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Did you know an HR shared services, or part-time HR as it is often called, brings in talented professionals, technology that you can afford, best-in-class service, and many more benefits at just a fraction of cost vis-à-vis hiring?

Small businesses with a tight budget often prefer to take HR shared services that can look after their daily HR activities and operational tasks. This eliminates the need to hire specialists in the HR department, as the company focuses on growing other functions like Sales, technology, etc.

Part-time HR services, offered by companies like Asanify, help deliver end-to-end services to their clients in a faster and more effective way. It also gives an opportunity to small businesses to separate operational tasks from strategic ones so that each department can work effectively.

HR Shared Services offers client-focused, responsive, cost-effective and consistent management services to an organization which results in increased efficiency, flexibility, allows innovation, and expands business. Let’s look at some details about these part-time HR services.

• What are HR shared services?
• Examples of HR Shared Services
• Why HR shared services? 
• Objectives of HR shared services?
• HR Shared Services Structure
• Role of HR Shared Services
• Benefits of using HR shared services
• Future of HR Shared Services
• HR Shared services model 
• What is an HR shared services delivery model?
• HR Shared Service Center
• Primary Advantage of HR portals and shared service centers
• Features of Asanify HR Shared Services
• HR Shared Services Best Practices
• Frequently Asked Questions

What are HR shared services?

HR shared services refer to concentrating administrative and operational HR activities into a centralized hub within an organization defined by employee self-service, automation by leveraging technology and multiple levels of service such as tier 1, tier 2, and a significantly faster response time.

Often, these services can be seen as supporting strategic business partners and centers of expertise in HR.

Some standard services provided by different tiers are:

Examples of HR Shared Services

Hiring 

• Creating and Managing the Careers page for your organization with all job postings 
• Sharing job posts on various job search websites and even professional social networks like LinkedIn 
• Create a detailed Job Description in coordination with the Function Heads in your organization 
• Offer letter creation, offer roll-out, and employee onboarding
• Efficient structuring of salary in line with the components, as defined by the Company

HR Policies & Document Management 

• Creating and Managing the Leave & Attendance policy as per the Company’s requirements
• Acting as the single point of contact for all HR Reports, Employee Document Management and employee handbook with updated policies (ensuring Labor law compliances) 
• Detailed reports and dashboards for Founder / Business owner and HR Head

Tax-related Investments 

• Checks on all investment documents for the correct payroll calculations, ensuring accurate estimates under Section 80C, 80D, etc.
• Timely reminders to all employees to collect all investment proofs for the correct estimation of TDS before the close of the Financial Year
• Filing of TDS, PT, ESI, and PF with the Govt. and document management for audits.

Employee Onboarding and Off-boarding 

• Document completion of all new joiners and internal task assignments to the various departments to make sure that all activities related to onboarding and offboarding are completed on time 
• Full & Final settlement for all employees at the time of their exit from the company
• Reference letter / Work experience Letter issuance 

Employee Management 

• Query handling: Being the single point of contact for all employee query handling related to HR  
• Create a Company Handbook with updated policies, which include Leave policy, Attendance/Flexible hours, Loss of Pay regulations, etc.
• Managing the appraisal cycles for all employees and updating the Salary Increments from the effective date 
• Set up and manage KPIs/KRAs for all functions to make it easier for line managers to track their team’s performance

Better Employee Satisfaction

• Real-time support via email, phone calls or even Live Chat to ensure a quick turnaround time
• Regular Employee surveys to carry out an overall mood assessment for the company

 

Why HR shared services?

Here are some of the principal drivers to introduce HR shared services:

• Cost 
• Quality 
• Organizational change 

Cost Reduction

Organizations think about the three main reasons that can reduce cost. They are:

• Cutting employee numbers per unit of output through economies of scale
• They can reduce charges for office buildings by exiting spare office spaces and using cheaper housing
• Work is done with greater efficiency through streamlining and simplifying resources through consistent efforts and accurate standards. Purchase decisions can also save your economies of scale.

