PeopleServices - Final Quarter Review

Report: 5
Date: 15 December 2011
By: Director of Resources on behalf of the Commissioner

Summary

This report provides an overview of the PeopleServices delivery model since its implementation in November 2010, highlighting challenges, successes and next steps.

A. Recommendations

That members note the report.

B. Supporting information

Implementation of PeopleServices

1. In November 2010, the THR Programme reached a position to allow an implementation plan to be agreed and acted upon, with a new HR delivery model and structure - PeopleServices - launched. At that stage, the Strategy Board acknowledged that there was an outstanding functionality and defect list, agreed that these would be included in the Post Go Live plan to be delivered within the first three months. Accordingly, Management Board considered the wider issues of programme costs, ongoing service delivery problems, business expectations, potential litigation with suppliers and the financial ceiling placed by the MPA, endorsing the implementation approach.

2. As such, the Programme went live with around 80% functionality, with a high level of system and telephony instability during the initial months of implementation. This resulted in problems in delivering an effective service, during a period when individuals would inevitably be learning new ways of working. From this problematic start, it has been difficult to recover the reputation of the PeopleServices brand and whilst significant improvements have been made, arguably, this reputational remains the case.

3. Since those early weeks, the technical issues have now stabilised, with the system becoming more resilient but there are still some short periods of unplanned downtime, which whilst less frequent, still impact on overall confidence in the delivery model.

4. There is specific organisational learning on how the launch of this new service delivery model was communicated across the organisation in the context of not having full functionality, whilst also wishing to promote new ways of working. Clearly, there was a need to ensure that business users were aware of the new service delivery model and with this being such a significant change programme, seeking to alter the way services are delivered.

5. A business transition stage for the first 6 months was established and contained within programme costs, with the aim of supporting the move to business as usual. This was extended until the end of July 2011 and by October 2011, the Strategy Board approved the formal closure of the THR Programme, with the exception of overseeing the delivery of the upgrade to Genesys telephony system.

The Delivery Model

6. In terms of delivering a different HR service, the business case was built upon four key principles:

• Easy access to HR information, negating the need to contact HR staff, with line managers and staff becoming more self reliant
• The introduction of self service to reduce bureaucracy and the overall cost of processing HR transactions.
• HR advice and support available on a 24/7 basis to meet the needs of an operational police service.
• The provision of ‘added value’ strategic HR to focus on future business needs and priorities.

7. Accordingly, a new delivery model was designed to adopt the above principles and established the four key elements of how services would be delivered. The premise of the delivery model was to make information more easily found through the new HR intranet site (PeoplePages), for employees and managers to use technology to manage HR processes (MyHR self service), that HR support is provided by experienced staff 24/7 (PeopleSupport) and that the future strategic needs are supported through the introduction of HR business partnering (PeoplePartners).

Headcount Savings

8. At the time of the original scoping for the THR business case in December 2005, the MPS had 966 staff (44 of which were police officers) employed in the HR function (excluding training). This translated to a ratio of 1 HR member of staff to every 49 employees, well in excess of the public sector median.

9. By September 2011, the HR to staff ratio stood at 1:96, with a headcount of 585, a reduction of around 40%.

PeopleServices Structure

10. At the time of launch, a transition arrangement was made that augmented the PeopleServices senior management structure, allowing new responsibilities to be understood and embedded. At that stage, an additional Director managed the overall transition arrangements and also took line management responsibility for the new areas of PeopleSupport Advisory Centre (and HR technology services) and the PeopleSupport Operational Support to begin the process of developing new ways of working before reaching a sufficiently mature state to hand over as ‘business as usual’.

11. In May 2011, responsibility for PeopleServices was assumed by the Director of Resources, which allowed for a streamlined management structure to be put into place. As part of that re-structuring, the senior management headcount was reduced by two posts and activities were better aligned to ensure that business needs could be met. To manage the transition in a structured and phased way, the PeopleSupport Operational teams were aligned to the Director of HR professional services in August and the Director of HR operations will assume control of the PeopleSupport Advisory Centre in January 2012.

Service Delivery

12. During the first year of operation there have been a number of challenges, both within the HR community, as new ways of working had to be learnt, developed and understood and also for business users to become familiar with the new access routes to HR and to become more confident in the use of self service. This was to be expected for a change programme of this scale but the early reputational issues has made this a more difficult and complex task.

13. For the purpose of this paper a summary of the key service delivery issues is provided and ought to be considered in the context that regular reports have been provided to Management Board, that a review of the initial end-user experience was undertaken and that a PeopleServices Confidence and Satisfaction board has already been established.

14. PeoplePages - consistently this specific element of the operating model receives very favourable feedback, which is vitally important to help drive down running costs, whilst ensuring that employees and managers become more self reliant in accessing HR information for themselves. The former operating model saw a high dependency on devolved HR practitioners to provide this type of service, therefore the business imperative is to ensure that this intranet site remains contemporary, accurate and continues to meet customer needs.

15. MyHR Self-service - this was the expected area of greatest resistance and has proved to be biggest areas of concern in terms of establishing this as a new business area. The chosen application (Oracle) is an industry standard HR system, with other users of this type of product ranging from Price Waterhouse Coopers to Cheshire Council. It offers good practice in managing HR processes, incorporating much improved governance arrangements, with more transparency in HR transactions than previous experienced, however, it in some aspects it is not user friendly.

