Arab Spring Highlights Location Risk: Shared Services Offers Solution

Interview with Tabrez Khan, HR Shared Services Lead for a large Middle East based conglomerate. Background This organization has grown tremendously over the past decades, and is today a conglomerate with operations across the world. Headquartered in Oman, the company has been moving towards standardizing its support services – first Finance and now HR, from an Indian-based center. For the time being, its HR services initiative is focusing on driving standardization through the Gulf region, where services have been fairly fragmented. Tabrez Khan, who joined a year ago, faces the formidable task of building on the work of his predecessor to set up and run the HR shared services project. He has taken this challenge on more or less single-handedly, supported by a staff of two. While the project has been a long time coming, Khan is hopeful that it is now on the right track. As Khan was just taking on this project, he came across a reference to SSON’s SSO Pro online training course and enrolled. He has recently joined the ranks of graduates, and we called to congratulate him. We ask him how the course has helped You've taken on a challenging project, but one that will reap rewards. What was the driver for this transformation? Actually, the driver was the turmoil our regional operations experienced as a result of the events linked to the "Arab Spring", during which we experienced a shutdown of our headquarters in Oman, where our support services were also based. This highlighted the risk of basing a majority of administrative functions in one place. How did your background prepare you for the job? I was previously part of the shared services team at Aerotel Ltd, where we designed and implemented a multi-functional delivery center for payroll, compliance, and requisition. I was one of four internal leads that worked closely with the outsourced consultant to set up a captive services division that ran for a year, before we reversed it out to the outsource provider. How is the HR SSO project being led? The leader of the original project had come from Shell, and was very familiar with the shared services model. He had a strong vision for what could be achieved based on Dave Ulrich’s ideas of HR leadership. I was brought in one year ago to carry on and implement this project. How was the HR process or function set up in the past? What was not optimal? Our ERP system was vastly underused, as is often the case without the standardization inherent to a shared services type of approach. We also had no base data to speak of, and none of our processes were being mapped. We had everything to gain from implementing shared services. So what is the plan now? My initial plan is to work towards the basic Tier 0-3 HR shared services, in other words start with the simplest of models. Through shared services, we are standardizing our processes, which will bring a lot of benefit. How has the SSO Pro course helped you with this project? I knew I had a lot of functional experience in designing and running a shared services, but I also was very realistic about what I was lacking, namely change management and negotiation skills. When I had a look at the course content I saw that there were a couple of areas highlighted which I knew would give me the skills that I needed to promote the shared services initiative here. I suppose I would say it was the strategic content that really attracted me, as opposed to the functional content. What did you like about the format? In some cases the modules included a script, which I found very useful as I could go through the slides again in my own time without the voiceover. Otherwise, I liked the way the areas were split into modules that I could cover in my own time. I spent about an hour a day on the course, generally in the evenings. Once I had gone through the entire course, I then repeated every module to reinforce the learning. I covered the course in about 6 to 8 months. Which sections of the course did you find most interesting or valuable? In terms of value or impact I would say, first, change management; then, negotiation skills; and finally, project management. All of those were skill-sets that I had touched on in the past but was not really proficient at. The course material was very detailed, and in some cases, especially project management, all I had to do, really, was fill in the gaps to tailor it to my own situation. So those segments were invaluable as I get the HR shared services off the ground. How have you incorporated the SSO Pro lessons into your day-to-day work? Can you give me an example of how you have implemented some of these learnings? The change management module was useful because it offered templates to help me tailor my communications to different stakeholder groups. I borrowed a lot from this module, which helped me put forward my arguments in a way that had more impact. Negotiation was also useful, because as you progress in your career being able to negotiate with stakeholders becomes increasingly important. We are not always fully prepared for this, and ‘learning by doing’ is not always an optimal solution, so I gained some good tips from this module. Are there any elements you would like us to expand on? I think people management is important and I think it may warrant its own module. Has this course made you a better leader? How? Yes, definitely. It helped me shore up my confidence in presenting my case to senior management, as well as take initiative in stakeholder discussions, so it has certainly supported me by building up the skills I need to lead this project. Launching a project is as challenging, if not more so, as managing an ongoing center. So the timing was perfect from that point of view. If you could choose anyone to present one of our modules, who would that be and what would you like them to share? I would choose Robin Williams and I would love him to talk to us about adaptability. He has taken on so many versatile roles and tends to display great patience in those roles, often soaking up a lot of negative energy. I'd like him to teach us how to integrate some of that patience and versatility into our roles. [eventpdf]

Arab Spring Highlights Location Risk: Shared Services Offers Solution

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