Yesterday I came upon some interesting data from the HR Director Summit in UK this spring, 2015. One item of interest was a survey among the leading & participating HR professionals related to Business Priorities in HR over the next 12-18 months:

Being fully engaged in Business Value from HR transformation & Outsourcing at Zalaris, I am trying to understand what the relatively “low business priority of transactional HR, such as payroll and BPO/SSC” really mean?

I know from experience it does not mean that the business has outsourced HR, yet. They have not, which is the point, despite  transactional HR not adding any business value, from a business modelling perspective. It’s very important, yes, but it does not add business value, unless it’s how you make money, like Zalaris.

The HR BPO market is in its early stages still which is fascinating given so many other things on HRs desk today. With reference to other reports on business expectations on HR such as the 2015 Deloitte HCM Trend Report, it can only mean that it is less relevant to the point of being irrelevant than anything else on this list (strategic HR).

So why keep something irrelevant that is key enabler for strategic HR?

What do you think? Why does companies still insist on keeping the battle of compliance reporting in-house?

Sven Hultin

Business Development Director @ Zalaris