Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

HR transformationHR strategy

HR shared services: Interview with Richard Crouch, head of HR at Somerset County Council on Southwest One

by Mike Berry 17 Jul 2009
by Mike Berry 17 Jul 2009

You can forgive Richard Crouch, head of HR and organisational development at Somerset County Council, a knowing smile when it comes to debate about the latest vogue for HR shared-services.

While others in local government and the wider public sector are digesting reduced funding settlements from Whitehall and looking to make big savings through the use of shared services, Crouch and his council are ahead of the game.

Somerset, Taunton Deane Borough Council and Avon and Somerset Police joined forces with technology giant IBM in October 2007 to form Southwest One, a joint-venture company delivering a range of services, including HR. “This project has put Somerset Council on the national stage,” Crouch says.

The £400m 10-year deal has not been without its controversies, however. Public sector union Unison took the council to an employment tribunal over a lack of consultation (it lost), concerns have been raised in Parliament by the local MP, and there have been accusations of excessive secrecy over the contract.

Crouch understands why the deal has created such a furore. “When you work in public services and are putting together a contract with a private sector supplier, there are these tensions with transparency. Even though we wanted to share information with Unison and other stakeholders, it wasn’t allowed to happen. If you don’t give out information, people think you’ve got something to hide,” he says.

More than 1,000 council staff have been seconded to the new company, all with guaranteed employment for 10 years on the same terms and conditions. About 150 HR staff also moved across, leaving just Crouch, three years into his role, and two colleagues at the local authority.

“HR colleagues nationally laugh at me and ask what I’m doing, managing just two people,” he says. “What has changed is I now scrutinise and challenge people who were once part of my team; I wear a client hat as well as being a shareholder.”

So why did Somerset council choose a joint-venture approach rather than an outsourcing arrangement? Crouch says a trip to Suffolk council with his chief executive to see its joint-venture project with BT in action nailed the decision.

“The first thing that struck us was the way people operated in the building; the way staff conversed, dressed – it felt like a multinational company, not local government,” he explains. “All of the old bureaucracy was wiped out but what was still important to staff was delivering services for local and vulnerable people.”

Selling the need for change to the rest of his organisation wasn’t difficult, according to Crouch. The need for efficiency savings meant budgets were being sliced every year, leading to real frustrations among staff.

Employees could also see the job security benefits of the deal on the table; guaranteed employment, secondment, same terms, better career prospects. “We have invested in staff because Southwest One is a joint-venture company, so it’s in our interests to do so,” Crouch says.

Like any major transformation project there have been teething problems, notably with introducing an SAP-based IT system. But 21 months in, Crouch believes real progress is being made.

“If you’re going to jump into bed with a partner like IBM, you have to realise they speak a different language, work differently, think differently, act differently,” he says. “It’s too easy to forget the reason why you brought in a partner in the first place. If they’re no different to you, there’s no point. But the relationship works because you think about the bigger picture.”

Despite the eulogy, so far no other council or public sector body has signed up to Southwest One. But it’s just a matter of time, according to Crouch, as the sector looks for new ways of pooling resources and delivering services.

Southwest One in numbers

  • 80%: IBM’s share of joint-venture
  • 10: Number of years guaranteed employment for secondees
  • 150: Number of HR staff from Somerset council that have moved
  • £400m: Total savings for three public sector partners

If I could do it again…

“The secondment model helped us from a business perspective,” says Crouch. “With TUPE what normally happens is you get a load of disaffected staff thrown out of their organisation with the other one forced to pick them up. However, from an HR perspective, you would not touch secondment with a barge pole because of its complexities.”

He adds: “I would have wanted IBM to engage a bit more with staff – sometimes you want more than presentations. To have engaged more on a one-to-one basis would have been helpful.

“Better engagement with the unions [would have been beneficial]; some elements of the private sector haven’t had to do that before.”

Avatar
Mike Berry

previous post
Judicial mediation pilot tests are a success
next post
MacLeod Review struggles to engage senior HR professionals

You may also like

Davos 2022: Upskilling workers necessary to overcome business...

26 May 2022

Davos hears that ‘wages can rise’ without creating...

26 May 2022

Adapt culture to hybrid work: do not force...

20 May 2022

Women in FTSE 350 leadership: ‘A lot of...

20 May 2022

Squishy, flabby, foggy HR? Andrew Bartlow talks to...

20 May 2022

How the Global Business Mobility visa will overhaul...

14 Apr 2022

How workplace culture should support employees’ wellbeing

13 Apr 2022

Organisational purpose: Alex Kruger talks to Oven-Ready HR

25 Mar 2022

How should employers handle whistleblowing complaints?

18 Mar 2022

Commuting by car fast becoming unaffordable

11 Mar 2022
  • Strathclyde Business School expands its Degree Apprenticeship offer in England PROMOTED | The University of Strathclyde is expanding its programmes...Read more
  • The Search for Talent: Six Major Employer Pitfalls PROMOTED | The Great Resignation continues unabated...Read more
  • Navigating the widening “Skills Confidence Gap” in 2022, and beyond PROMOTED | Cornerstone OnDemand conducted a global study...Read more
  • Apprenticeships are the solution to your recruitment problems PROMOTED | Apprenticeships have the pulling power...Read more
  • What it really means to be mentally fit PROMOTED | What is mental fitness...Read more
  • How music can help to ease anxiety at work PROMOTED | A lot has happened since March 2020, hasn’t it?...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2022

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2022 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+