How To Get Best Value From HR

Changes in business practices and the customer care situation have impacted upon the way HR delivers the goods. Reilly and Williams focus on the implementation of shared services, an idea that resembles internal outsourcing. Hailing from the USA, it has not been seen as something peculiar to HR but applicable to any form of service delivery. Thus shared service models have been created for finance, information technology, procurement and more.

What distinguishes shared services from other forms of service provision are: the nature of the services provided determined primarily by the customer; a common provision of service; and availability to users. The most significant is that the user is the chooser, so the customer defines the level of the service and decides which services to take up. Thus, the balance in the shared services model is shifted from producer to consumer.

The services are not confined to particular groups due to pooling the services for general use. Activities are therefore usually transferred from operating units to the shared services centre—internal outsourcing.

How To Get Best Value From HR by Tony Williams and Peter Reilly provides insightful guidance on these concepts, offering valuable knowledge for anyone involved in HR and shared services.