Quality improvement

Achievable with both shared services and the efforts of HR being customer-focused 

• Being Professional in every work that is performed
• Consistency and accuracy improve quality
• Follow best practices  
• Improve your decision-making process and planning 
• Deliver on time and with the budget kept in mind
• Discover and deliver what the customer wants, not what suits the service provider
• Improve discoverability and availability by increasing open hours
• Increase supply of information through content to educate people 
• Better quality support in line with the customer

Organizational change

• Achieve greater flexibility to adapt to change 
• Improve organizational learning across boundaries
• Allows HR to get more involved in strategic areas and not administrative trivia
• Technological innovation has enabled fast reaching change to take place
• Organizational networks have provided information on HR policies and procedures
• Employee self-service eliminated clutter and increased HR spare capacity 
• They convert information into electronic files, which allow transferring and storing them easily

 

Objectives of HR Shared Services

HR shared services offer client-centered services, reduce costs, and provide consistent services by aiming for –

1. Employee Self Service:

This is one of the most commonly followed practices in many companies. About 60-70% of HR time and cost are transactional in a company. If companies can reduce this time and cost by providing self-service to its managers and employees, then it will become a huge potential in terms of increased efficiency.

This lets them decide about the data they get, where they will also be able to check the policies around the data.

2. First and single point of contact:

Currently, companies are focusing on leveraging HR capacity and transactional expertise into one global HR shared services organization. This body can act as a single point of contact for managers and employees for queries and tasks related to HR.

This helps in an increase in resolution rate and responsiveness as they know where to go.

It offers distinct advantages, such as efficient use of expertise, better use of time for HR to focus on other strategic issues, cost-effectiveness, and time management for employees and managers.

3. Integrated services:

HR services in most companies can be less or more advanced in terms of their offerings. Effective HR organization leverages the power of technology by offering the widest scope possible for their services.

This HR shared service organization handles services such as all HR solutions, process improvement, all the transactional services such as hiring, talent management, analytics, payroll, organizational management, and much more.

4. Leveraging advanced technologies:

For many years, companies have been leveraging HR tools and systems. Some landscapes of HR, such as HRIS, comprise a business system with HR modules and some add-ons. Companies are now moving towards integrated HR solutions, which are cloud-based.

These software products are mobile-friendly and easy to use so that employees, managers, and HR themselves can access the system at anytime and anywhere. Effective HR companies leverage technology to improve efficiency.

One example of technology is the use of electronic mediums or cloud to store every bit of information that can be accessed across the world, saving you space and the cost of buying space.

Technology such as internet communication has improved client interaction and services.

Also Read: 20+ ways AI in HR is positively transforming work in 2021

5. Data and Analytics:

This is one of the most important trends in human resources, mostly because of data trends in businesses for now. 

Many areas of HR have achieved this a long time ago, for example, executive rewards and performance management. Providing data and analytics can directly add value to big business decisions.

HR can gain and build momentum through more and more insightful and meaningful data in their systems

6. Running as a business:

HR is an integrated part of the business landscape. The most profound and advanced HR services are Shared-HR services that work with clear business cases for investments, multiple target handling, budget setting according to business, business dashboard, client satisfaction, regular business, and performance review.

It will bring considerable benefits to HR and business as in the cost, efficiency, and quality of business. This lets managers and HR focus on the strategic part of the business more often.

 

HR Shared Services Structure

Hr shared services are typically organized in ‘tiers’

• Number one is Tier 0, which is an HR portal or intranet where employees and managers can self serve.
• Second is Tier 1 is called a contact center where employees and managers can directly contact service providers via email or phone.
• Third is Tier 2  are special teams aligned for tasks such as payroll, recruitment, training, administration and performance management
• There is another Tier 3 which is the process owner in some organizations with the overall responsibility of a particular process area

 

Role of HR Shared Services

These are the specific roles and responsibilities of successful HR Shared Services organizations to implement:

• Clear objectives:

on how to run various processes according to the organization with defined goals and measuring the success of the business.

