Empowering HR Shared Services with an Experience‑First Strategy

HR Shared Services (HRSS) has long been viewed as a transaction factory – a centralized hub focused on efficiency, cost reduction, and processing high volumes of HR tasks.

In the early days, many shared services centers achieved significant cost savings, but often at the expense of employee experience (Segal). Employees were shuffled through impersonal ticketing systems and offshore call centers that, while efficient, left them frustrated.

This outdated assumption – that efficiency must come at the cost of experience – no longer holds true.

Today’s leading HR organizations are proving that you can cut costs and improve service quality at the same time. In fact, an experience-first approach in HRSS is quickly becoming the new mandate for HR leaders in the “Experience Age,” where we design and deliver experiences, not just processes.

Earlier, we discussed how to balance efficiency with experience in HR operating models.

Now, we take a deep dive into applying an experience-first strategy specifically to HR Shared Services.

We’ll explore how HRSS can evolve beyond transactional efficiency to actively drive better employee satisfaction without losing the operational discipline that keeps HR services running like clockwork.

Along the way, we’ll share practical advice, metrics, and real-world examples to help you transform your HRSS from a cost-center into an employee experience engine.

Chapters

• From transactional to experiential: The new mandate for HR shared services
• Why experience matters more than ever in HRSS
• The three pillars of an experience-first HR shared service
• Metrics that matter: How to track experience (without losing efficiency metrics)
• Empowering your HRSS team to succeed (while staying efficient)
• Conclusion: A bold new role for HR shared services 

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From Transactional to Experiential: The New Mandate for HR Shared Services

HR Shared Services 1.0 was all about centralization and standardization: consolidating HR processes into one hub to eliminate redundancy, ensure compliance, and reduce labor costs.

And it worked: nearly 80% of organizations that implemented HRSS increased process efficiency and 88% reduced costs, according to industry research.

But this success sometimes came with a reputational hit: early HRSS models were often perceived as bureaucratic and impersonal, leading business leaders and employees to mistrust them for anything beyond basic transactions (Bain & Company).

The result?

HRSS stayed confined to low-value tasks, while more strategic or complex work remained in the business units, and employees learned to expect “service” that felt more like dealing with a machine than a helper.

HR Shared Services 2.0 – the model emerging today – breaks that paradigm. Modern HRSS organizations are reorienting around the employee as the customer.

They recognize that internal “customers” (employees and managers) want more than rote transaction processing; they expect responsive, tailored service experiences and a value-added partnership, just as external customers do.

This means HRSS must deliver not only on speed and accuracy, but also on empathy, proactivity, and personalization.

The shared services model has evolved to become more than just a cost-savings strategy; it’s now a core business function that can directly improve employee engagement and productivity when done right (TechTarget).

In short, the new mandate is an experience-first shared services model built entirely around the employee’s needs and moments that matter.

Envision a simple 2x2 matrix mapping “Operational Efficiency” on one axis and “Employee Experience Quality” on the other.

In the past, many HRSS operations sat in the high-efficiency/low-experience quadrant – they were lean and standardized, but employees often felt like cases instead of people.

On the flip side, a traditional high-touch HR model (like a dedicated HR rep for every team) might deliver high-experience/low-efficiency – very personalized service but at a high cost and inconsistency.

The goal of an experience-first strategy is to move HRSS into the high-efficiency/high-experience quadrant.

In this ideal state, HR Shared Services delivers fast, reliable HR support AND leaves employees feeling valued and satisfied. It’s about combining operational discipline with a human-centric touch. The remainder of this article explores how to achieve that balance in practice.

Why Experience Matters More Than Ever in HRSS

Research shows a strong link between positive employee experiences and business outcomes. For example, employees who report having a positive overall EX are 16 times more engaged than those with negative experiences (Speakap).

Highly engaged employees are more productive and innovative, and they contribute to better customer service and profitability. Likewise, companies with superior employee experiences tend to enjoy higher retention – unoptimized, poor experiences are a core reason many organizations struggle to keep talent (63% of companies say retaining employees is now harder than hiring them).

In short, if your HR services frustrate people, you risk lower engagement, higher turnover, and even lost revenue due to disengagement and attrition.

HR Shared Services has an outsized impact on EX because it is often the front door of HR for everyday employees.

Consider all the touchpoints a typical employee has with HRSS: getting a question answered about benefits, resolving a paycheck issue, updating personal information, onboarding or offboarding, etc.

Each of these interactions is a “moment of truth” that shapes the employee’s perception of HR and the company. If those interactions are slow, confusing, or uncaring, employees notice – and it erodes their trust.

Too often in the past, employees didn’t know where to turn for help or got conflicting answers depending on who they asked, resulting in frustration, delays, and even compliance risks (HR Executive). None of that contributes to a positive experience or a productive workforce.

