This factsheet was last updated in September 2011.
Shared service centres provide corporate services that are required across an organisation (or sometimes, across several partner organisations), in areas such as finance, IT or HR, from a centralised or single unit.
Two distinctive features of HR shared service centres (also known as HR service centres) are:
they offer a common service provision of routine HR administration and, sometimes, additional more complex HR services
they are service-focused, enabling the customers of the shared service to specify the level and nature of the service.
An HR shared service centre would typically provide routine administration of HR processes such as payroll, recruitment administration and/or training procurement, although the exact nature of the services will vary from one employer to another. In some organisations, a centre might provide services ranging right through from lower-level administrative duties to supplying specialist HR information and advice on HR policy and practice.