Managing payroll for employees is one of the most routine and regular of administrative processes, but it also has the propensity to be one of the most complex, depending upon the size and global presence of the enterprise. Payroll is a key driver of employee confidence and satisfaction in an organization. When an employee’s paycheck is incorrect, it is a sensitive and immediate problem to solve.
The outcomes of a business case can mean a make-or-break decision for moving forward with shared services. It is critical that you create a business case to understand your costs and savings opportunities and be able to demonstrate the benefits of this significant change to your organization. Additionally, the business case creates the baseline from which to measure your progress once you go live with the new model.
Shared services has come a long way since the early 90s when major corporations, such as Proctor and Gamble, adopted the approach to improve services and reduce overhead. Companies today are moving further to gain additional savings, capitalize on analytics, and leverage infrastructure by creating or consolidating services into multifunction shared services organizations.
In order to transform the organization, one must first understand it. Many companies today are aggressively trying to transform their organization, seeking to improve organizational performance by changing behavior and capabilities, consolidating transactional activities into a shared services model, or trying to reallocate resources across units. An important first step for understanding the current issues or the impact of any changes is to understand who does what in the organization. By starting with a thorough assessment of where you stand today, you can identify the greatest opportunities for efficiency gain and deploy resources accordingly.
LinkedIn recently published a survey that stated 80–90% of talent acquisition organizations leverage social networking sites in their recruiting activities. If your organization does not leverage social media when recruiting candidates, you are late to the game. Based on our experience helping clients transform their talent acquisition organizations, ScottMadden has identified four social networking strategies that every talent acquisition organization should employ. Download this report to learn more.
Most would agree that the shared services industry has reached a substantial level of maturity. In fact, SSON shared at their recent Shared Services and Outsourcing Week conference that 90% of Fortune 500 companies have a shared services model. While SSOs are maturing, continuous improvement and expansion are always top of mind for leading organizations. Paying attention to key industry trends can help SSOs prioritize their initiatives and continue to create value for enterprise organizations.
Do you use email as a communications channel in your shared services center? If your shared services operations are like most, email requests are a significant percentage of all contacts. We have seen companies report up to 30% of contacts via this channel.
ScottMadden believes shared service organizations (SSOs) can significantly improve service while reducing costs by decreasing reliance on an email communication channel. Our experience is that moving away from email can provide significant advantages for the SSO and its customers. With the right plan, technology selection, and thorough change management, companies can reap significant performance improvements while improving customer experience.
Additional Contributing Author: David Adams
In a recent article, “Electric Utility Inventory Analysis and Optimization,” we addressed ways in which electric utilities can determine how much inventory they need to support a company’s generation, transmission, and distribution assets. Looking beyond optimization, utilities should also consider how their warehouse network strategy is impacting supply chain performance and costs. Implementing an improved warehousing strategy has enabled some supply chain organizations to realize savings that equate to 10% to 15% of their total inventory value.
HR organizations typically transform their HR service delivery by leveraging a shared services model. The movement to a shared services model has proven to decrease costs, increase efficiencies, and improve customer service. However, if an HR organization is faced with limited financial and human capital resources, there are elements of the shared services model that make it difficult to implement with these constraints.
ScottMadden has partnered with many clients to evaluate, select, and implement both existing and new HR technologies. Regardless if you chose to use an in-house technology or select a new technology, neglecting to clearly lay out how the system will be used prior to selecting the final system often leaves our clients scrambling to modify processes to fit the product.
The U.S. federal government has taken firm steps toward reducing its environmental footprint through various commitments. To address shortcomings in the program, especially around green building targets, innovative contracting mechanisms have been developed to accelerate the project approval lifecycle. There are lessons to be learned for large organizations seeking to reduce their energy and water” consumption, and achieve their sustainability goals.
The calculation and use of inventory carrying costs is a standard leading practice in supply chain management. In a recent multi-industry benchmarking survey, more than 78% of the respondents indicated that they calculate and apply this metric.
Many have claimed that increasing self-supply, e.g., distributed generation and microgrids, begins a death spiral for utility business models. Is this true? What should utilities do now?
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