On the other hand, when HRSS delivers consumer-grade service – think clear communication, quick resolution, and a helpful attitude – employees can focus on their jobs rather than HR hassles. They feel supported.

A well-run shared service center actually boosts employee productivity and morale: employees get their issues resolved quickly and conveniently, which positively impacts their engagement. In the new world of work, employees have grown to expect workplace services (HR included) to be as easy and user-friendly as the apps they use in their personal lives.

When there’s a gap between those expectations and reality, frustration ensues. But if HRSS meets or exceeds the expectation, for example, by providing an intuitive self-service portal or a friendly HR agent who solves an issue on the first call, it builds good will. Employees who feel valued by HR are more likely to stay with the company, advocate for it, and go the extra mile in their roles.

Finally, an experience-first approach doesn’t just make employees happy – it also drives better HR outcomes.

When employees have positive interactions, they become more willing to use cost-saving HR options like self-service. One organization’s HR transformation led to a 200% increase in self-service use and a 25% jump in employee satisfaction, all while lowering the cost-to-serve by 30% (Segal).

This illustrates a powerful point: experience and efficiency can rise together. Satisfied employees are more likely to trust the HR service center, use it appropriately, and provide constructive feedback. That feedback, in turn, helps HRSS improve processes further (creating a virtuous cycle we’ll discuss later).

In sum, prioritizing experience in HRSS is a win-win – employees win through easier, more personalized support, and the organization wins through higher productivity, retention, and even cost savings from streamlined services.

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The Three Pillars of an Experience‑First HR Shared Service

To make the shift from a transactional shared service center to an experiential one, HR leaders can focus on three core pillars: Proactive Outreach, Personalization, and Feedback Loops.

Think of these as the building blocks of an experience-first HRSS framework (see the 3-Pillar Model of Experience-First HRSS, below). Each pillar represents a fundamental change in how HR shared services operates:

1. From Reactive to Proactive – Don’t just respond to employee inquiries; anticipate and address needs before they become issues.
   
   
2. From One-Size-Fits-All to Personalized – Tailor HR support and communications to the individual’s context, preferences, and journey.
   
   
3. From One-and-Done to Continuous Improvement – Close the loop by capturing feedback, measuring satisfaction, and continually refining services.
   
   

Let’s explore each pillar in depth, with practical examples and tips on how to implement them.

Pillar 1: Proactive Outreach – Anticipating Employee Needs

In many organizations, HRSS traditionally sits in a reactive mode: the team waits for employees to call, email, or submit a ticket with their problem, then works to resolve it.

An experience-first strategy flips this dynamic by injecting PROACTIVITY. Instead of only putting out fires, the HRSS team actively looks for opportunities to solve problems before they spark, guide employees through complex moments, and make helpful information available at just the right time.

What does proactive HR shared services look like? It can take many forms, for example:

• Lifecycle Check-Ins: The HR service team identifies key stages in the employee lifecycle (onboarding, after 90 days, performance review time, parental leave, returning from leave, work anniversaries, etc.) and conducts outreach during those times. A simple “How is your first month going? Any questions we can help with?” note or a heads-up about available resources before an employee goes on leave can delight people. It shows HR cares and isn’t just waiting for a problem to arise.
  
  
• Preventative Issue Resolution: Use your service data to spot trends and address root causes proactively. For instance, if you notice a lot of employees open tickets about how to file an expense report, perhaps the instructions or system need improvement. Rather than fielding 100 similar questions a week, HRSS could publish a one-page “Expense Cheat Sheet” or a how-to video, and proactively circulate it to new hires or ahead of expense deadlines. By eliminating common pain points, you save everyone time and frustration.
  
  
• Guided Experiences: Proactive HRSS might also mean guiding employees through multi-step processes. For example, during open enrollment for benefits, a proactive shared services team could send personalized reminders: “Your benefit window closes in 1 week. Need help comparing plans? We’re here to assist – join our Q&A session or check out the plan chooser tool.” This way, employees aren’t left to scramble or miss deadlines; HRSS is effectively project-managing the employee’s experience in critical moments.
  
  
• Analytics and Alerts: Modern HRSS teams can leverage HR analytics to predict needs. Advanced AI can flag, for example, if an employee hasn’t completed a required task (like a mandatory training or form) and automatically prompt them or alert an agent to follow up. Analytics might also predict which employees could be at flight risk or disengaged (based on various data points); HRSS could then work with HR Business Partners to reach out and ensure those employees get support. While this borders into the territory of HRBPs and strategy, it shows how a proactive mindset can transform HRSS from a passive helpdesk into a strategic partner that helps prevent problems (like turnover or compliance misses) before they happen.
  
