GBS is grouping a company’s support functions, such as Finance, Procurement, IT and Human Resources (HR) into a cross-functional structure. GBS comes in many shapes, sizes, and flavours: with regional or global centres, combining onshore, nearshore, and offshore services with multiple types of sourcing – in-house and outsourced. GBS offers higher value for businesses at lower costs due to cross-fertilization of organization, optimization, knowledge, and resources.

But the evolution of GBS doesn’t stop there. The future is already here with Global Integrated Business Delivery, taking GBS one step further by incorporating all support services and utilizing innovative technology and analytics for maximum efficiency. With Global Integrated Business Delivery, businesses can achieve a seamless and integrated service delivery model that optimizes their support functions and enhances overall business performance.

While Global Integrated Business Delivery presents many opportunities, GBS implementation is often the crucial first step in optimizing service delivery. In this article, we’ve gathered a selection of developments in GBS to help your organization unlock its full potential.

Cloud solutions have brought a lot to the world of shared services and business process automation. However, organisations find that the many tools available make it more difficult to keep things simple and make processes transparent. GBS gives direction and accelerates automation by integrally designing smart processes. Under central governance, strategic priorities are translated into an automation roadmap. This prevents an organisation from having increasingly fragmented processes and tools. The most commonly deployed automation technologies are system integrations, workflows, digital forms and approvals/e-signatures, robotic process automation (for repetitive tasks) and digital document management (including storage and retention). GBS is also committed to developing a digital corporate culture, as well as how employees collaborate within the organisation. Based on the broader organisational strategy, GBS is able to make better long-term investment decisions. This means that the chosen technology or automation solutions can yield a higher ‘return on investment’ and achieve greater organisational buy-in.

The Covid-19 pandemic has taught us that, wherever the nature of the work allows, working in virtual teams is an excellent alternative to working in one location. With the accelerated development of online collaboration tools, virtual collaboration is here to stay. For the development of GBS, this is a huge opportunity. In the perfect mix of onshore, nearshore, and offshore services, virtual teams are going to contribute to the expansion of capabilities and the continuity of service delivery. But above all, it means that location no longer needs to be a limiting factor in recruiting the best talent for GBS.

With a GBS model, organisations are building a true governance organisation in which analysis, partner selection and service delivery decisions are brought together. In a developed GBS organisation, the GBS governance team is of a senior level so that influence can be exercised to all stakeholders. This means an immense strengthening of internal competence with respect to alignment on business needs, the building of sourcing strategies and executing these strategies. In addition, methodologies for transitions, change and communication across the organisation are standardised and professionalised.
GBS ensures better decision-making and service delivery management for supporting functions such as Finance, IT and HR, through the continuous alignment of initiatives with the strategic objectives of the organisation. An improvement especially when compared to a situation in which each function was doing their own thing.

The described trends indicate that GBS as part of the HR operating model goes beyond the traditional SSC or BPO models. Its distinctiveness lies in a few key advantages:
• organisational objectives that drive the GBS strategy across functions, countries, and business units
• professionalised governance for better decision-making, change and performance management
• end-to-end and cross-functional process optimisation
• organisation-wide data management, analysis, and insights
• smart investments for automation
• having the scale to find the optimal mix of in-house centres and external providers and of onshore, nearshore, and offshore locations including virtual teams.

GBS delivers added value to the business from the organisation-wide service portfolio. Improved models will emerge, as well as versions of these models, to which virtual teams will greatly contribute. With further digitalisation, automation and the use of new technologies (such as artificial intelligence) on the horizon, GBS as an operating model is far from being fully developed but holds great promise for the future.

Contact us to find out how we can make your organisation more successfull by delivering HR Transformation with passion, quality and a hands-on mentality

Companies usually have three technological go-to categories: HCM/SaaS solutions, HR Service Delivery Solutions and/or software focusing on topics like video interviewing, social learning and pulse surveys.  

Most companies tend to use an HCM/SaaS and Service Delivery Solution side by side, for example Workday and ServiceNow. If not fully integrated, line managers and employees are forced to execute HR processes switching from one tool to another. In practice, this often means they have trouble starting the more complex or infrequently used processes – the transactional system is just not intuitive enough. In order to provide the best user experience and ensure an intuitive and seamless end-to-end process, the HCM/SaaS and Service Delivery Solutions need to be fully integrated and aligned.  

Let’s take a closer look at a process supported by an integrated systems approach. The Service Delivery Solution will be the one stop shop, providing guidance through the people portal and knowledge base. It will orchestrate the end-to-end workflow including actions and approvals by several parties in the HCM/SaaS solution.  

Below you’ll see the ease and benefits of an integrated approach illustrated in another example, using Workday and ServiceNow. 

The examples show that a well-integrated system results in end-to-end processes which are easy to follow, without having to switch between different systems or going back and forth between departments. This will improve user experience, optimize turnaround time and minimize errors. It allows for a better self-service system for managers and employees, supporting them in arranging all kinds of HR related matters without requiring their in-depth and up to date knowledge of the processes and approvals behind their request.  

