As organizations look to combat changing global economic conditions, Shared Service Centers are continuing to grow in popularity. However, the shared services model can pose significant challenges to attracting and retaining the right talent.
“We’re seeing demand increasing for multi-lingual, tech-savvy, and strategically minded employees,” says Matt Foster, who leads our Global SSC recruitment division.
In fact, in a 2024 survey by Deloitte, 73% of respondents expected to increase investment in shared services over the next year.
Whether you’re in the early stages of setting up your first Shared Service Center or already have a successful shared services model in operation, there are some key considerations organizations should be aware of to ensure a pain-free hiring process and realize those all-important cost savings.
Tackling volume hiring challenges
The growing number of Shared Service Centers in key hubs around the world means that businesses are increasingly competing for the same pool of skilled professionals.
If we look at Deloitte’s research and compare this to our clients’ requirements, we can see that India, Poland, and Mexico are the top three locations with the largest number of Shared Service Centers, followed by the USA. Malaysia is a new entrant to the top five, followed closely by China.
Finding the right mix of technical expertise and soft skills is not easy. When you take into consideration that most organizations are looking to scale headcount at a significant rate, you’ll most likely require extensive candidate shortlists for each role. This is where we see organizations fail to meet their hiring targets and costs increase, as roles are left unfilled.
Partnering with a Shared Service recruitment specialist speeds up the process and ensures you have the time to focus on strategic challenges. Most organizations we speak to don’t have the bandwidth to treat their Shared Services recruitment as a dedicated project, or they have tried and failed to make it work. The key success factor is having access to a recruitment team that can commit to sourcing the volume of candidates needed to fill your roles.
“At EMEA Recruitment, we’ve recognized the global war for talent impacting Shared Service Centers,” explains Matt Foster, Associate Director in our Global SSC division. “We have a dedicated team focused on these volume recruitment projects, who have existing networks of skilled professionals ready for businesses to tap into, speeding up the set-up and success of your SSC.”
Working with multiple agencies may not increase your reach
Shared Service Centers will often go through key restructuring periods, such as a digital transformation or process improvements. In these situations, you may have an immediate need for large volumes of candidates, as well as evolving skills requirements.
At this point, many organizations reach out to multiple recruitment agencies to increase their outreach.
However, you need a strong relationship with one provider who can truly understand your strategy and the candidate profile required to make the best hiring decisions. Although finding the right skills is important, chemistry is essential. Working with one dedicated partner ensures they understand your people and culture.
At the same time, it can be difficult from an internal perspective to manage multiple agency relationships.
Combat retention issues
High employee turnover impacts service continuity and efficiency in any business, but Shared Service Centers are more frequently affected by the challenges of retaining top talent.
Shared Service Centers are sometimes viewed as cost centers, rather than strategic functions. This can lead some employees to feel disconnected from the organization’s core business and as though their career growth is limited.
If the Shared Service Center is geographically or culturally distanced from the company’s headquarters, teams may also feel isolated from the broader organizational culture.
In some cases, a recruitment agency focuses on filling the most straightforward roles first to make a good impression, but this may cause delays for more tricky vacancies – sometimes, it results in some roles not being filled at all.
“Our approach is to headhunt for every role, so that we find the right fit for the organization,” says Matt. “We find new candidates for each role to ensure we make the best fit for the whole team, which improves retention rates.”
If you’re looking for a Shared Service Center recruitment specialist, get in touch with Matt: [email protected]
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