• 25% agreed they regularly source talent from non-HR backgrounds
• In the past 12 months, 59% of new joiners were from a Customer Service background, followed by Operations at 57%
• Despite that, the majority of HRSS leaders (75%) are looking mostly within HR for talent

HR qualifications are not a requirement when it comes to hiring for an HR adviser role, according to 73% HR Shared Services (HRSS) leaders in some of the largest global organisations.

In fact, 25% have looked beyond the standard HR pool in the past 12 months when sourcing new talent, with over half of new joiners coming from a Customer Services (59%) or Operations (57%) background.

The research of senior, strategic leaders of 44 global businesses, 82% of which employ up to 50,000 people, was conducted by LACE Partners, an HR consultancy supporting major employers with HR transformation, technology advisory, change and adoption.

Emma Leonis-Hughes, Executive Client Director, HR Transformation at LACE Partners, said:

“It’s interesting how being customer-centric and adapting customer service skills has become a common theme for many HRSS leaders.

“For example, our research also found the top three skills HRSS leaders require in 2022 – following on from continuous improvement (91%), 68% stated that customer service is essential to improve the employee and manager experience, whilst data interpretation and analytics was a priority for 57% to support digitisation and automation. As HR Shared Services teams look at developing people in their teams that can act with more of an analytical rather than transactional mindset, this shifting profile of person required in a successful HR Shared Services Team will become more and more prevalent we believe.”

LACE’s research also found the most important behaviours required from HRSS teams. By far the highest response was a customer-first mindset, with 77% of respondents agreeing. Resilience, being a trusted adviser and big picture thinking are also important mindsets, with 55%, 52% and 45% rating these as essential.

Leonis-Hughes added:

“Whilst HR qualifications are not a prerequisite for HR Shared Services jobs, there’s still a tendency to look within HR for talent, with 75% of leaders confirming it. Given that only 14% of organisations believe they need to change their talent sourcing strategies, it begs the question – are we, as an HR profession, being bold enough? Time will tell.”