Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/73199
Strategic Sourcing important: What is the service model? At what sites will service be provided? Is it one-takes-all, or is there an ideal mix of vendors, based on specialties? Some suppliers were just sticking to their original models, whilst others flexibly moved along with us during the process, adjusting and adapting the specifics all the time. The market for HR suppliers is rather complex. It is almost impossible to know what is going on in the market—not only in terms of the (technological) possibilities but also in terms of knowing what kinds of suppliers are active in different areas. Some service providers are able to deliver all processes (although these suppliers are still scarce), and others assemble the best providers as soon as the request becomes clear; others decide to specialise in certain niches, or switch between niches, and some are even willing to join forces in the event that a big, interesting potential client such as Ahold Europe shows up. In general, you see a lot of reorientation. For Ahold Europe, if we do business with more than one party, it is important that they work well together, and we only sign the contract with one of the parties involved, making this specific party completely responsible and accountable. Sourcing is an instrument to support a strategy, instead of a goal on its own, and it is not an instrument which should be taken lightly. We pushed for standardisation all the time; we do not want to be special. Finally, it is in our interest and the interest of the service provider to provide us and other clients with standardised services. They don't want to end up in their office building with the first floor servicing client 1, the second floor client 2, etc. We asked them what their standard was, and invited them to apply it in our organisation. That's a great bargain for them, and at the same time it lowers costs for us. We also probed whether it would be possible to organise the processes in such a way that a mutual interest evolves. Both would profit from changes, improvements, and innovations. For instance, what would be the best incentive to design a better portal, or to have fewer calls at the call centre? Who will invest in upgrades? Are synergetic advantages to be achieved by using the best practices that vendors developed with other clients? In that respect, it's a good idea to visit a vendor's other clients to find out how the cooperation is going. Meanwhile, whatever was happening behind the scenes, Ahold Europe wanted things to appear much the same as far as the employee is concerned. This is also a matter of corporate culture. It might be in the minor details, but it is of major importance that the look and feel of the portals employees look at, the tone in which the helpdesk employee speaks with them on the phone, all those things should be in full compliance with the corporate culture they are used to. They don't care a bit how we organise everything behind the scenes, in the systems and the processes, whether insourced or outsourced, but they do care that they are treated in the way they are used to, or better. Self-service is a new way of operating—it requires a new attitude and a change in the mindset and behavior of HR personnel, line managers, and employees—this is very important to take into account. We do not have supporting HR staff for our stores; all the work is done by store management. By improving the HR processes and support, we help them concentrate more on their people and their business. Also, our personnel in the shops are young—they expect nothing but internet-like applications. Being in Control While the vendor selection process for Ahold Europe was progressing, the process to design the retaining HR services organisation was also getting up to speed. The transition team developed a lot of expertise, not only on processes and systems, but also on service providers. They will grow into the role as the interface between the outsourced SSCs and internal clients evolve. Some of them enjoy the transition period and will look for other employment after finalizing it. Others specifically enjoy, and grow in, their orchestration role. The fact that we did not have completely matured processes before outsourcing did challenge us in this respect. True, future ownership and responsibility of the new system will be with our vendor, not with us; this makes us dependent. But it doesn't mean that we lose all control of our vendor. Ahold Europe does not consider HR services to be its core business, but for us it is of major importance that we don't outsource more than we can afford. We don't want to lose all the expertise we have already developed during the process; if only to be able to communicate with a vendor in a common language, and translating their operations into our own organisation. Governance can never be outsourced. Otherwise you get too dependent, lose all grip, and become a mere plaything. Although it's easy to blame the supplier, often things go wrong on the client side. For these very reasons, there will always be a need for HR governance, functioning as the interface between the provider, the Ahold Europe organization, and HR. We don't want the business to conduct its own negotiations with the SSC on service level agreements (SLAs) malfunctioning and the like.The vendor provides the portal, the client delivers the input; so there is a mutual interest. The more effective the portal, the more efficient the processes, the cheaper it will be for both the vendor and the client. If you don't know what you're doing and what you want, a supplier will not know this for you either. Implementing new applications is also something we will take care of. We will also safeguard our HR services strategy: It will be standardised, though there will be exceptions. Imagine the call centre can be reached only during office hours, but our employees prefer to make inquiries after work, say between five and eight p.m. Here's where we have to find an additional way of working with the vendor, and this will inevitably be at some SPRING 2012 | www.hroglobal.com [41]