Back to Front

[Susanne Jacobs]

How shifting the mindset of employees within support functions from reactive and admin driven to proactive and client facing will deliver significant value and returns on investment to your organisation.

Its all in the name
Back office, Support, Internal Ops are all common titles given to an organisations central infrastructure teams. The departments found within usually span Finance, HR, L&D, IT and Facilities. These are not just innocent departmental titles they are also descriptions that foster a mindset of lesser importance. They create a brand identity that puts these sections as subservient to the rest of the organisations functions. This image often soaks its way not only into the ‘money making’ departments of a company but also into the self-perceptions of those working in these overhead cost producing sections.

Their physical location is often tucked away either in a corner, or floor or separate office, away from the action of client facing work. Our Back office support teams become just that, sat in the back, never venturing out into the business and a convenient place to shift blame because of this created anonymity. How many times have you heard, its Finances fault or Another HR rule!? This distance further reinforces the reduction in the actual and perceived value that should, can and does come from the infrastructure teams. Support is also the first area that comes under scrutiny when cost cutting measures are required. Not that that is always incorrect but it can serve to underpin the feeling within of second class employees working in the firing line. In addition to all of this Reward can often be structured differently from the other functions, more often than not distributed from a smaller pot. So does this mean that these teams contribution is of less importance?

The thing is that the departments grouped together within these de-motivating titles are actually fundamental to business success. If structured correctly they are able drive the strategic agenda supplying vital information and proactive crucial support to their internal clients to ensure progression. They are closer to the business workings than anyone else and as a result need to be developed and utilised to optimise their strategic output.

Why not call them the Strategic Foundation Function?

Shift the mindset
The trouble is however, that so often the mindset of those working within the supporting functions is that they do not see themselves as client facing and work reactively driven by historical administrative tasks that may not be adding business value. Changing this view and turning their working direction to face their internal customers with a strategy of proactive value added output that directly supports business progression is a must. HR have gone someway towards this goal by introducing the title Business Partner, but it is nomenclature that is not used consistently in terms of role and is often not communicated properly to stakeholders to explain and manage the expectations of this strategic position.
Operational excellence starts with the mindsets of these employees and will permeate through to challenging team structure, roles, processes, systems and procedures. The question asked in the quest for this excellence should be ‘Does it add value’? If not, and if not required due to legislation or regulation then disregard it or change it so it does. Time should instead be focused on what the organisation needs in order to progress in line with its strategy. I have not come across an internal operations department yet that cannot improve on its efficiency and value through this customer focused mindset shift. The next stage in improvement, built around this new client value driven purpose leads naturally on to make the needed changes, from automating processes, optimising the functionality within existing systems, bringing in new technology, improving reporting to questioning procedures and restructuring team makeup in order to deliver significant returns on investment.

Make the change
Taking employees within the support functions through this reactive to proactive focus change needs careful support through coaching and communication. Listening to their ideas, allowing them to own the changes and interact with all stakeholders will help them understand the benefit to the business and give them a new meaning and purpose to their roles. Often it means removing tasks and routines that they have done for a long time, leaving them with a void which simply can’t be filled with an instruction to be client facing. Whether the final solution is a shared service centre, a number of outsourcing options or removing redundant tasks it can lead to reduced headcount. Should this be the result, having included the teams throughout will give them rationality for the ultimate decision and support a smooth transition.

Talent management, leadership development, succession planning and an environment for high performance should be brought to the central teams as they would across the rest of the Firm. Business exposure for these employees is important to ensure these teams understand the business direction and the needs of their clients in order to deliver service excellence. Working cross functionally within the centre is required to create a cohesive joined up offering which is so important for effective operations. Value and reward the output as it should be in direct contribution to business progression.
Communicate throughout the organisation the importance and support of the services provided by the central teams and exactly how they add value. Build the brand of the equal business contributor.

Taking this direction will ultimately enhance employee engagement, increasing productivity, innovation and operational efficiency and effectiveness. It will create a hub of service excellence driven by people who are committed to the overall business success and who understand how they can contribute directly to make it happen. Resultant cost reduction and value added to the business by raising the internal operations teams to true and equal partners can be huge. So its not all about the prescriptive assumption that outsourcing or short term cost cutting is the only way to go. Instead see what you can do with what you have first and make the right decisions to push your business ahead through Operational Excellence.