  

Implementing proactive outreach requires planning and coordination. HR shared services teams should work closely with Centers of Excellence (COEs) and HR Business Partners to map out the employee journey and identify “moments that matter” (onboarding, promotions, life events, etc.).

For each key moment, decide what proactive action HRSS can take – whether it’s sending information, offering a consultation, or simply a friendly check-in.

How-To: Start Being Proactive in HRSS

A. Identify Frequent Issues & Key Moments: Review your HRSS data and employee journey maps. Pinpoint the most common employee questions or pain points, and the career/life events when employees most need HR support.

B. Create a Proactive Calendar: Build an outreach calendar aligned to those moments. For example, schedule new hire check-ins at 30/60/90 days, benefits guidance every Q4, etc. Automate reminders where possible.

C. Develop Content and Scripts: Prepare helpful resources in advance – FAQs, tip sheets, email templates, or chatbot scripts – so you can push out timely guidance. Ensure the tone is friendly and genuinely helpful, not just procedural.

D. Train the Team: Help your HRSS advisors develop a proactive mindset. Encourage them to not only solve the issue asked but consider “What else might this person need next?” and offer it. Recognize and reward team members who take initiative to prevent future issues.

E. Pilot and Iterate: You don’t have to overhaul everything at once. Pilot one or two proactive outreach ideas (e.g. a new hire check-in call) and gather feedback. Measure the impact (did new hire questions drop? did satisfaction rise?). Learn from the pilot and refine your approach before scaling up.

The payoff of proactive outreach is a smoother experience and a sense of “HR has my back.”

Employees start to feel that HR isn’t just there when they reach out, but is walking alongside them, helping them navigate work life. This can significantly increase employees’ trust in HRSS.

Plus, by catching issues upstream, you reduce the volume of fire-fighting later – which actually frees up capacity in the service center, allowing your team to focus on more value-add activities. It’s a perfect illustration of experience-first also being efficiency-first in the long run.

Pillar 2: Personalization at Scale – Treating Employees Like Valued Customers

The second pillar of an experience-first HRSS is personalization. In the consumer world, people have grown accustomed to personalized service – from Netflix recommending just the right show, to retailers offering tailored promotions.

Employees now expect a similar level of personalization in their workplace interactions (Reworked). One-size-fits-all HR service is no longer enough. Different employees have different needs, preferences, and circumstances, and acknowledging those differences is key to making them feel valued.

Personalization in HRSS can be as simple as using the employee’s name and recognizing their context in every interaction – or as sophisticated as using AI to tailor content and recommendations to each individual.

Here are some ways shared services can introduce personalization:

• Know Your Employee: Equip your HRSS reps (or your HR portal) with context about the employee. For example, when an employee contacts HR, the agent should be able to see relevant info at a glance: their role, department, location, tenure, maybe recent tickets or major life events (e.g. recently had a baby, about to transfer to a new office). This avoids the employee having to explain their situation from scratch every time. It also enables the agent to tailor the response. “Oh, hi Maria! I see you’re based in our London office – let’s make sure we consider the UK policy for your question,” is a much more personalized and reassuring response than a generic, “Employee ID please? Okay, how can I help you?”
  
  
• Segmentation and Personas: If true one-to-one personalization is challenging, start by segmenting your employee population and customizing services for each segment. For instance, new hires might get white-glove treatment and extra support, whereas tenured employees might prefer self-service for most things. Frontline workers might need mobile-first, bite-sized interactions, while corporate staff might be fine with email or portal use. By understanding different personas (e.g. “the new hire,” “the remote worker,” “the frontline manager,” etc.), HRSS can tailor knowledge base content, communication style, and support channels to suit those groups. Even small tweaks – like having an “onboarding hub” for newbies or offering live chat support during shift change hours for frontline teams – demonstrate you’ve designed the service with the user in mind.
  
  
• Personalized Content and Recommendations: Leverage technology to serve up relevant information proactively. For example, an employee expecting a child could automatically receive personalized guidance on parental leave policies, childcare resources, and how to add their new dependent to benefits. Modern HR systems and employee experience platforms are increasingly capable of this kind of hyper-personalization, using AI and analytics to match content to an individual’s situation. Many leading HR platforms, like Applaud, now include AI-driven recommendations – suggesting training courses, internal job opportunities, or well-being resources tailored to each employee’s data. HR Shared Services teams should embrace these tools to make the employee’s interaction feel uniquely catered to them.
  
  
• Language and Cultural Personalization: For global organizations, personalization also means servicing employees in their preferred language and being mindful of cultural differences. A truly experience-first HRSS might offer multi-language support, local holiday reminders, or region-specific HR guidance. Employees feel “seen” when communications acknowledge their specific location or cultural context (for example, not sending a Thanksgiving memo to employees in countries that don’t celebrate it).
  
