Agenda

• About ScottMadden
• Governance
• Performance Management
• Customer Relationship Management
• Continuous Improvement

 

Necessary and Effective

Governance Definition

• Governance is the process of directing the behaviors and decisions of the people who are part of an organization. Governance is exercised through three key and separate processes
• Legislative – making the rules
• Executive – monitoring and enforcing the rules
• Judicial – arbitrating the rules

Why Governance Is Important to Shared Services

• A governance model provides the structure needed to interface numerous organizational stakeholders
• With goals such as standardization, improved service, cost savings, and increased agility, agents of the governance process will have to set structure and rules, oversee and it, and make many competing decisions to maintain shared services goals

Keys to an Effective Model

• Matching the structure to the potential for conflict
• Include strong customer representation
• Establish criteria for making decisions

 

Governance Board

The formality and participating members in an oversight committee or board are influenced by factors such as size of the organization, the number and complexity of services, organization culture, and hierarchy. Shared Services Governance Board Characteristics

• Comprised of executives from key business units, the head of shared services organization, and representatives from critical support organizations (e.g., IT, HR, etc.)
• Accountable for the shared services vision and ensuring strategies are aligned to achieve success
• Provides direction to the operational team and serves as a point of escalation for the resolution of critical business decisions

Key Benefits

• Provides representation for the shared services organization among senior management
• Allows customers to strongly influence the direction of shared services and ensure that shared services are responsive to business unit needs
• Creates an additional layer of accountability for the shared services organization
• Creates a formal process to control spending and prioritize initiatives
• Ensures integration with other business initiatives

 

Roles and Responsibilities

The governing committee is ultimately responsible for overseeing the successful operation of the HR service delivery model. That means completion of legislative, executive, and judicial governing roles.

• Legislative: Set overarching principles and rules for the on-going operation of the HR services delivery model
  • Review service scope and recommended additions or dissolutions on a regular basis
  • Revise charge-back mechanisms to best reflect the business trends
  • Confirm service level agreements
• Executive: Monitor and enforce the operational rules
  • Review performance and contributions of shared services, business units, and supporting organizations and vendors
  • Monitor and update the business case on an ongoing basis
  • Monitor service volumes, costs, satisfaction, and performance metrics against baselines and benchmarks
• Judicial: Arbitrate the ongoing operational rules
  • Rule on requests for policy, process, and/or system customizations, opt-outs, integration approaches, and similar items
  • Arbitrate issues, such as overall charge-backs, escalated through resolution hierarchy
  • Provide rulings on business customer service or cost issues

 

Service Level Agreements

A service level agreement (SLA) is between the provider of a service and a customer that quantifies the target quantity, quality, and cost of services to be provided in a future period. Dialogue, planning, and continuous improvement are outcomes that will drive your organization’s success.

• SLAs are:
  • Concise
  • Negotiated, not dictated
  • A vehicle for understanding and managing demand
  • Standard across internal customers with only business justified exceptions
  • A basis for regular discussion with customers
  • Updated as necessary (typically annually)

 

Tracking Performance Indicators

To effectively manage performance of your shared services center, regular monitoring and reporting on performance is critical.  The identification of metrics to be tracked and a proposed schedule of reporting is often forgotten due to the other activities occurring prior to launch, but it is critical for post-launch reporting to stakeholders.  

Reporting Performance to Stakeholders

Post-launch, it is often difficult to focus externally when you are in the midst of stabilizing operations and rolling out additional services; however, keeping stakeholders engaged and alerting them of performance highs and lows communicates that the service center values their business and thinks of them as a partner

• Meet with your stakeholders pre-launch and discuss SLAs and partnership ground rules. Some examples:
• Customer agrees to follow the outlined, communicated service center processes
• One-off requests to service center employees do not occur; all requests are via the defined methods
• Cases in pending status (i.e., waiting for customer information or submissions) will not count toward SLA time
• Communicating anticipated increases in workload in advance to help HRSS staff prepare to handle the increase
• Agree upon schedule to meet to discuss performance and potential issues that need to be addressed on an ongoing basis
• Adjust the business case to reflect design changes and update progress annually

