LESSONS ON LEADERSHIP: Simon Brown speaks with Helen Bingham, HR SSO Lead at Home Retail Group

In this first of a series of interviews with Shared Services Leaders, Simon Brown asks Helen Bingham, Head of HR Shared Services at Home Retail Group, some searching questions about her career to date. Simon: How did you first get started in Shared Services, Helen, and what did you do before? Helen: I started in Shared Services back in 2009, when the Home Retail Group transformed their HR function, adopting the classic Ulrich model and creating a shared services delivery centre. Prior to this I was working on an HR project within the Homebase side of the business, as a contractor, and so when I was asked to move across to set up the Shared Services Centre, it was a case of right time, right place. My experience prior to Home Retail Group had been within a variety of organisations stretching from retail, to IT, to Financial Services, to the Automotive industry … but all had been in a HR capacity. I had managed some significant transformation projects over a number of years and together with a solid HR generalist background, this stood me in good stead for my next new venture! Simon: So what do you think are the most important characteristics for a shared services leader? How might these differ in Shared Services organisations versus traditional functions? Helen: As with all leadership roles in a changing environment, resilience is key. At times it can be very hard. I think success comes down to four key things - having a great team around you, being able to manage multiple projects, being aligned to the HR strategy, and giving yourself time to learn from others. Let me cover each of these points in turn: Great team: Critical to success is to ensure you have the best team possible around you. It is very easy to get sucked into detail in Shared Services so you need people in your team who recognise what needs to be done and who get on and do it. Multiple projects: Due to the amount of change that feeds through Shared Services Centres, experience of managing multiple projects, or at least being part of them, would be an advantage. Planning, organising and execution skills are all very valuable. Aligned to strategy: As a leader of a captive service delivery centre, it is critical that the in-house service deliverables are aligned to HR strategy as well as key business strategic goals. When they are mismatched it is common for questions to be asked about the overall value of the Shared Services function and perceptions around effectiveness can plummet. Understanding how the business works, fostering relationships, managing stakeholders and being able to influence the decision makers are all key attributes of an effective leader. Networking: I see this as a key activity. There is so much to learn from other people and other organisations, and keeping abreast of technology, services, best practice, trends etc, all helps to ensure effective, efficient delivery. Is there such a thing as a traditional HR function today? I can’t remember the last time I came across one. Some SME organisations that don’t have the budget to invest in technology may still have HR roles that have a combined administration, policy and compliance bias but even so, the need to be forward thinking and to demonstrate commercial acumen will still be required. Simon: Good points. So far what have been the biggest challenges you’ve faced in your Shared Services career, and how did you overcome them? Helen: Without a doubt – technology and budgets! And unfortunately that nut is not yet cracked! It is very much a work in progress. The challenge is quite simple: How do you deliver streamlined, efficient, accurate tools and services which colleagues want to use while at the same time working within a tightly controlled budget? The answer is…with great difficulty. The approach I take is very much a step-by-step one. Building an overall solution through a number of smaller initiatives enables any investment to be proven and the big picture begins to take shape and become visible. At the same time, I have to keep looking for the bigger opportunities that will enable us to make major transformational change within Home Retail Group. Part of my role is to balance these small steps with the high impact changes that will prepare Home Retail Group for the future. Simon: And what are the biggest achievements of your career? What are you most proud of? Helen: Well, I’m proud of many things over the years – it’s all been huge fun but at the moment, I am most proud of my team and what we have achieved together. It’s been a roller coaster journey over the last five years but when I look back to where we were and compare it to where we are now, it is quite incredible. We’ve introduced a new payroll system for 30,000 employees, introduced self-service tools, implemented an online benefits platform, digitalised our performance and pay tools, we were early adopters of Real Time Information and we were one of the first employers to go live with Pension Auto Enrolment. All of that was achieved in a three-year window. It’s been a blast…and I mean that! Simon: Sounds great! What about metrics and data – how do you measure the effectiveness of your Services? How do you measure your value to the business? Helen: Analytics is a hot topic. As you would expect, we have SLAs in place in our key delivery areas, and these are monitored regularly, but a key priority is to provide meaningful people data and analytics to our HR Business Partners, particularly around talent metrics. We use a tool called OrgVue to display our data in user friendly, easily accessible graphs, data sets and dashboards and we are currently developing this to be our prime source of data and analytics to the business. It seems to be quite an immature area generally across many businesses but there is an increasing need, almost urgency, to start providing rich people data and analytics. I don’t mean the traditional data around absence, labour turnover, headcount etc – these are still important but our business leaders want to know about their people, their movements, their future potential etc. So: Who are the critical people? What are the critical roles? Where are the successors coming from? How do we get them