  
• Flexible Channels: Personalization extends to communication channels as well. Some employees might love a quick text or a chatbot interaction for simple queries; others might prefer speaking to a live human for anything sensitive. An experience-first HRSS offers channel choice and notes individual preferences. For instance, if you learn that a particular employee always calls because they dislike the self-service portal, you might assign a dedicated rep to handle their queries or improve the portal for that segment. Meeting employees where they are comfortable is a form of personalization too.
  
  

It might sound like personalization conflicts with the standardization that shared services are built on.

After all, how do you personalize at scale without blowing up efficiency? The key is to personalize the experience without necessarily customizing the process. Core processes and policies can remain consistent, but the way you deliver them can be flexible.

Technology is a huge enabler here. For example, AI chatbots and virtual assistants can provide personalized answers by drawing on relevant employee data (role, history, etc.) and the company knowledge base (see All About HR Shared Services).

One global firm deployed an AI-powered HR assistant that would greet employees by name on the HR portal, answer questions specific to their employment record (e.g. “How much PTO do I have left?”), and even pre-fill forms for them.

This not only delivered faster service but made employees feel like HR knew and cared about them – all without requiring an army of HR staff. The Applaud platform, among others, highlights how such AI assistants act as “personal digital helpers,” delivering fast, personalized answers while significantly reducing repetitive caseloads for HR. In effect, personalization can increase efficiency: employees get what they need more quickly, and HRSS handles fewer follow-ups and clarifications.

Another important aspect is training your HRSS team to personalize their human interactions. This involves soft skills: active listening, empathy, and adaptability. HR agents should be empowered to bend a rule when it makes sense for a better outcome (within policy guardrails, of course).

For instance, if an employee had a death in the family and is struggling with a leave request, an empathetic, personalized response might mean the HRSS agent helps fill out the form for them or expedites an approval outside the usual SLA. These small acts of human-centered service make a lasting impression.

Senior HR leaders need to set the tone that it’s okay for HRSS to occasionally “do what’s right, not just what’s written.” That philosophy, backed by smart guidelines, ensures personalization doesn’t devolve into inconsistency or favoritism, but rather stays focused on improving legitimate employee outcomes.

Pillar 3: Feedback Loops – Continuous Improvement and Listening to the Employee Voice

No service, no matter how proactive or personalized, gets everything perfect. What distinguishes an experience-first HRSS is a relentless commitment to continuous improvement, driven by real feedback from employees. This is where the third pillar, feedback loops, comes in. It’s about creating mechanisms to listen to your internal customers, measure their satisfaction, and then, crucially, act on what you hear.

Consider this: in a Bain & Company global survey, 66% of shared services organizations claimed that putting internal customers front and center was a strategic priority – yet 68% of them did not even measure internal customer satisfaction, and only 8% were using a metric like Net Promoter Score (NPS) for their internal services. In other words, many HR shared services talk about being customer-centric but aren’t systematically listening to those customers. An experience-first strategy demands that we close this gap. We need to treat employee satisfaction with HR services as a key performance indicator, just like a customer-facing business would.

Here are steps and best practices to build strong feedback loops in HRSS:

• Measure Satisfaction Consistently: Implement a simple, regular way to capture how employees feel about HR services. This could be a brief survey after each resolved ticket or call (e.g. a 1-5 star rating or “thumbs up/thumbs down” plus an optional comment). It could also include periodic broader surveys or an Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) question specifically about HR support (e.g. “How likely are you to recommend our HR help desk to a colleague?”).
  
  The key is to gather data while the experience is fresh. For instance, some companies have integrated feedback tools in their HR portals so that right after an employee reads a knowledge article or closes a chat, they’re prompted to give a quick rating. Don’t make the feedback process onerous – a few clicks or seconds should suffice.
  
  
• Track and Share the Metrics: Choose metrics that make sense for your environment. Common ones include CSAT (customer satisfaction score), NPS, first-contact resolution rate, average resolution time, and perhaps a measure of “employee effort” (how easy was it for the employee to get what they needed). Then track these metrics visibly.
  
  For example, one HR shared services team set a goal to raise their internal NPS by several points; they shared the live NPS results with the team weekly and discussed recent detractor feedback in team huddles. Another organization focused on first-contact resolution (FCR) as a proxy for ease of service – when FCR went up, their satisfaction scores usually rose in tandem. Pick a few vital metrics that really capture experience (as opposed to dozens of KPIs that create noise).
  
  And make sure leadership pays attention to them. It sends a powerful message to HRSS staff (and to employees) when, say, the Head of HR can quote the HR service satisfaction score in the last quarter and tie part of HRSS bonuses to improving it.
  
