Event Listings

Join us for the latest Midlands Shared Services Forum Networking Event, hosted by the Midlands Shared Services Rising Stars

The purpose of the event is to offer attendees a unique opportunity to learn from leaders within SSC’s across the Midlands. An opportunity to discuss and obtain insights into their professional achievements and offer a platform to engage in meaningful conversation and knowledge sharing.

Join our interactive webinar for practical advice.

Join us for our latest event in partnership with the Midlands Shared Services Forum. 2023 has been a challenging year for many individuals with the increased cost of living.

Join us for our latest event in partnership with the Midlands Shared Services Forum and learn how operational excellence can help take you from strategy to success.

We’ll investigate what excellence means to different shared services centres exploring how operational excellence delivers organisational development, continuous improvement, and sustainable growth.

Join us for our annual Midlands Shared Services Forum Holiday Quiz.

Take advantage of a brilliant opportunity to get your team together for virtual fun and games with this years quiz, hosted by Sharon Walton.

Join us on the 29th September for the next face-to-face event from the Midlands Shared Services Forum (MSSF).

You’ll have the chance to hear from Halfords, the UK’s leading provider of motoring and cycling products and services, for their perspective on the cost-of-living crisis. They will cover topics including wellbeing, discounting platforms, and recognition, as well as practical advice for employees and employers.

We are delighted to invite you to the 2022 Midlands Shared Services Forum awards. Please join us for a fun evening celebrating the endeavours and successes of Shared Services in the region.

We are excited to confirm that anyone working in Shared Services who either lives or works in the Midlands, can be nominated or can nominate someone for an award.

ONBOARDING IN 2022 YOUR WEBINAR INVITATION

At the start of the year, we set our stall out to focus on people across the Midlands Shared Services landscape, through a series of webinars. These popular and interactive sessions have covered topics such as challenges and opportunities in the changing workplace, people retention and recruitment. In the final leg of this journey, we will be placing a spotlight on onboarding.

Join us on Friday 4th of March for a virtual round table on retention

We will hear from Halfords, ECP, M&B and the Central England Co-op and many more on the challenges with retention and any practical tips the MSSF members are embedding to help.

As we start to learn to live with Covid the workplace is ever evolving and every organisation has its own policies and procedures in place to keep everyone safe whilst achieving ambitious goals in 2022.

Navigating this changing landscape has its challenges for people managers and employees alike and during this session we will seek to answer and debate some of the key topics to include:

• Hybrid working requests
• Refusal to attend the workplace
• Managing employees with long Covid
• Employment contracts
• Mandatory vaccinations
• Sick pay restrictions for unvaccinated employees
• Perceived Covid related risks in the workplace

We are absolutely delighted to be joined by Fiona Powell, Managing Associate and Specialist Employment Law Solicitor at Freeths who will provide practical guidance and tips to the Covid related challenges that we see arising from the workplace.  Fiona will be able to answer questions during this session and should you have any questions before the session please email them through so we tailor the session to you.

We’ll also be joined by Steven Jones who leads the Customer Service Centre at Boots who will share his insights into his experiences as a people leader and navigating employee Covid related situations.

Join us on Thursday 10^th February at midday for lively debate alongside practical guidance.  We look forward to welcoming you to the session.

Thursday 16th of December, the hugely popular annual MSSF QUIZ from 19.00 – 21.30

The MSSF will be presenting the findings of the survey and presenting the newly released data from the Hays 2022 Salary Guide

In the wake of a post-Covid recovery period that’s been stronger and quicker than predicted, organisations are facing soaring skills shortages amidst a rush to hire talent, whilst embedding hybrid working for the long. It’s resulting in significant salary growth across many specialist and technical areas – double digit salary increases in many cases. However, pay alone will not always attract the best or retain talented individuals in the long run, so employers must take steps to ensure their full benefits offering is up to scratch, including their flexible working policies, training opportunities and building a culture that promotes purpose and facilitates a good work-life balance.

Join us for an interactive session whereby we’ll present findings from the MSSF Survey, insights from MSSF members, the Hays 2022 Salary & Recruiting Trends and lively debate. This event will provide you with recommendations to support and improve existing hybrid working and talent attraction strategies.

Robotic process automation technology continues to be a hot topic for leaders within the shared services industry - many talk about having an aspiration to implement this technology as part of their organisational strategy but not so many bring this to fruition.