ready? What is the conversion rate of successors to critical roles? Who are the blockers to change? What’s our time-to-hire in critical roles? These are just some of the questions we are asked regularly. We recognise that a one-size-fits-all approach to managing talent is no longer effective so understanding more about different employee segments and their needs and wants will drive better, faster decision making in the areas of resourcing, retention, reward and development. My ability to deliver in these types of areas is how the business measures the value of Shared Services. In other words: we have a business need, now let’s align our services and our deliverables. It’s as simple and as complex as that. Simon: Yes, exactly! If you were starting out all over again, what would you do differently this time around? Helen: From a personal perspective I would have gone travelling around the world and would really like to have worked on a long-term overseas charity project. That must be so rewarding. These opportunities still exist, though, so I may just have to do them at the end of my career rather than at the beginning! On reflection, from a career perspective, I would have liked to (and would have benefited from) spend time either in sales or marketing role and/or a finance role. Early on in my career this would have been hugely beneficial to my HR roles and would have given me a real commercial advantage when liaising with business leaders. You learn to be commercial over the years but to have had this under my belt early on would have been useful. Simon: Ok, so what would you do if you didn’t work in Shared Services? Helen: I would like to be a wine buyer. I’d like to travel around specific wine regions in France, tasting and selecting wines for the drinks business in the UK. A perfect job. Simon: I agree! So what do you do outside of work? Helen: Funnily enough, I enjoy learning all about French wine! And tasting it too, of course. I also like watching most sports. I am more of an armchair sportsman than an active one, but do like to play tennis in the summer and take time out to go walking in the countryside and up hills (hills not mountains!) when I can. Skiing has been a long-time favourite holiday for my husband and me, and to be honest, I also just like pottering around the house, cooking, entertaining, gardening and generally just relaxing. Simon: What advice would you give to someone wanting to progress their career through Shared Services? What should they be focussing on? Helen: That is an interesting question. Do people see Shared Services as an intentional career choice? In reality, those that have worked in Shared Services for a number of years probably do so because of an organisational re-structure. However, the opportunities within an HR Shared Services function are plentiful and exciting and I do believe it is really important that organisations promote it as such. For example, in my function we have some great opportunities for those in the early stages of their HR careers as they can very quickly learn the core HR basics at Tier 1 of the service delivery model. More specialist skills are required at Tier 2, particularly in the area of employee relations. For those who enjoy working with systems and data, there are opportunities to become real experts – and from a management perspective, the roles are big, influential leadership roles, which can sometimes be hard to come by in HR. The ability to manage projects and be exposed to programme management, particularly in the area of transformation and change, is recognised as a key HR attribute and Shared Services environments provide all these opportunities. So in summary, I’m not sure people actively choose a career in Shared Services but if you want to develop a broad range of experiences, knowledge and skills; work in a fast paced, ever changing environment; and accept true accountability for your decisions and actions; there is no better place to be! Simon: Fully agree! What has been your worst (most embarrassing) moment in Shared Services? Helen: At the very early stages of setting up the Shared Services function I had the embarrassing experience of having a senior director call me to say that there was something wrong with his pay. He had only received £1.28 for that month! It was a tumbleweed moment! I realised then how bad a shape the payroll function was in and why transformation was so urgently needed! The rest is history. Simon: What do you think of the brand name "Shared Services"? Any good alternatives? Helen: I think Shared Services is a bit dated now and I’m not sure people really know what it means. I like functions, departments, job titles or any naming conventions to reflect what they actually do or mean. Personally, I like Service Delivery Centre. It is all about service and delivery so this sums it up nicely. It does what is says on the tin. Simon: Another question: to outsource or not to outsource – what are the key factors to consider? Helen: The key question is what do you want to achieve? What is your aim? Only by knowing this can you make the right decision. It will depend on your HRIS strategy, business strategy, required service delivery and of course, your budget. Simon: Fair comment. And finally, Helen, where do you go from here as a shared services leader? What is next? Helen: For me, it’s always about the challenge and knowing that I make a difference. That’s what gets me out of bed every morning. The road ahead in Home Retail Group looks extremely exciting and there is so much more to be achieved in terms of HR service delivery, particularly around exploiting technology. The ambition is to ensure HR Shared Services becomes a strategic asset, leading the way in terms of delivery standards, driving innovative solutions, leading and supporting change and being at the forefront of developments in the sector – it’s a great place to be at the moment! Simon: Helen, it’s been a pleasure talking with you. Thank you! [inlinead]

LESSONS ON LEADERSHIP: Simon Brown speaks with Helen Bingham, HR SSO Lead at Home Retail Group

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LESSONS ON LEADERSHIP: Simon Brown speaks with Helen Bingham, HR SSO Lead at Home Retail Group

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