BT and Anderson Consulting are going ahead with their HR outsourcing joint venture e-peopleserve. And they will now be among those to make use of the new electronically based HR services.
BT has cut its HR costs by 50 per cent using such systems and says other companies can do the same.
By providing a complete set of “HR tools”, line managers and individuals will carry out their own personnel administration through their PCs, relieving HR managers and directors of much of the department’s routine work and enable them to be more strategic within their company.
“It will provide solutions to many HR transactions,” claims e-peopleserve’s vice-president of business development, James Heath. “HR directors will be able to be more focused, more strategic and it will move the HR function forward.”
BT and Anderson Consulting joined forces after identifying potential benefits and the growth in outsourcing HR functions.
“BT has outsourced before, but this will be a different kind of outsourcing,” Heath explains. “Advances in new technology and the web-enablement of many services bring both cost and functionality benefits.”
It can be integrated with an HR department’s work and will offer a full range of services, from selection and recruitment, through training and development, performance management and reward, changes in status and contracts.
“It offers a rich blend of opportunities that embrace the new e-world. You will be able to experience its services very personally, either delivered to the desktop or via WAP, for instance,” says chief operating officer Vaughan Young, who earned a place in Personnel Today’s Top 40 power players this year, partly on the strength of him making HR services a profitable internal business at BT.
A call centre and team of HR case-workers will provide back-up. There is also provision for face-to-face meetings. “It will make it much easier for managers to handle and analyse data about staff and offers a lot of support in areas such as succession management, for instance,” Young says.
As well as the parent companies, e-peopleserve is targeting the UK’s biggest employers and Young claims there is a significant number of clients in the pipeline.
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e-peopleserve comprises 1,100 staff and is projecting substantial growth in its five-year business plan. Information is available from e-peopleserve’s web site www.e-peopleserve.com.
• E-biz will feature an in-depth interview with e-peopleserve chief sales officer Malcolm Howard in a future issue
