project is led by Professor Cheryl Haslam, Director of the Work and Health Research Centre.

Since the number of older workers above the age of 50 is more than double the number of younger workers under the age of 25, it’s clear that this research has come at an opportune time.

Aunty Doris attends “Back to Work Training”

Working Late takes a pro-active view to establishing connections with workers and various other agencies including The Age and Employment Network. Working Late held a series of expert panels involving a range of experts from HR management, employment law, occupational health, transport and academia. Glass Bead Consulting was invited to provide a perspective on the impact of demographic changes on the design of future HR organisations.

Working Late’s research ranges from influencing government policies to more practical solutions. For example, one study highlighted that UK workers spend an average of five hours and 41 minutes at their desk in a work day. Dr Myanna Duncan, from Loughborough University, warned that office workers literally “forget to stand” spending nearly as long at their desks as they were sleeping in bed! Given the musculo-skeletal problems in the workforce, this is a clear warning that we need to get out of our chairs more and talk face-to-face instead of using email.

The researchers from the Working Late Research Group looked into some of the challenges of later life working, and conducted 108 semi-structured interviews with employers, employees, job seekers and recently retired. Here is a copy of the presentation which formed the basis of discussion at the expert panels, Working Late – Dynamics of Later-Life Working. The quotes from participants make for interesting reading:

“..It’s kind of awful to think that people are going to end their careers going down a capability route of disciplinary because they are no longer capable of doing the role that’s required of them because they are older. No one wants to performance manage out an older worker as they’re reaching the end of their career […] regardless of legislation everyone wants careers to end with dignity.
(Employer, 42)

“They [older workers] tend to stay with us for a longer period of time. So they’ve got to a stage often in their career where the content of their role is just as important as actually being promoted.”
(Employer, 48)

The themes emerging from the interviews included career development, homeostasis of career, new identities of ageing in relation to retirement, pensions, job-seeking and economic outlook. All of which will eventually have a profound impact on us all.

What does this mean for HR?

For HR, the ageing workforce is a current issue with much on-going work on developing retirement policy in line with regulations, pay and pension reviews and recruitment policy. In addition, many HR departments are dealing with complex age discrimination cases, see for example this article in Personnel Today, “Cases in point: guidance on retiring employees”.

Managing an ageing workforce is one factor of many influencing future HR Operating Models. It is important to understand your workforce profile now and against where it will be in 5 years’ time against your organisation needs, and also reviewing HR Strategy through the lens of each customer group; from Generation Y to older workers.

Also, read our follow-up article The Impact of an Ageing Workforce on HR.

What you can do

- Follow Working Late on Twitter @workhealth
- Visit www.workinglate.org for more detailed updates
- Get Aunty Doris to update her profile on LinkedIn…?
- Subscribe by email to the HR Transformer Blog to ensure you read future articles which will look at the changing workforce on HR

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How to Avoid HR Technology Bogeys

AndySpence — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 19:21:14 +0000

It’s only a week after we were gripped by a great sporting comeback in the Ryder Cup in Medinah, Illinois and once again our focus is back in Chicago, this time for the HR Technology Conference and Expo, which starts on Monday 8thOctober.

There is talk of “disruption” in the way we manage the people in our organisations led by new tools and technologies. Plus there are exciting developments with HR in the cloud, Social in the Enterprise, Analytics (including Big Data) and of course, Mobile Technology.

The HR Technology industry is in ebullient mood after some big trophies have changed hands in the Wall Street clubhouses. These include :-

SAP purchasing Success Factors
Oracle buying Taleo
IBM procuring Kenexa
Plus of course, Workday launching its IPO

But back on the fairway, away from the conferences, the analysts, and the business press – implementing HR Technology successfully does have its challenges. Selecting the right technology platform with the right functionality is hard enough. Guessing where your business and your workforce will be in the next 5 years and then persuading your sceptical Line Managers that this will help them in their job is even harder. If in doubt, see how well you get on with this useful list of HR Technology Questions from Naomi Bloom.

But, for every perfect delivery there is a bogey.

It is all too easy to get bedazzled by exciting innovations and disruptions taking place, whether in the clouds or by ‘belly putters’. The fact that 68% of technology projects fail, because companies forget their ‘basic swing’ hitting a few unexpected Bogeys along the way! The good news is that HR have crucial skills to bring on the people side of the project that are so critical to success. HR can lead projects with confidence, avoid the bunkers, and ultimately become Technology Champions.

Although I can’t make the HR Technology Conference Expo this year, we here at Glass Bead Consulting, have played a few tough rounds over the years in the HR Transformation Cup. Here are some reflections from the HR Clubhouse we have come up with to help with your handicap and ensure project success.

1 Agree how decisions will be made during the technology implementation

So the first big decision went OK. At the beauty parade, the software company wheeled in their best salesperson and your Finance Director and Technology Director were impressed enough with the pitch to go with your recommendation for Fusion/SAP/Workday/other. You didn’t really have to revert to your evaluation criteria and weightings, but they still gave the right answer. First job done – now comes the hard bit…

As you get into delivery, you will have to make a number of decisions along the classic project management triangle of ‘Time vs Scope vs Cost’. Often there will be competing demands on your budget, resistance in unplanned areas and resourcing conflicts. At this point the last thing you need is any delay, with 10 expensive Fusion/SAP/Workday consultants on the project, you’ve calculated their burn rate on the train to work (but didn’t tell anyone).

