The challenges of keeping people in Shared Services Centres motivated and productive is a major topic in the Shared Services area. At a recent conference in London the topic was addressed both authoritatively and honestly by a number of speakers. It is clear that best practice shared services centres take the issue of employee satisfaction and employee career progression very seriously – the sense I got was they do this a) because these were good organisations like Rolls Royce, the Metropolitan Police and Merck, b) but also because they understand that the best services are delivered by people who are happy, motivated and understand how to progress in the organisation.
So let me summarise a few key points. I wish to point out from the start I am simply commenting on expertise which has been provided by people like Mark Judd in Rolls Royce, Mario Pellegrino in Merck and Mick Crowder in the British Waterways.. So here goes;
- All of the organisations who have motivated teams with growing skills seem to have very clear plans and approaches to skills development and career paths. I know this might sound obvious – but I think it is worth pointing out.
- Organisations where skills are actively developed see Shared Services as being at the heart of the organisation. Shared Services is no longer considered to be a ’service hub’ but rather the engine of the organisation. The idea that anyone could be promoted to senior executive roles within these companies without significant Shared Service experience is becoming increasingly unlikely….
- They have built clear competency matrices at an organisational level for all roles within the team – so people understand what competencies are required for specific roles
- There is ongoing performance monitoring at an individual level – and regular feedback on performance.
- Regular assessment of organisational satisfaction – most Shared Services Centres are very good at undertaking client satisfaction surveys – remember to assess the satisfaction of your own staff also!
- They have clear and visible organisational structures – they understand where they fit in the overall structure.
- They have good visibility of the service they provide – and the service levels. They also understand very clearly what services are provided by other members of the team.
The move from cost reduction to quality services should be stopping this!!!!
In many ways the lessons I learned at the event were that Shared Services should simply be treated as a valuable part of the organisation – perhaps the historical message has been that they are low value cost centres and so there has been little focus on skills development and improvement of employee satisfaction. There is increasing awareness that Shared Services add real value by improving the quality of service delivery. In fact evidence would suggest that improvement of the quality of services is now a bigger driver for the establishment of shared services organisations than cost reduction…if we all really mean that then building skills in Shared Services will be a key activity to secure this result.
To see more of my thoughts just go to the Managing and Monitoring Service Level Agreements blog.
