The Secret to Great HR Service Delivery

HR service delivery refers to the function within an organisation supporting employees who have questions and requests. A solution focusing on this kind of delivery model will provide support across each stage of the employee life cycle. 

For example, the traditional approach to HR service delivery might include the following:

• An employee has an issue with their most recent payslip. 

• They email their HR representative through a support email address. 

• The HR representative will find that email in time. 

• They will respond to the employee and log their response in a separate spreadsheet. 

• The employee will receive a response and either accept or respond in turn. 

• The HR representative eventually logs the entire conversation in another spreadsheet.  

Sounds a bit cumbersome, doesn’t it? Your employees would agree. This more traditional and antiquated model of HR service delivery used to be fit for purpose but is no longer meeting the needs of more modern applications and employees. 

Before we dive deeper, though, let’s pull back and talk about the wider purpose of this kind of service delivery in the workplace.

Compared to more inherently strategic functions like workforce planning or talent acquisition, HR service delivery is the first point of contact for employees who have questions or need assistance. While this doesn’t mean that HR service delivery can’t be strategic — more on that later — its first priority needs to be functional, usable and helpful for employees. 

That brings us to the core purpose of service delivery for HR professionals: helping employees quickly, in a centralised place and in a monitorable manner. 

With that purpose in mind, let’s talk about some of the benefits of really well-functioning HR service delivery…

Why might you want to look into an HR service delivery solution? Let’s map them out so you can see the influence this kind of solution can have on tangible business outcomes…

A strong HR service delivery solution will try to be as ‘self-service’ and time efficient as possible. This means that employees are able to find information relevant to their requests, in as few clicks and questions as possible. 

The opportunity to self-serve, in this case, means more time back for HR teams who can instead focus on more strategic work — the kind of work that drives businesses forward. No more monitoring email inboxes or maintaining endless spreadsheets. 

For HR service delivery to be successful, it needs to be integrated into the tools that employees use every day. Creating cumbersome processes where employees need to log in to multiple tools, simply to ask a question, isn’t sustainable for either party — it creates frustration and shakes the faith of employees in their HR service providers. 

So, your delivery model needs to be baked into the tools that employees already use. The most popular example would be communication tools like Slack or Microsoft Teams. If employees can submit requests, right from the tools they use, your team is meeting them on eye level and making their experience as seamless as possible. 

Personio integrates with a multitude of working tools. Check them out here.

Speaking of experiences, transparency is a critical benefit of any well-functioning HR service delivery tool. Essentially, this means that employees can be kept abreast of the status of their request, being able to check in to make sure it is being handled. 

And, at the same time, your team can update them easily and right from the channels they use. 

This kind of transparency leads to organization-wide trust from multiple stakeholders. Now, your HR team has the trust of everyone from line managers up to the C-suite. This will make it even easier to find HR’s seat at the executive table to weigh in with strategic insights and projects that add value to the business. 

When HR is empowered, the rest of the business benefits. If you lack a proper HR service delivery tool, your current HR professionals may be wasting their talents fiddling with draining processes to answer simple questions. 

With the right tool in place, you can give them the time to really dig into critical topics — everything from workforce satisfaction and engagement, to international hiring practices and even hybrid working models. Now, your HR team has time for what matters — while still delivering an amazing employee experience. 

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The best HR service delivery model and solution will check all of the following boxes: 

• It will centralise all of your employee requests into one place – ideally from one central dashboard (as part of your overall HRIS). 

• It will integrate with the tools your team uses to communicate – like Slack or MS Teams – to help employees reach out where it makes sense to them. 

• It won’t simply cover HR requests. Your solution should also encompass IT, legal or workplace matters of all kinds. 

• It will allow you to assign and even prioritise requests, track requests across teams and use automated and templated forms to gain the information you need. 

• It will offer an analytics function to report on the strength of your HR service delivery, so you can consistently iterate and make improvements. 

The fact remains: for HR service delivery within your organisation to be successful, you need a strong HRIS or HR software that can help:

• Centralise all your employee data (while keeping it safe). 

• Generate reports, organisation-wide, to keep business running smoothly. 

• Integrate with all your tools to keep your employees engaged. 

Personio can do it all, and then some! We offer an all-in-one HR software that can help your HR teams focus on efficiency and drive impact business-wide. Our HR service delivery solution, Personio Conversations, can help your team take their work to the next level. 

Enjoy this video to learn a bit more about Personio Conversations...

Get to know Personio Conversations in two minutes

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