It is critical to spend time up front working through how decisions will be made on the project, who will make them and what the escalation path will be. Governance is key in any substantial project. Make sure a clear governance structure has been agreed up from the onset, and ensure there is a business sponsor to help iron out issues. Decide who will be on your Governance Board and what their role will be.

When you get going, on occasions you will hit the ball into the rough, and will need to have some difficult conversations on scope, timings, budgets. You will want to remind everyone the terms they agreed at the beginning of the project.

2 It’s the People, Stupid

Start thinking about the change strategy right at the beginning. The Technology Account Manager will make the deployment sound so easy, if mentioned at all. However, think carefully about all your stakeholders, what they need from this change, what their concerns will be, start rehearsing your messages and arguments because you will need to start them soon.

In our experience, to develop an effective change strategy is a canny mix between the high-level, for example, ensuring the change is couched in your organisational goals, and the low-level, getting out a monthly project update, keeping the intranet portal up to date and so on.

Ensure that when you construct your budget and programme team, you have allocated enough resources to communications, change and training expertise – but you work in HR, so you know this right?

3 Agree the goals of the project

Then ‘tattoo’ them somewhere strategic, well at least get them printed on some nice mouse mats or put some posters up. There are many reasons to put in a new HR System and different stakeholders will have diverse drivers and see the benefits in different places. Irrespective if this is to deliver a transformational change in people management, consolidating different systems of records, or to enable employee self-service. Get consensus up front on the goals of the project, show how these goals links to your overall organisational strategy and your HR Strategy.

The new system is ultimately there to delivery HR goals and ultimately make the organisation more successful.

When you get into the project, a few shots will inevitably be hit in the bunker, and there will be crunchy decisions to make, but make sure you can revert to a compelling vision and goals for the project. Also ensure your sponsors agree with these and communicate them widely.

And finally, make sure that ‘the tattoo’ is temporary.

4 It’s still the People, Stupid – Identify what skills you will require

The skills needed to run HR are not the same as those needed to transform HR. Review how you will get the skills and experience required in programme management, process design, technical skills, support knowledge, change management. Then work out when these will be needed and for how long those skills are needed. Do a skills audit and work out the gaps – but this should be easy as you run HR.

You will need to fill the gaps, identify all the team members, considered the progression of roles, procured any external contractors or consultants and developed training courses.

Remember, your project team capability has the biggest impact on success not necessarily the software.

5 Define your HR Operating Model and HR Processes

It is important to know what flavour of operating model your new technology will be supporting in the future. Will there be changes to what you expect Line Managers, your workforce, your HR Business Partners to do? What is the scope of the HR shared service centre and how much might be delivered by 3rd parties in the future? It is vital that your new system will support this.

At Glass Bead Consulting, we have developed a HR Process Inventory which details every HR service, and who should be doing what in the new operating model. We found this tool really helps our clients stick to what it really needed in terms of requirements. A HR Process Inventory helps flush out ownership and interface issues at a process level, before it becomes a problem for the System Design.

It is easy to forget that typically a new technology system might not deliver real benefits for many months or years, once you have completed an eye-watering amount of data cleansing and trained the Line Managers to use the technology correctly. Unfortunately, for large global projects, by the time the system is fully operational the HR Strategy, and HR Operating required to support it might have changed anyway.

By clearly articulating your HR Operating Model and HR Process Model you can reduce the risk that they system is not fit for the future.

Finally – don’t let the Tail wag the Dog. The biggest mistake of technology projects is to let the system lead the process you will be delivering to your customers! Our firm belief is HR has valuable skills in Change Management, Training, Communications, sourcing the right people and resources to drive any projects, including IT system implementation. Increasingly, HR also need to be Technology Champions to avoid those expensive bogeys.

It would be great to let us know what you think, or share lessons learned, on the blog or #HRTechConf

Your loyal HR Transformation caddy,
@AndySpence

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Will HR Outsourcing ride the Third Wave?

AndySpence — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 20:58:06 +0000

There’s a common belief that the third in a series of ocean waves is the biggest. If it’s true for waves of change in HRO too, this latest wave of transformation in the industry will have a considerable impact. According to Anthony Hesketh in HRO Today transformation is back on the Outsourcing agenda, if indeed it ever went away.

We all understood the logic of the first wave of HR Outsourcing in 1999 – freeing up HR to focus on strategic aspects of the job, introducing standardization, self-service technology and Global Service Centers. It was this desire for HR Transformation that created ground-breaking Global HR Outsourcing deals with Exult-BP and ePeopleserve.

