Blog: HR Periscope

In July I learnt that Buckinghamshire County Council was outsourcing its recruitment services in order to improve its efficiency. Following on from this, I went on to read an article which mentioned the promotion of outsourcing as a good thing. Finally, I was called by an agency setup which was setting up an event to promote Lean Government, requesting that I participate The agency explained to me that Central Government is currently pushing for Local Government outsourcing in order to safe costs. This led me to reflect on some of my experiences of outsourcing and its impact.

The key thing that comes to mind is that when services are outsourced, savings does not simply derive from the fact that an external provider is used. Savings tend to come from a combination of organisation restructuring, improved processes as well as the possible use of an external provider. To understand whether outsourcing is truly beneficially to an organisation it is therefore important to find out from the outsourced provider which areas the quoted savings will actually come from.

Specifically I believe it is important to be clear on:

· Both what you want and what you need from your outsourced service

· The minimum requirements for the area you are planning to outsource (this would normally be the level of service you currently have in place). Outsourcing should lead to improvements in the service you have in place and not take you backwards

· What the essential processes are in the area you are planning to outsource and how the processes work

· The fact that the systems to be used are compatible with other systems in place in your organisation. I would also be concerned that any technology to be used is not a step backwards

· The fact that the outsourced service provider understands your business and is not simply selling you a standardised model without modifications to suit your organisation

· Be clear on what data/processes you are willing and comfortable to hand over and what you would like to keep in-house

· Ensure that relevant employees will have the right level of access to your organisation information/systems if you outsource.

· Finally – be clear on where the savings are actually coming from

Simultaneously it’s important to ensure that the outsourcing service provider:

· Understands your organisation’s culture and the way in which it works

· Is flexible in their approach

· Have previous, relevant experience with a demonstrable track record – ideally, you would want to be able to contact a few current and possibly even past customers

· Is update with industry trends and legislation

· Has systems and processes that work effectively and are up to date

· Is able to demonstrate the areas that savings and efficiencies will come from

Susan Popoola
Conning Towers
HR Transformation & Talent Management
Leveraging the Power of People

Copyright 2009 This document is the specific intellectual property of the Conning Towers Consultancy. Content may not be reused or reproduced without the specific permission of the owner or a reference to the source. Opinions may be generated from content obtained from other sources and such content is referenced as appropriate.

Labels: HR Strategy, HR Systems, HR Transformation, HRIS, Human Resources, Outsourcing

# posted by Susan Popoola @ 19:40 0 Comments

According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), 82 per cent of UK organisations have some form of Human Resources Information System (HRIS) in place.

The key reasons given for introducing an HRIS are:

• Improving the quality of information.
• Reducing the administrative burden.
• Improving speed of information
• Improving flexibility of information
• Improving services to employees.
• Producing HR metrics.

There is, however, a question as to whether or not HRIS meet HR expectations.

My experience is that a lot of the time, they don’t.

Numerous reasons can be given for this, but I would like to highlight two which both relate to planning.

A lot of the time organisations are in a hurry to implement an HR system and therefore they start of by reviewing a few of the systems on the market and make a selection based on the functionality that they see.

Organisations are, however, much better placed to make a decision and to bargain for the system that they need if they start of by taking the time to outline their requirements and categories them under essential and desirable.

This means that when organisations talk to suppliers they will be better placed to ensure that the system meets their specific requirements and where it doesn’t to at least be prepared.

The other area that I would like to highlight relates to system setup. Everyone now knows that garbage in, means garbage out and so everyone places a lot of emphasis on the quality of data to be input to the system.

However, organisations are yet to realise that time needs to be taken to plan the structure of systems in relation to the different data types to be used within the system such as organisation structures, competency frameworks, monitoring data etc.

The planning of data sets and structures means that the system can be setup so that the data can easily be accessed and extracted from the system.

These are just key areas to take account of when developing HRIS. All in all the key message that I would like to give is that the devil is in the detail so plan, plan plan!

Susan Popoola
Conning Towers
Human Resources Consultancy
Leveraging the Power of People

Copyright 2006 This document is the specific intellectual property of the Conning Towers Ltd. Content may not be reused or reproduced without the specific permission of the owner or a reference to the source. Opinions may be generated from content obtained from other sources and such content is referenced as appropriate.

Labels: E-HR, HR Systems, HRIS

# posted by Susan Popoola @ 00:15 0 Comments