In addition to providing assessments of MPHRO vendor capability, the NelsonHall Evaluation and Assessment Tool (NEAT) for MPHRO, published July 29, 2014, http://bit.ly/1uDunOq supports an analysis of customer satisfaction within MPHRO by service line. Based on client interviews conducted globally covering vendors providing MPHRO across all regions, the analysis covers satisfaction within the Payroll, Benefits Administration, Learning, Recruiting, HR/Workforce Administration, Performance Management Administration and Succession Planning elements of MPHRO. Unsurprisingly, Payroll and HR/Workforce Administration had the highest customer satisfaction ratings, while Recruiting scored towards the lower end of the spectrum. 

There are a couple of reasons why Payroll and HR/Workforce Administration scored highly:

• Firstly, being highly transactional mature service offerings it is not a surprise that payroll and HR/workforce administration scored well. Important SLA metrics such as accuracy and on-time delivery are > 99% and rarely missed
• Secondly, Payroll and HR Administration are the current core MPHRO service offerings. Aside from the shared service transformation segment (which often includes most of the entire HR service line) the core bundle of HRO services provided as part of MPHRO contracts has retrenched to primarily Payroll and HR Administration.

RPO certainly has many benefits when provided as part of MPHRO contracts. However, the results of this study suggest that RPO within MPHRO has yet to reach the maturity of standalone RPO. Talent is the top HR priority of business leaders today and RPO has become much more than a transactional hiring service. Clients now have high expectations of value-add and expertise from RPO across areas such as talent pool development, employment branding, on-boarding and talent retention. This can be a challenge in MPHRO where the services currently provided are typically highly administrative and/or transactional in nature.

Nonetheless, over the last couple of years we’ve begun to see MPHRO providers begin to rise to the challenge and develop RPO specialist capability either:

• Internally and via partnerships, e.g. Aon Hewitt SourceSprint which keeps applicants in a talent community for possible placement with other opportunities and Aon Hewitt’s digital interviewing capabilities via its partnership with HireVue
• Using M&A activity, e.g. ADP and The RightThing and IBM and Kenexa, to provide RPO specialist capability either as a part of a MPHRO service or as a standalone service.

Therefore I do believe that in subsequent surveys we will see RPO client satisfaction as part of MPHRO services contracts continue to improve.

Elsewhere performance management administration scored 10 points higher than succession planning. The stronger rating for performance management administration is good news for MPHRO providers as performance management is a critical element in talent retention and development, and ensuring that performance management policies are adhered to is a critical hygiene factor for organizations. However, succession planning may be a step too far. Here, there is typically less scope for MPHRO vendors to make a significant impact on the internal mobility decision process, and the lower rating may be indicative of clients needing to be more active and accountable for the succession process.

The MPHRO NEAT tool is available to NelsonHall clients at http://research.nelson-hall.com/service-line-programs/hr-outsourcing/multi-process-hro/ and is also available for a limited period free-of-charge to buy-side HR executives and strategic sourcing managers.