  
• Close the Loop with Employees: Collecting feedback is only half the battle – acting on it is where you truly build trust. Employees want to know their voices result in change (“You said, we did”). Establish a process for reviewing feedback and following up. If an employee leaves a scathing comment about how their issue was handled, an experience-first approach would be for someone from HRSS leadership to reach out personally to apologize and discuss how to make it right. That kind of follow-up can turn a frustrated “detractor” into a loyal advocate, because the employee feels heard and respected.
  
  On a broader scale, analyze feedback trends. For example, if multiple people mention that HR communications are too jargon-heavy, you might initiate a project to rewrite templates in plainer language. Or if satisfaction with a particular process (say, tuition reimbursement requests) is low, do a root-cause analysis: Is the policy unclear? Is the approval flow too slow?
  
  By digging into underlying issues, you can implement lasting fixes rather than superficial tweaks. Importantly, communicate improvements back to the workforce: “We heard your feedback about X, and here’s what we’re changing as a result.” This completes the feedback loop and encourages more people to provide input in the future, knowing it leads to action.

• Develop a Net Promoter System (Not Just a Score): Borrowing from Bain’s research, the most advanced shared services organizations don’t just track a score like NPS – they build a systematic approach to customer feedback. This means having a governance mechanism (regular meetings or a dedicated team) to review feedback data, prioritize improvement initiatives, and ensure accountability for making changes. For example, Smith+Nephew’s Global Business Services group implemented an automated internal NPS system that flags process improvement opportunities through alerts and even uses AI sentiment analysis on comments. They then act on those insights, which has measurably improved internal customer satisfaction – earning them recognition as one of the top shared services organizations globally. The lesson: make feedback and improvement a continuous cycle ingrained in how HRSS operates, not an occasional project.

How-To: Build an HRSS Feedback Loop

1. Gather Baseline Data: If you’re not measuring yet, start by establishing a baseline. Run a simple internal survey asking employees to rate their HR service experiences over the past month or quarter. Include qualitative questions like “What could we do better?” to gather initial insights.

2. Pick a Metric (or Two): Decide on the primary metric you’ll use going forward, eg, CSAT %, NPS, or a composite “service quality index.” Keep it simple and easy to explain. Set a realistic target (eg, “Improve CSAT from 70% to 80% in six months”).

3. Implement Always-On Feedback Channels: Integrate feedback requests into your HR service workflows. For instance, automatically email a 1-question survey link when a ticket is closed, or add a feedback widget to your portal’s answers. Make sure it’s mobile-friendly.

4. Monitor and Analyze: Assign someone (or a small team) to monitor incoming feedback at least weekly. Look for patterns: Are issues clustering in a particular area? Do certain teams have lower satisfaction? Use analytics tools if available to categorize comments (e.g., by topic or sentiment).

5. Respond and Resolve: Develop a playbook for responding to feedback. Critical or negative feedback should get a human follow-up if possible (“Dear employee, I’m sorry your issue wasn’t resolved. Let’s discuss how we can fix it.”). For common pain points that surface, initiate improvement actions (update the FAQ, retrain staff, adjust a policy, etc.). Prioritize fixes that will impact many employees or significantly boost satisfaction.

6. Communicate Changes: As you roll out improvements based on feedback, announce them. Use internal comms or an HR newsletter: “You spoke, we listened: HR has now simplified the leave application process – check out the new one-click form.” This closes the loop and demonstrates that giving feedback is worth the effort.

7. Iterate: Treat this as a continuous loop. After implementing changes, measure again. Did the scores improve? If not, why not? Continuous improvement is an ongoing journey, not a one-time destination. Celebrate wins (e.g., hitting a new high in service satisfaction) to keep the team motivated, and always keep asking “what can we do better next?”

By embedding feedback loops, HR Shared Services becomes a learning organization. You move beyond just meeting SLAs (Service Level Agreements) to meeting employee expectations, which are a higher bar.

And importantly, you create internal customer loyalty. Bain’s study found that shared service groups which adopted NPS and rigorously improved based on feedback were able to expand their scope (integrating 36% more functions into shared services than others) because they had earned the trust of the business.

That trust is gold: it means business leaders see HRSS not just as a cost center, but as a reliable partner that adds value.

In many ways, that is the ultimate goal of an experience-first strategy – to elevate HRSS from a back-office utility to a frontline contributor to employee success and organizational performance.

Metrics that Matter: How to Track Experience (Without Losing Efficiency Metrics)

To truly empower a shared services team to focus on experience, you must expand the metrics for success.