• Options for Structure:

Exploring and selecting the best model for the business. For example, deciding whether a multinational organization will require shared services through several centers or through one global shared service.

• Portion of capital and nature required resources :

Having the right and latest technology and infrastructure to support business activities 

• Reviewing and planning for HR:

Moving to a shared service doesn’t guarantee you more efficient and client based performance, review, and re-establishment of HR should be a part of the process.

• Leadership:

This is one of the most important responsibilities to look at as organization change requires the right leadership to deal with the effects.

• Clarifying roles, responsibilities and accountability:

of human resources shared services between administrative and more value-added services

• Recruitment and Training:

The Center will deliver more experience and knowledge in the required roles 

• Communication and involvement:

Encouraging employees and managers to use shared services. It is important for the internal workers to know about HR shared services.

• Knowledge development:

There will be a demand for certain information or clarification, so setting channels for information and training is significant.

 

 

Benefits of using HR shared services

Deploying HR shared services has multiple benefits for your organization

1. HR becomes more strategic:

   As HR divides, more experienced professionals can focus on a strategic part of the business. This gives us an opportunity to measure HR’s performance through metrics. Now HR can contribute to development as a true business partner. This ensures positive employee experience and people management through a focus on business strategy.

2. Consistency and compliance:

   All HR activities are performed consistently, with compliance to laws, so that employee experience is better and there is no risk within the organization.

3. Operational excellence:

   Clear responsibility for the administrative process can help in operational excellence, achieved through optimized workflows and streamlined processes. Operational excellence also results in efficiency.

4. Merge HR tasks and software:

   Most organizations, when expanding, see a redundancy of work in the HR department, duplication of work for several people and, for some instances, they are using different software for different departments. Consolidating tasks and software under one central service will lead to efficiency and cost savings.

5. Improved employee experience:

   Employees to get their queries and issues resolved quickly and easily with digital systems and ease of access. All the systems are interactive, easy to use, engaging and satisfy its users.

6. Development and retention of the talent pool

   With transactional and other tasks being in place, organizations can focus on recruiting and retaining the best talent to help build a better business that leads to positive outcomes. Talent retention helps in continuous engagement and rewards for the organization.

7. Continuity of processes:

   Following the shared HR strategy allows for the process to be undertaken at the same time. For example, when on boarding an employee, they are following the same standards.

8. Cost reduction:

   Implementing HR shared services is an investment, as HRSS can automate every process that reduces manual work and centralizes information so that there is less time consumption. This provides more time for HR to work on strategic issues, which provides more returns 

 

Future of HR Shared Services

Businesses have reported that new technology, such as business automation, has helped them to reduce cost, led to organizational transformation, and eliminated any need for outsourcing with automated transactions.

But most organizations focus on cost reduction and not on strategic improvement.

Hr landscape now focuses more on data insights and describes their impact. Technology has enabled it to provide large amounts of data and strategies to embrace upon, HR should use data more effectively to drive value with it.

Hr should focus on these four areas in the future: building and managing capabilities, facilitating relationships, providing insightful data metrics, and growing culture.

 

HR Shared services model 

HR-shared services implement the right technology, automation, and analytics capabilities for further improvement and expansion of the company.

Leveraging technology:

Optimize service delivery through the system, field, and network to understand if the system is going to succeed or harm the process.

Defining successful roadmaps frequently to suggest better changes and expanding technology

Incorporating Intelligent Automation:

Traditional data center automation involves manual work and non-repeatable tasks, which results in some labor efficiency.

While using applied robotic process automation with the help of a code that is assisted by humans or applied on its own to complete all the parts of the process. 

These are removed to replace the human intervention, which results in labor efficiency, allowing organizations to deploy resources in high-value work.