16. For the business benefits to be fully realised it will require continued management commitment to obtain the required cultural shift and business ‘buy-in’, firstly in the adoption of shared services but also in becoming more reliant on the use of technology to undertake line management activities.

17. In that context the intranet and self service usage over the first 12 months are encouraging, whilst also acknowledging that typically this type of change programme takes 2-3 years to become established within organisations. The following table shows usage of the system:

The figures above are for individual number of visits to each respective site and do not represent unique visitors.

18. Data Quality - personal information was previously more restricted and less transparent to the employee, with MetHR often seen as the receptacle for information at the end of the process rather than data compliance forming part of the business process. In that context, the information held has historically been poor, with a reliance on local spreadsheets and record-keeping. The PeopleServices model presents the MPS with an opportunity to have greater confidence in data quality as we move away from local spreadsheets and systems.

19. In the early weeks, there were a number of valid complaints from staff that information held on them was not accurate but this is becoming less prevalent as more and more users have accessed their personal records and changes made. The areas that have required significant remedial action has been around line management hierarchies (which drive many of the technology based processes), workforce position codes and recuperative duties data. In that respect, the management information provided to managers has not been to the level expected but this position has shown a gradually improving trend.

20. Call Answering times - the new PeopleSupport Advisory Centre was established as an integral part of the delivery model. During the initial few weeks there is an acknowledgement that there was a problem with some users experiencing excessive delays. This was due to range of reasons, including the instability of the I.T. infrastructure to HR staff being less familiar with their specific roles, however, there has been a 75% improvement in the average call waiting times during this calendar year. See table below:

21. Responsiveness from PeopleSupport teams - a key element for ongoing success is to ensure that the new delivery model offers a more customer focused service. There are several small programmes of work that have already been undertaken to ensure that this customer ethos is maintained. Firstly, a development programme for HR staff has been delivered, with the aim to improve technical skills but also to understand process management and delivery form an end-user perspective. Secondly, each Expert Services team within PeopleSupport has developed a continuous improvement plan to drive a consistency and transparency in the delivery of service. Thirdly, a review of call escalation has been undertaken to identify gaps, common themes and areas that require addressing.

Remaining Functionality - Enhanced Telephony

22. To enhance the management of call demand and to improve the routing of calls to the PeopleSupport Advisory Centre, the telephone system - Genesys - an upgrade is planned for November. This updated functionality will provide an improved management framework, in both real-time and also for historical reporting to assist in managing callers to the Advisory Centre. For the customers, they will experience a more streamlined routing system to direct their calls using an Integrated Voice Recognition system (IVR) depending upon the type of support they require, for example sickness reporting.

23. This final element of functionality has proved problematic, with an unsuccessful cutover attempt in October but a phased approach, whilst a technical fix is secured from third party suppliers has been agreed and planned for implementation at the end of November.

Next Steps - themes

24. As stated previously, it is fully acknowledged that the complete ‘transformation’ of HR and that the business change process is ongoing. The cultural resistance and valid feedback on gaps in delivery, when combined demonstrate that there are areas that need to be enhanced.

25. The direct feedback mechanisms already in place has allowed the PeopleServices SMT to identify the main themes that need to be addressed. In headline detail these include:

1. Developing the skills and knowledge of HR practitioners for them to become even more customer focused
2. Threading customer satisfaction into business processes and adopting a review of key activities to ensure that business needs are being met.
3. Providing greater support to employees and front-line supervisors to develop their confidence in the use of Self Service.
4. Ensuring that HR information is accessible and jargon free.
5. Development of the PeopleServices ‘brand’ through a proactive communication plan to promote successes.
6. Review of the HR Business Partnerships team, based upon business needs and recognising the need for HR to provide added value support to SMTs
7. Improving in the range of consistent management information provided to line managers
   

C. Other organisational and community implications

Equality and Diversity Impact

1. There are no equality and diversity implications arising from this report.

Consideration of Met Forward

2. The scale of business change has been significant, coupled with recognition that it takes time for these changes to be embedded into new ways of working. Much of the original business case aims have been achieved, for example delivery of a more cost effective delivery model, reduced headcount, a more competitive headcount ratio when benchmarked against industry standards and that the early weeks of technical problems have largely been overcome.

Financial Implications

3. There are no direct financial implications arising from this report. The People Services delivery model will achieve £15m savings in a full year. Any costs associated with implementing next steps will be met from within existing budgets.

Legal Implications

4. There are no direct legal implications arising from this report, which is to note only.

Environmental Implications

5. There are no environmental implications arising from this report.

Risk (including Health and Safety) Implications

6. Typically, to embed a HR shared service model into an organisation, takes around two to three years to be accepted. The reputational issues of the THR Programme, its delays in implementation, coupled with the early technical and delivery problems has made the required cultural shift more difficult. The fundamental issue is whether the shared service model, based upon the concept of self-service and improved access to HR information through technology meets business needs.

7. The headcount reduction within HR has achieved sizeable savings, preserving front-line resources but this will require ongoing commitment from the PeopleServices team to streamline processes with the end-user in mind. From senior stakeholders, an assessment on the correct delivery model for the MPS in the current financial climate is a consideration that may alter the current direction of travel.

8. Should the MPS embark on continued delivery through the shared services concept, the cultural resistance to change, use of technology for self-service and less ‘localism’ needs to be considered.

D. Background papers

None

E. Contact details

Report author: Doug Fuller, MPS

For more information contact:

MPA general: 020 7202 0202
Media enquiries: 020 7202 0217/18

Send an e-mail linking to this page

Feedback