Traditional HRSS KPIs have been things like call volumes, average handle time, tickets closed per agent per day, cost per employee served, etc. Those are still important (operational efficiency must be monitored) but they are not sufficient.

An experience-first strategy adds new metrics and measurement models that quantify employee satisfaction, service quality, and outcomes.

Here are some metrics HR leaders should incorporate, and how to use them:

• Employee Satisfaction Score (ESAT or CSAT): This is typically measured by asking employees to rate their satisfaction with a service interaction or overall service on a scale (e.g., 1-5 or 1-10). It’s the most straightforward indicator of whether an employee’s expectations were met. Track CSAT for HRSS monthly or quarterly. If you see dips, investigate which process or team is contributing. Some organizations set a target like “90% of employees rate their HR service experience as good or excellent.”
  
  
• Net Promoter Score (NPS) for HR Services: Internal NPS can be a powerful gauge of loyalty and word-of-mouth. Ask employees, “How likely are you to recommend our HR services to a colleague?” and use the 0-10 NPS scale. NPS is harder to achieve improvements in than simple satisfaction (because it’s a high bar to create “promoters”), but it’s very insightful.
  
  If your internal NPS is low or negative, it signals a deeper issue with trust or consistency. If it’s high, you’ve likely created raving fans who will publicly praise HR – a great credibility builder for the HR function.
  
  
• First Contact Resolution (FCR) Rate: This measures the percentage of inquiries or issues resolved on the first attempt, without the employee having to come back again or have the issue escalated. A high FCR is usually correlated with better experience (no one likes to be bounced around or have to chase HR for updates). It also indicates your HRSS team is empowered and knowledgeable enough to handle most issues.
  
  If your FCR is low, analyze why: Do agents lack access to information? Are certain topics always needing specialist input? Improving training or knowledge management can boost FCR and thus EX.
  
  
• Employee Effort Score: Borrowed from customer service metrics (“Customer Effort Score”), this asks employees how easy it was to get their issue resolved. For example, after a case closes, ask “On a scale of 1 (very difficult) to 5 (very easy), how easy was it to get what you needed?”
  
  This metric directly targets the friction in the process. Sometimes an employee might be satisfied because eventually their issue was resolved, but the journey was painful (lots of forms, long waits). Effort score helps spotlight those situations – a high effort score (meaning it was easy) is what you want. Low effort correlates strongly with higher loyalty.
  
  
• Usage and Adoption Metrics: Measure how employees are utilizing your HR services and tools – this reflects if the experience is user-friendly. Metrics could include: percentage of employees using self-service for common transactions (benefits enrollment, address changes, etc.), login rates or active users of your HR portal/knowledge base, chatbot usage versus live agent calls, and so on. High adoption of self-service typically means the experience is convenient and trusted (no one uses a broken or confusing system twice!).
  
  Conversely, if adoption is low, it may indicate the self-service isn’t delivering a good experience and people are reverting to emails/calls out of frustration. One company found that after improving their HR portal’s search function and design, usage of self-service knowledge articles jumped significantly, and correspondingly, call volume dropped – a sign that the self-service experience was finally working for employees.
  
  
• Turnaround Time and Responsiveness: These are classic metrics (e.g., average resolution time, % of cases closed within SLA), but you can connect them to experience by focusing on responsiveness. For example, measuring time to first response (how quickly HR acknowledged an inquiry) is as important as total resolution time.
  
  Employees will be more patient on a complex issue if someone at least says “We’re on it” quickly. Track the percentage of cases where first response is within, say, 1 business day (or 1 hour for urgent channels like phone/chat). Responsiveness is a key driver of satisfaction in HR services; even automated confirmations can help set expectations.
  
  
• Quality of Resolution: To avoid an efficiency-experience tradeoff, include some qualitative review of cases. For instance, do random case audits or solicit feedback on whether the answer actually solved the issue. You might have a fast time-to-close, but if employees keep reopening tickets or seeking clarification, the quality wasn’t there.
  
  Reopen rate is another metric to watch – a low reopen rate means issues are truly resolved the first time. Some HRSS teams institute a quality scoring system for tickets or calls (much like customer service call centers do), evaluating if the agent was courteous, the info given was correct, and the employee didn’t have to contact again for the same matter.
  
  
• Employee Outcomes Metrics: This is more advanced, but consider linking HRSS performance to broader HR outcomes that matter to the business. For example, does improved HR service correlate with higher retention in certain employee groups? You could track turnover rates or internal mobility in populations with high HRSS engagement. Or measure the impact of proactive HRSS initiatives: e.g., after instituting proactive onboarding support, did new hire ramp-up time improve or did new hire survey scores increase?
  
