HR shared-service providers will soon be expected to provide deeper insights into staff data for line managers, experts have claimed.
Brian McLaren, head of professional and advisory services at RBS Group, told delegates at the HRO World Europe Conference that people metrics were “the next big thing”.
McLaren revealed that RBS had made £70m in efficiency savings since it scaled up its HR shared-service centre after acquiring rival NatWest in 2000. But he told the Brussels conference: “You only get credit for cost reduction for so long. Now businesses want to see added value.”
To add value, providers need to increase the portfolio of HR services they offer, McLaren said.
“We should look to get the transactional side running as efficiently as possible and then leave it to one side and move on. The next big thing is the effective use of the wide range of business metrics available to HR shared-service centres.”
Lloyds TSB group HR services director Bernard O’Driscoll backed up McLaren’s view, and the banking giant signed an HR outsourcing deal with provider Xansa in August.
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“We want to go to the next phase of HR. We want to add value and have the capability to remedy things. Xansa has the expertise to look at people metrics,” said O’Driscoll.
HR continues to be a major component of the overall worldwide outsourcing market and is expected to be worth £12.9bn in 2006 – up 4.7% on 2005, according to business analysts Gartner.