Invest in Analytics:

Taking your HR shared services involves investing in analytics. These are not only numbers but metrics to drive action and insights, this allows a company to look back on what has gone wrong and go ahead with the required changes.

Analytics can be a significant advantage for competing ultimately saving cost and time.

 

What is an HR shared services delivery model?

Software-As-A-Service (SaaS)

It is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is hosted remotely by a vendor or service provider on web servers and customer can access it through web browsers.

Also Read: How cloud hr software can save your time and money

This model of delivery creates more organizational responsiveness and provides an opportunity to save cost. In HR territory, employers pay for talent management (time management and employee management) and payroll applications.

Advanced HR shared service organizations offer their facilities through a single point of contact with an HR portal, which includes a second tier contact center and third-tier subject experts supported by advanced technology. We refer to this as an HR shared service delivery model.

There are other models that are prevalent in the HR world, such as

• Outsourcing business processes
• Single-source outsourcing
• Shared service centers
• Professional employer organizations

 

HR Shared Service Center

Shared service centers in an organization that handles the implementation and management of operational tasks.

These centers are deployed to separate all kinds of operational tasks from the leadership department to focus more on the governance of the organization.

These are accountable entities within a multi-unit organization that provide specific services to business units and departments with unique services.

Shared service centers are deployed for a variety of reasons:

1. Reduction in cost and to increase quality and professionalism in work
2. To create a higher flexibility
3. Increase cost flexibility for support services

 

Primary Advantage of HR portals and shared service centers

HR portals provide ease of access to employees, as they can access HR services easily through online portals. The major benefits of HR portals are:

• Improved speed and quality of service for both employees and managers
• Simplified routine enquiries and changes
• Security has improved
• performance is enhanced
• Audit capabilities are enhanced
• It helps in reducing the number of transactions of employees 

 

Features of Asanify shared HR services

Did you know small businesses are using part-time HR services for cost reduction and efficiency improvement? With Asanify you can save 90% of the cost, and we will ensure we deliver the best HR platform and personal support.

Hire the Best Talent in the Market 

Tax-related Activities

Better Employee Management

HR Policies & Document Management

Employee On boarding and off boarding 

Better Customer Satisfaction and Support

 

HR Shared Services Best Practices

How can your HR department maintain and lead an innovative and value-adding HR service center?

Transform 

The first part of the model, where most of the current companies are at

• Determine which activities will fall under HRSS
• Defined roles and responsibilities
• Choosing the right technology for your business

Maximize Capabilities 

• Offer new and expanded services
• Expand on automation capabilities
• Use of reporting and analytics
• Social media integration

Enhance

• Process Automation
• Continuous improvement
• Create a digital roadmap
• Invest in continuous development 

 

Frequently Asked Questions

What does an HRSS manager do?

The person will lead the upgrade of HR Shared Services and handle detailed program plans covering deliverables, program milestones, requirements, staffing, and budgets.

Why do companies use shared services?

Companies use HRSS to organize their HR activities, concentrating administrative activities into a centralised hub. This model can help them reduce costs, avoid excess effort and allow them to focus on the strategic part of the business.

Components of HR shared services?

HR shared services include:

1. Payroll 
2. Leave administration
3. HRIS
4. Employee management
5. Recruiting 
6. Learning services
7. Reporting and analytics

Challenges in implementing shared HR services

1. Moving HR from local teams
2. Undefined roles and responsibilities
3. Resourceful service delivery based on the needs of individuals and groups
4. Flexible shared services model to meet the changing environment
5. Adapting to multinational organizations 

What are the primary advantages of HR portals and shared service centers?

Efficient use of resources, career development, experience for employees, quality services, higher customer satisfaction with portals and service centers are some of the primary advantages of HR portal and shared service centers.

 

 

Not to be considered as tax, legal, financial or HR advice. Regulations change over time so please consult a lawyer, accountant  or Labour Law  expert for specific guidance.