  These connecting-the-dots metrics help show the ROI of experience-first shared services in terms of talent outcomes (engagement scores, retention rates, etc.). While many factors influence those, a noticeable positive shift after an HRSS improvement is good evidence that better service is contributing to a better workplace.

In implementing these metrics, avoid overload. It’s better to choose a concise “EX dashboard” for HRSS – maybe 5-6 key metrics combining both efficiency and experience – than to drown in data. A sample balanced dashboard might include: CSAT or NPS, First Contact Resolution, Average Resolution Time, Self-Service Adoption Rate, and Volume of Feedback Received. This mix ensures the team is accountable for both speed/cost and quality/satisfaction.

Crucially, use the data in management discussions. Regularly review these metrics with your HRSS leadership and staff. Celebrate improvements (e.g., “Our ESAT is up 10 points this quarter – great job team!”) and dig into drops (“NPS for payroll inquiries fell last month; let’s find out what went wrong and fix it”). By treating experience metrics with the same seriousness as you would budget or compliance metrics, you send the message that experience is part of everyone’s job, not a fluffy extra.

Empowering Your HRSS Team to Succeed (While Staying Efficient)

An experience-first strategy cannot succeed without the buy-in and empowerment of the HRSS team members on the ground: your HR advisors, call center reps, case managers, and analysts. They are the ones delivering the experience day-to-day. To truly empower HR Shared Services staff, leaders should focus on two things: culture/skills and enabling technology/processes.

1. Build a Culture of Service and Empathy: 

Even the best process falls flat if the person executing it is disengaged or uncaring. Invest in training your HRSS team on customer service skills, much as you would for a customer support team.

This includes active listening, diffusing difficult situations, and going the extra mile. Encourage a mindset of ownership – the HR rep who takes a call “owns” that employee’s issue, even if they must involve others to resolve it.

We want employees to feel like the HRSS rep is their advocate, not a gatekeeper. Role-model and reward empathetic behavior. For example, share positive feedback from employees in team meetings (“This employee said our HR rep was so compassionate and helpful during a tough time – kudos!”).

Create pride in being not just efficient administrators but “people champions.” At the same time, make sure the team understands the business context – why their work matters.

One leading practice is to have HRSS team members periodically shadow employees or spend time with different business units to grasp what employees’ day-to-day looks like. This deeper understanding breeds empathy and also helps HRSS suggest more relevant solutions.

2. Empower Decision-Making

Nothing frustrates an employee more than an HR rep who says, “I can’t help you, that’s just the policy,” when a slight exception or creative solution could solve the issue.

Of course, HRSS must uphold policies and consistency – you can’t have each rep doing totally different things. But an experience-first approach gives front-line staff a degree of autonomy to address unique situations.

Establish clear guidelines for what reps can decide (maybe they can authorize an off-cycle payroll correction up to a certain amount, or expedite an IT access request for a new hire without multiple approvals, etc.). If something falls outside, have a quick escalation path so the employee isn’t left waiting.

The goal is to minimize bureaucracy the employee experiences, even if HRSS behind the scenes has to do some internal navigation. When HRSS staff feel trusted to make calls in service of the employee, they are more engaged and proactive – which loops back into a better experience.

3. Streamline Processes and Remove Pain for Staff

An unhappy or overburdened HRSS team member is unlikely to deliver a great experience. So part of an experience-first strategy is also improving the employee experience of your HRSS staff themselves.

Are your HR systems clunky for the team to use? Do they have to jump through hoops or toggle through ten screens to get an answer?

Simplify and automate internal workflows so that your team can focus on the human connection, not paperwork. For example, use a unified case management system that brings all employee data and history together in one view for the agent.

Provide AI-powered tools that suggest likely solutions or knowledge articles to the agent in real time (so they’re not desperately searching while the employee is on hold). Reducing the cognitive load and stress on your HRSS team frees them to be more attentive and caring with employees. It also cuts down errors. This is operational discipline in service of experience: smooth internal processes = better external service.

4. Continue to Leverage Standardization – Smartly:

Experience-first doesn’t mean throwing out standard operating procedures. In fact, standardization and clear processes under the hood enable personalized, speedy service at the front end.

The difference is you design those standards around what works best for employees, not just what’s easiest for HR’s silo.

One example: Standardize on a single HR knowledge base and make sure both employees and HR staff use it. That way, everyone gets consistent information, and you avoid the classic scenario of “conflicting answers from different HR people” that frustrates employees.

Clarity and consistency are themselves parts of a good experience (no one likes getting bounced around or told different things). As the TechTarget insight put it, shared services improves EX through clearer communication and standard processes that remove confusion.

So yes, maintain your checklists, your SOPs, your SLAs – just ensure they are built with a service mindset (eg, an SOP should dictate not just the steps to complete a task, but how to communicate status to the employee along the way).

