and lower costs. So how do you get different departments to look for ways to organise their services together?
Firstly, agree on the end game – where service areas overlap, there is the opportunity to improve service quality and lower costs. Then recognise and embrace the synergetic effect: expertise is better shared. Finally, focus collaboration on three chronological phases beginning with the adoption of a shared service management tool, then a shared service desk and finally agreeing shared processes.
Phase 1: A shared service management tool improves the information stream and reduces license and management costs.
Phase 2: A shared service desk becomes the single point of contact for employees. Service desk operators from all departments work and share knowledge together. Achieving Phase 2 leads to a significant improvement in the service quality for employees and reduces costs for the organisation resulting from sharing resources at the service desk. However, service quality can still vary as individual departments maintain their own work processes and response times to fulfil requests.
Phase 3: Shared processes through departments working together to identify overlaps and agree a set of shared processes and procedures for servicing employees.
You can only complete Phase 3 with the right ambition. Phases 1 and 2 quickly deliver tangible improvements in cost and service quality. A continued focus on cutting costs will not help you to progress past Step 2. Improving service quality must be the driving ambition.
The smooth out-of-the-box experience would make anyone wonder why it can't always be like this? And employees are consumers too.
Employees don’t want to feel frustrated, embarrassed, on the back foot because they can’t get on with their job. They want a “Google” like experience that is familiar to navigate and that will answer all their questions, have all the forms and make them feel like they belong. There’s an important roll-on effect too, as new employees would start with a positive experience and an optimistic impression about their employer!
One service desk to rule them all
New intranet technology and self-service portals do help employees get answers regardless of which department helps them. But some departments are going a step further and working together more closely under the banner of Enterprise Service Management.
Getting departments to work together on service arrangements has its challenges. For years, each department has worked to their own strategies and frameworks, professional standards and methodologies. Departmental experience and expertise still need to grow and be respected. But such an inward-looking focus does not cut it any longer when it comes to service excellence. The key is to work together and organise services to improve them in the places where the service provision genuinely overlaps.
Enterprise service management
The key to success is different departments working together to improve service quality