HR Shared Services and the Re-alignment of HR

Shared services is an increasingly common organizational response to creating more efficient service delivery. This report is an in-depth look at the issues based on interviews with a number of organizations. They see that costs can be reduced through the economies of scale from centralisation of services. Increased customer focus can lead to better quality outcomes. Technology can offer various routes to user-friendly delivery such call centres and intranets. Choices, though, have to be made on the nature of the shared services' operation and on the relationship between HR and line managers and employees. Ensuring that it is correctly resourced and organized poses another set of questions. Organizations have found benefit in this structure, but there are design issues that must first be tackled.