5. Align Goals and Incentives: 

Recalibrate what success looks like for the HRSS team. If agents are only incentivized on volume (like number of tickets closed), they might rush through interactions at the cost of quality. Incorporate experience metrics into performance goals – for instance, a team goal for maintaining a high CSAT, or personal goals around feedback from customers.

This signals that taking an extra few minutes to reassure someone, or thoroughly solving the problem now (so it doesn’t recur), is valued more than just being fast.

Efficiency metrics can coexist with experience metrics in a balanced scorecard for the team. Many high-performing shared services centers use a balanced scorecard approach where, say, 50% of KPIs are efficiency/cost and 50% are quality/experience. That ensures a focus on operational discipline and customer-centric behavior.

6. Share Success Stories and Lessons Learned: 

Make employee experience a frequent topic of discussion. Encourage the team to share stories – both wins and challenges. For example, an HRSS rep might share: “I had a caller who was really upset about a payroll mistake. I listened and empathized, then not only fixed it within 2 hours but also followed up next pay cycle to make sure it was correct. She was so grateful.”

Telling that story reinforces the desired approach. Likewise, discuss difficult cases: “What could we have done differently to make that experience better?” This constant learning culture keeps experience at the forefront and helps newer team members learn the ropes of an experience-first philosophy.

Conclusion: A Bold New Role for HR Shared Services

Empowering HR Shared Services with an experience-first strategy is about challenging the old assumptions. No longer should HRSS be seen as a low-cost transaction factory or a necessary evil hidden in the back office.

Instead, HRSS can be the heartbeat of employee experience, the friendly face (or voice, or chatbot) of HR that actually makes employees’ work lives easier. By being proactive, personalized, and perpetually improving through feedback, shared services becomes a source of employee satisfaction and even delight, not drudgery.

This transformation doesn’t mean abandoning efficiency – far from it. It’s about realizing that efficiency and experience are not mutually exclusive but mutually reinforcing. A well-designed HR shared service center can simultaneously streamline processes, ensure compliance, and provide a “white-glove” service feel. The payoffs are tangible: happier employees, a more agile HR function, and a stronger reputation for HR within the organization.

In fact, many companies find that once their HRSS earns employees’ love, it opens the door to doing more and more through the shared services model, extending into areas like payroll analytics, onboarding coordination, and beyond (because the business trusts HRSS to deliver value, not just cut costs). In an era where doing more with less is a constant pressure, an experience-first approach turns HRSS into a lever for greater impact without a proportional increase in resources.

For senior HR leaders, the journey to an experience-first shared services model will require vision and courage. You may need to overhaul legacy processes, invest in new tools, and perhaps most challengingly, shift mindsets on your team and among stakeholders.

There may be skeptics who still believe speed or savings are all that count, or who assume employees don’t care about the service “niceties.” It’s up to you to paint the picture of what’s possible and make the case. Show that an HRSS that treats employees like valued customers will in turn create employees who value the company. Be bold in setting experience goals and challenging the status quo (“Why can’t our HR helpdesk have a satisfaction score rivaling that of top retail brands’ support centers?”).

In implementing these changes, remember to take your own advice: be empathetic and iterative. Apply a bit of design thinking to your HRSS transformation. Pilot new ideas, gather employee input, and refine as you go.

Perhaps start with one region or one process to prove the concept. As you roll out improvements, keep telling the story – both quantitatively (metrics) and qualitatively (employee anecdotes) – of how HRSS is evolving into something new and exciting.

By embracing proactive service, personalization, and continuous feedback, HR Shared Services can fulfill a bold, new role. It can be efficient and people-first, tech-powered yet human-hearted. It can turn moments of HR interaction into moments of value.

And it can transform HR’s reputation from a cost center to a trusted enabler of talent and business success. This is the future of HR Shared Services – an evolution already underway – and it’s an exciting time for HR leaders to lead the charge in making shared services not only efficient, but truly empowering for the people it serves.

How Applaud Helps You Make It Happen

At Applaud, we believe employees are a company’s most important customers. That’s why our technology is built entirely from the employee’s point of view—delivering more human, intuitive, and rewarding HR experiences that empower HR teams to do more for their people.

If you’re ready to turn employee-first HR from vision to reality, we’re here to help. Get in touch to see how Applaud can transform your HR Service Delivery and create a workplace where employees truly thrive.

About the Author

Duncan Casemore is Co-Founder and CTO of Applaud, an award-winning HR platform built entirely around employees. Formerly at Oracle and a global HR consultant, Duncan is known for championing more human, intuitive HR tech. Regularly featured in top publications, he collaborates with thought leaders like Josh Bersin, speaks at major events, and continues to help organizations create truly people-first workplaces.