 

SSO Performance Management Pitfalls

Management and organizations often make the following mistakes, which significantly impair the impact of metrics and rewards

• Metrics are ineffective because the rewards are delayed
• Management uses metrics that are not in the employees’ control
• Metrics are out of alignment with the firm’s strategy and objectives
• Numbers that are easy to measure are often substituted for what should be measured
• Goals may be set too high, causing a talent drain
• The cause of poor metrics is not addressed
• Metrics consume a considerable amount of resources to measure
• Assessing the cultural impact of introducing metrics is ignored

Performance programs create very quick changes in employee behavior and department culture.  Personal performance is linked to individual improvement plans and other levers for continuous improvement.  

How Should You Approach CRM?

Customer experiences form perceptions of your services that can be grouped into three different categories. Customer Relationship Management is about managing these experiences.

• Manage Awareness and Need with:
  • Deliberate actions to increase awareness
  • Dedicated account managers
  • Discussing capabilities and limitations
  • Engaging customers with SLA process
• Manage Satisfaction with Interactions with:
  • Highly knowledgeable and customer-oriented staff
  • Follow-through on commitments
  • Customer-centric performance indicators
  • Concern for business needs
• Manage Satisfaction with Offerings with:
  • Clarity of products and services
  • Variety of service delivery channels
  • Involving customers in the solution design
  • Leveraging account managers as facilitators

 

Responsibilities across Shared Services

Shared Services Leaders:

• Determine the vision for CRM and provide human and material resources to support processes

Shared Service Managers

• Manage collection and analysis of customer information
• Develop processes for determining customer needs and coordinating capacity to meet needs

Shared Services Business Analysts

• Gather and analyze data
• Produce reports on analytics

Shared Services Employees

• Follow established service and communications processes
• Carry out issue identification and resolution processes
• Participate in continuous improvement

Shared Services Customer Managers

• Provide information related to business and business needs
• Participate in programs designed to enhance communications and information exchange with shared services organizations

Information Technology

• Develop CRM/case management system, knowledgebases, other supporting technologies, and data integration to support CRM processes

 

Customer Satisfaction Surveys

A well-developed customer satisfaction survey program measures how well you perform against customer expectations. A complete customer survey consists of three components—satisfaction with interaction, satisfaction with offerings, and attraction. Your survey questions should focus on measuring your customers’ satisfaction levels with interaction and your offerings. Do you know…

• If you provide the greatest level of satisfaction for your most important services?
• If your services are in line with your customers’expectations?
• If your service offerings are what your customers really want or need?
• If your customers prefer your services to those of competitors?
• What is your customer’s point of loyalty? What is the “tipping point” at which they would switch providers?

Knowing your customers’ perceptions gives you opportunity to:

• Anticipate rather than react
• Be competitive with the market
• Improve your company’s bottom line

 

Customer Satisfaction Analysis

Analyze and prioritize results. Incorporate customer surveys into the center’s improvement plan, focusing on areas of greatest increase and decrease in employee ratings.  

Overview of an Effective Program

Continuous improvement uses performance measures to drive the implementation of an organization’s strategy. An enterprise-wide management system:

• Aligns operations with strategy
• Ensures consistency
• Enables rapid directional changes
• Cascades vision, mission, values, and strategy

An ongoing process:

• Focuses priorities and results
• Integrates measurement, analysis, and action
• Encourages continuous improvement
• Defines and reinforces accountability

A continuous Improvement Program Enables a Service Organization To:

• Clarify customer requirements
• Define service priorities
• Evaluate internal performance
• Educate and motivate customers and employees
• Manage costs and improve service quality
• Change proactively based on customer needs and/or the market

 

Organization and Role

It is typical to find a role or small department focused on improvement activity

• Unique position with broad organizational coverage
• Different than role played by functional and delivery management
• Separation retains investigative objectivity
• Important to retain proximity for functional and delivery expertise
• Generally assigned to service center manager or head of shared services

Whether handled by dedicated staff or as additional responsibilities, some focused, skilled, staff are required.