Back then HR consultants from the Big Four, heading for the exit, process-map and SLA template in hand, myself included, could be heard muttering under their breaths ‘every last large organization will want an HR portal and centralized HR service’, (while they hungrily signed-up to their dot.com share-options). Of course they didn’t.Innovation is a tricky business. Potentially great ideas get ignored because markets are too small, or the change doesn’t fit other people’s business models or match existing values. Sounds familiar?

The second big wave of change in HRO contracts came around 2006, including Unilever-Accenture, Johnson & Johnson – Convergys. These didn’t quite deliver our dream of pre-configured, hosted and e-Enabled services either. Instead, the services they offered were bespoke, tailored to clients’ demands and the particular nuances of their HR Operating Models. Still they had some success, given the industry grew to be worth billions of dollars.

In response to the economic meltdown of the last few years, organizations began thinking again, developing new business strategies, and new operating models. The HRO industry consolidated. Outsourcing contracts lasting a decade were thin on the ground when organizations couldn’t see where they might be themselves. Out of this has come the third and potentially most significant wave of transformation for HRO.

The focus for HR has shifted to employee productivity and engagement, deploying the right skills at the right time, mergers and acquisitions, and developing staff. HR needs to transform itself and the way it operates in order to deliver, enabled by organizational structures and processes better aligned to the businesses it serves. A greater share of the HR responsibility needs to be carried by line managers too.

The question for HRO vendors and HR Executives is what role will HRO play in the move to new HR operating models?

One way will be through more standardized HR services. HR needs to demonstrate value for money. Can a business justify providing employees with a personalized HR service when competitors get good results for less money using self-service processes. If HRO vendors can provide standardized services with user-friendly tools then there will be a sea-change in HR Operating Models.

HRO providers can also offer web-based tools to enable improvements in collaboration, productivity and managing the workforce. Delivering these tools, allowing buyers to avoid large upfront costs and access to the best solutions is an attractive proposition. Those HRO vendors who provide tools and services that help address organizations’ key talent management issues will thrive. Watch out for innovative market entrants building rapid market share with a credible HRO/SaaS model.

Transforming HR is about changing how people work and behave, not merely changing systems and processes. Having worked on both sides of the HRO vendor/buyer fence, I have seen opportunities where skills gaps in managing change, managing vendors and transformation programmes could have been bridged. HRO vendors have been reluctant to share (or sell) their change management skills and can play a significant role in the move to new HR operating models by sharing their experience, knowledge and skills with organizations.

HRO will enable a leaner corporate function, by reducing central transactional HR work, pushing out more ‘people management’ to managers enabled with much better skills and tools. The onus is on HRO providers to be innovative and enable more self-service, for example by utilizing mobile devices for time-recording, checking schedules, benefits, vacancies.

HR Transformation is not back. It never went away. For HR executives to benefit from cost savings and to achieve their strategies, they will need to accept increasing standardization. Industry consolidation, technological innovation, economic pressures will all help to make this happen, and we could see HRO take off. All change is disruptive, outsourcing in the HR industry included. The early innovators of HRO had the right ideas at the wrong time. Now the conditions are right for it too.

This article was originally published in the Spring 2011 edition of HRO Today, by Andrew Spence.

See also HR Outsourcing – The Challenge of Picking Winners

Most Important HR Outsourcing Contracts of the last 2 Years Summary and commentary of key Six HR Outsourcing contracts from...
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HR Transformer Blog – Most Popular Posts of 2010

AndySpence — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 15:34:15 +0000

Here are the most popular HR Transformer Blog articles from 2010. Many thanks to all those who stopped by and provided ideas, links and comments.

1. Stop, Start & Continue – A Guide for HR Transformers

What will you Stop, Start & Continue in 2011? Includes a useful PDF worksheet.

2. HR Transformation Articles of the Month

Add this link to your Bookmarks and browse over 90 different articles. We trawl through the web to bring you a selection of the most interesting HR Transformation articles of the month.

3. Future Trends in HR Operating Models

If you enjoyed reading this, check out our longer articles on What the future holds for HR , on Evaluation Centre (free, easy registration required). Downloadable PDF article about the trends shaping future HR Operating Models.

4. HR Benchmarks – A Government Health Warning

Very topical subject, we did some analysis on UK Government HR benchmarks and attached the data in this article. The original statistics have disappeared from the Government website, so we have had quite a few hits from Whitehall. Also featured in the first online edition of HR Magazine.

5. HR Transformers on Twitter

11 Lists of great people to follow on Twitter, including consultants, HR practitioners, leaders, writers, analysts, techies and teachers.

6. Are you a HR Twitter Virgin?

Do you still know people in HR who have not used Twitter, surely not! Here is a useful guide to get them started….

7. Top 5 Reasons HR Projects Fail

A golden oldie, but are we still making the same mistakes ?

8. HR Outsourcing – The Challenge of Picking Winners

In choosing a HRO vendor, a key question is How do you know they will last the course?

9. Why England Lose – Talent Management Insights from Football

Inspired by the World Cup, what can we learn from studying the management of football?

10. HR Survey Highlights Skills Gaps in HR

Very useful annual survey from ADP/HROA, see also this years findings in HR Transformation Delivers solid Savings of 25%

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