Jane Williams, Head of Talent Management and Learning at Siemens IT Solutions and Services discusses the opening up of opportunities and career progression for individuals part of IT or business process outsourcing agreements.
The business of managing and motivating talent in any organisation is an important element to get the best out of individuals and gain a high performance culture. Within the outsourcing arena, many thousands of employees can transfer into an organisation upon signature of a contract. This influx presents challenges of retention, development and motivation of the individual at a time of much change, yet at the same time it is essential to gain employee commitment and engagement for the good of the new contractual relationship.
A focus on people management as a core element of the new outsourcing agreement is crucial to hit the ground running. Professional outsourcing suppliers offer dedicated HR and talent management teams to support effective people transfer and cultural integration of new transferring employees. This is far more than a focus on pay and benefits, but a dedicated approach to knowledge development and career progression through training and development initiatives and more personally tailored coaching and mentoring schemes.
Retaining the people at the heart of organisations
The spectrum of people transferring over to an outsourcing supplier from an originating organisation such as broadcaster, bank or local council can range from back office administration roles through to high level management positions. Each person has an individual need that has to be supported and enhanced. Siemens IT Solutions and Services boasts a ‘practice what it preaches’ philosophy and is proud that 55% of its employees have TUPE transferred from another organisation. Indeed the Managing Director himself was formally part of TUPE transfer.
Encouraging the sharing of knowledge and experience between peers
Where outsourcing agreements see large numbers of people transferring over to an outsourcing supplier but remain on an original site, for example a call or data centre, the challenge of talent management is further exaggerated. Geographical spread and cultures are diverse so positive and mobile talent management initiatives need to be proactively rolled out. This includes internal communication programmes, seminar session, team briefs and social events.
The moment people transfer into Siemens, they are part of a much large community of local, national and sometimes global peers across diverse industry sectors. The alignment of transferring employees to skills practices boosts the sharing of best practice, championing of knowledge and development of careers. For example, a desktop manager within a finance company has the potential to cross pollinate ideas and experiences with a colleague in a public sector organisation. At the same time, career progression is enhanced with greater opportunities available for upwards or horizontal migration.
A positive example of talent transfer in business process outsourcing
National Savings and Investments (NS&I) and Siemens IT Solutions and Services are an example of partnership between government and the private sector, which has been very successful, demonstrated in a long term contract.
NS&I is one of the most deeply-rooted and historically significant financial institutions in the country. It started life as the Post Office Savings Bank and was originally established to encourage people to save by giving them an absolutely secure, easily accessible home for their money, backed by the credibility of the UK Government. In more recent times its strategic objective has been to provide cost effective funding for the Treasury. It does this by making funds available from the retail market at a lower cost than the Treasury could achieve by borrowing from the wholesale market, resulting in a saving for the UK taxpayer.
Back in the 1990s, NS&I needed to take radical steps to get the business on track, which included finding a partner who could deliver an operational business and drive a change programme efficiently and effectively. This would leave the NS&I management team free to concentrate on its core business, the business of competing in a financial services marketplace.
The entire NS&I operations department was outsourced, with more than 4100 staff joining Siemens under TUPE regulations. Once this transfer had taken place, around 130 staff remained keeping responsibility for executive leadership, strategy, product design and pricing, marketing, relationship and contract management and other core management tasks. The Siemens account director is an integral, permanent member of the NS&I executive management board - this means that conscious efforts are made on both sides to set strategy, develop action plans and resolve issues together, as partners rather than through the normal client/supplier relationship. This shared vision has proved to be the key to long term success.
Since 1999, funds under management at NS&I have increased significantly, employee productivity has improved by over 400% and customer response times were slashed from 11 to three days. A shared partner vision has developed the relationship into much more than an outsourcing deal and the key to success has been attributed to the management of people and a stronger customer focus, all underpinned by technology change.
Talent management as the hinge for operational success
The NS&I case example highlights that with the right processes, new innovations, leadership and management of people, productivity gains are assured. Other operational benefits that can be achieved by looking after your ‘people power’ are improved margins, extended market share and even survival in a competitive environment.
Talent management is certainly not the ‘soft’ side of outsourcing, but should be seen as one of the hinges to operational and individual employee success.
www.siemens.co.uk/it-solutions
Siemens IT Solutions and Services is a proven provider of IT and business process outsourcing services to the public sector. Clients include National Savings & Investments (NS&I) VOSA, the UKBA, the Office for National Statistics and Welsh Assembly Government.