Managers as well as HR departments will in turn save time and frustration when they are no longer required to handle standard scheduling issues, time-off requests and open enrollment questions. Entry errors and missing information may be avoided by allowing employees to enter their own information, guided by a standardized form. The move towards self-service allowed by fully integrated systems will eventually allow HR to add more strategic value, shifting their focus away from daily standardized operational activities. Evidently, at Quintop HR consultants we firmly believe it really is better together in HR digital transformation. 

From approach to implementation, Quintop fulfills different digital HR transformation roles. We are system and supplier independent. With a tailored approach we oversee the overall (global) transformation from a client’s perspective. Leading digital HR implementations, we are a trusted advisor and provide support in all aspects of the digital HR, keeping the end user in mind. In line with the HR Strategy, we define a tailormade transformation approach and roadmap for a successful roll out. 

This article discusses the reasons for, and risks associated with HR BPO. Additionally, we look ahead to future developments in BPO.

Organisations have recently been forced to react immediately to the new government policy: staying at home was the motto.

Even though the corona virus is currently not yet gone, there will undoubtedly be a ‘post-corona time’. As an organisation, you want to be prepared for this, but what does it look like and how do you manage it? Back to the ‘old’ or on to the ‘new normal’, where a lot of work will be done from home?

This manual provides practical tips for setting up your organisation during and after corona time.

Recently, we identified four effective implementation actions which could lead you towards a successful analytics strategy within your organization. One of them included the development of a data driven mind- and skillset within HR (Quintop, 2019). However, even till this day, only a minority of HR professionals seem to have the right skills and knowledge to use simple metrics in order to gain valuable insights by using people analytics (Diclaudio, 2019). No surprise that you may wonder what a data driven mind- and skillset within HR exactly means. Darren Aletoe conducted research on this topic and has shared his findings in our most recent whitepaper on people analytics.

In this new whitepaper, we will further explore ‘the data driven mind- and skillset’ component. To do so, the whitepaper will start at the core, meaning we will first do a deep dive into the current developments impacting the HR sector. What does this environment mean for the role of an HR professional? Which capabilities are essential to overcome the present challenges? Finally, with the help of a scientific literature review and interviews conducted with different HR executives, we reveal you two main competences that HR professionals should possess in order to derive value from data, now and in the future.

Read it here:

Investing in EX has significant positive impact on organisations. It is therefore no surprise that organisations are eager to influence and enhance it. But who is responsible for EX?

In this whitepaper we provide you with our answer, as well as approach and vision to this interesting concept.

Click here to download our whitepaper on EX.

Would you like to know more about why or why not harmonize employment conditions? Or do you want to know how long that will take? What do we think is a good approach to get started? 

Read our new whitepaper: 

Our expert, Peter van Delden, provides a clear explanation of: 

• Why harmonize or not harmonize?
• Usefulness and “uselessness” of harmonization.
• What you have to take into account when harmonizing.
• What the turnaround time is.
• What needs priority.
• What the costs are.
• Which legal aspects you need to take into account.
• What expertise is required.
• What our approach is.

In a world where change is the new constant, organizations and its leaders need to lead continuous change. Key is to embrace the change instead of trying to plan it.

In this whitepaper  we will explore different types of change, the ‘changes of change’ and how to leverage various methodologies to deal with today’s corporate changes.

Click here to download our whitepaper.

In our practice and the multitude of reorganisations we have been involved in, we see roughly two ways of communicating. The first is the least pleasant for employees, namely the so-called “put out with the box” method. We see that employees have to leave the organization quickly, almost hidden. Communication is minimal and to avoid having to make agreements with the Works Council or unions, individual settlement agreements are sometimes concluded between employees and employers. Often such a way of acting leaves a black hole for those who stay behind and on the other hand leaves an undesirable and skeptical feeling for those who leave.

The second focuses more on transparency and employee involvement (both stayers and those who need to look further). In this approach you try to pay attention to informing and involving all stakeholders. So in addition to employees, works councils and unions are also in scope as much as possible from the start. Explain, ensure a clear, fair trial and clarify what considerations are and what the ultimate direction is. Employees who leave the organization with a positive feeling, no matter how annoying the outcome, are more likely to act as ambassadors, which in turn benefits the reputation of the organization. It almost goes without saying that we see that the second way of communicating leads to better results. But how do you do that? We outline the main points for attention.

Dutch Prime Minister Rutte shows a good example in the recent period. It is important to get the message clear, to give space to the emotions of your audience (especially drop silences), but avoid talking about your own worries. Nobody needs to hear how difficult it is for you personally. Above all, provide a suitable tone, which shows that you understand the situation and appreciate it. Also pay attention, but above all be clear. Repeat your message without exaggeration and show confidence in the process and the chosen way. Stay behind your own approach.

Continuity is central to the content of your story. You want to indicate that reorganization is necessary for the continuity of the organization. But you also want employees to experience continuity in their work. Business continues during the renovation. Customers still need to be well served. To ensure that it is necessary to make the connection between the future model and how this is the only way that contributes to the continuity of the organization. Make it clear that it is really necessary. Unions will also be interested in this.

Perhaps more difficult to realize and not directly in the interest of the company, but try to help your employees find new work. Various measures (in addition to the government’s message to play a role in this) show that employers are expected to help and support the transition from work to work. Incidentally, from July the dutch cabinet will make € 50 million euro’s available under the heading “NL learns by” for online training of employees of companies affected by the Corona crisis.