Talkstars 2012: Craig Warren, Best Buy

In the run up to Shared Services & Outsourcing Week 2012, March, we are cornering some of our keynote speakers to get their perspective on the marketplace. Interview with Craig Warren from Best Buy – by Barbara Hodge. Online Editor, SSON Register now for Shared Services & Outsourcing Week 2012, March 2012, Orlando. Barbara Hodge: Craig, how has Best Buy incorporated outsourcing into HR, and what’s the impact on your staff in charge of managing these relationships? CW: In HR services we run a heavily outsourced model where we leverage a variety of outsource partners to work with us to deliver service to our 120,000 US employees. For us, the management of the talent that manages the outsource relationship is fairly critical because that's a very unique skill set, given the complexity and scope of our outsourcing relationships. We really need to be sensitive to the development of those Best Buy employees who are managing the day-to-day operations with the outsource providers. Barbara Hodge: What differentiates the skill set that these employees need? CW: The employees that manage the delivery of services like payroll or benefits administration or compensation administration typically have a deep functional knowledge within the area they are managing. In an outsourced environment you need people who have that functional expertise within a particular area of HR so they understand how the work is done and the regulations. But now they also need a different set of business skills, which are not typically part of the HR profession; skills that allow them to manage the outsource relationship. This includes a level of knowledge around some procurement activities; contract terms; how to manage suppliers; how to manage processes in the outsourced environment; and how to negotiate and influence people – all skills not necessarily needed when you’re delivering those services internally. So there's another level of business savvy that the HR service professional involved in managing an outsource relationship needs to have on top of their core HR knowledge. Barbara Hodge: How are regional differences impacting these kinds of management decisions? CW: That's something we're beginning to wrestle with because the global business services function at Best Buy is only about a year and a half old. So we're relatively early in our shared services journey and the focus in the HR space has initially been on the US operations. We're doing a lot of work strategically on how to deploy it more globally. That's going to become a huge challenge for us because in some of the regions around the world the delivery model for some of the HR services is heavily reliant on outsourcing. So we’ll need a skill-set of people who are proficient in terms of managing the internal delivery of services as well as the other skill sets that are required to manage in the outsourced environment. And that's something as are currently looking at – what’s the right mix of talent in skills and competencies that we're going to need? Barbara Hodge: Craig, one of the topics that you’re going to be speaking about at SSOW 2012 (North America) is mitigating organisational risk. What does this mean? CW: It means that you recognize first of all that there is risk in a broad range of categories. In my world, I see risk being in the realm of legal risk that we're trying to mitigate, where there's a risk of litigation that you’re trying to minimise. There may also be a financial risk associated with a compliance perspective. So making sure that we're compliant with regulations that may carry a financial risk related to impacting the brand and decreasing revenue. And then there's risk just from the perspective of having the appropriate controls in place. So, making sure that there's no fraud and no breakdowns in processes, which decrease employee productivity or necessitate us spending money that we don't need to. Barbara Hodge: Craig thanks so much for your time. We look forward to hearing more from you at SSOW 2012 in Orlando next year. Register now for Shared Services & Outsourcing Week 2012. [eventpdf]

Talkstars 2012: Craig Warren, Best Buy

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