Robotic process automation technology continues to be a hot topic for leaders within the shared services industry – many talk about having an aspiration to implement this technology as part of their organisational strategy but not so many bring this to fruition. This event is a great opportunity to learn from the experience of leaders who have implemented this technology within their organisations and the impact that it has had on people, technology and commercials

Midlands Shared Services Forum Awards 2021

Are you being paid in line with other professionals at your level? Whether you are looking for a new job or a pay rise, it helps to understand what the typical salaries are and what your potential earnings could be.

What better way to welcome our new committee members to the group than to ask them to lead our next event.

What better way to welcome our new committee members to the group than to ask them to lead our next event. Emma Harper from Britvic is going to be taking her role as Oprah Winfrey asking Scott Worth and Karen Lavender the tough and searching questions:

• What has your lockdown journey looked like?
• What is your future transformation programme and what are your biggest challenges?
• Why on earth did you join the MSSF Committee? And much, much more.

There will be plenty of opportunity to ask questions of Scott, Karen, Emma and the usual networking and discussion.

We really look forward to catching up with you all.

Quizzing in a Walton Wonderland with the MSSF @XMAS

Have yourself a merry little Midlands Shared Services Xmas Quiz 2020 (That’s a mouthful and it’s even in December this year). Who will take the bragging rights and who will be the Xmas Turkey?

November round table events

4th November, 17:30 – 18:15 – How will we and our teams celebrate Christmas

12th November, 12:30 – 13:15 – Virtual Onboarding

19th November, 08:00 – 08:45 – Engagement & Motivation

26th November, 17:30 – 18:15 – Transformation & New strategies

After a SummerCation hiatus please join the Midlands Shared Services Committee for our next webinar.

This will be an opportunity to discuss the last few months, but more importantly share updates on the here and now and the plans and challenges for the next few months.

In this webinar we will cover:

• Where are you now? Back in the office, working from home, hybrid working, flexible working? What have we learnt, what’s working and what’s causing the biggest headaches?
• What are the key challenges for the next few months, furlough returners or how can this community support those who find themselves out of work?
• What does the future MSSF calendar look like? And which topics would you like us to focus on? (There are prizes at stake!)

Finally, to help kick off the session, we would love to see some photos of where you are now, please do post them on the MSSF LinkedIn page or send them to tim.hall@hays.com.

Please join Sharon and Emma for another informal opportunity to talk about the New Normal for Shared Services.

This will be an opportunity to share your plans, ask for support, gleam ideas, and further build your Shared Services support network as we all move towards a New Normal. In this webinar we will cover:

• How is your New Normal shaping up within your Shared Service?
• Who is moving back to the office, how and when?
• What do you need to know and how could you leverage your MSSF contacts?

If you have any questions, suggestions or would like more information, please do not hesitate to contact us.

We hope you can join us for an informal discussion.

Following our May Webinars and by popular demand we are going to run a specifific Payroll webinar. Always vital, often taken for granted, the payroll function suddenly fifinds itself on the front-line like never before.

The challenge of ensuring that employees are paid correctly and on time, and that deductions are processed accurately, has probably never been greater. Hardly a week goes by without an update from HMRC; experts provide a constant flflow of interpretations; employers are more keen than ever to forecast cash inflflows and outflflows; and of course employees are rightly eager to understand exactly how their pay has been calculated in light of all the talk about furlough and the like. Meanwhile, payroll systems that were never designed to process anything like the current complexity are creaking at the seams: spreadsheets are back with a vengeance, and with all the consequent risks. The payroll team fifinds itself uniquely visible, the focus of questions from all directions. Just what is your payroll team going through – and how are you supporting them and engaging with them through these unprecedented times? are you supporting them and engaging with them through these unprecedented times?

The Midlands Shared Services Forum will be hosting a weekly webinar throughout May every Wednesday at 12.30pm. Each webinar will be an hour long and will share current trends, challenges...

The Midlands Shared Services Forum will be hosting a weekly webinar throughout May every Wednesday at 12.30pm. Each webinar will be an hour long and will share current trends, challenges and opportunities that our panel of subject matter experts are seeing today. It will also offer the opportunity for plenty of Q&A, sharing and hopefully some light-hearted viewing and listening over your much-deserved lunch break.

We are delighted to invite you to the next Midlands Shared Services Forum in February hosted by Hays at their Birmingham Office.

We are delighted to invite you to the next Midlands Shared Services event and this year we will be hosting 2 quizzes on the same evening in Birmingham & Nottingham.

Which organisation will take the bragging rights and which region will leave with their tail between their legs?

We’d love you to join us for a fun, competitive charity quiz! If you are based in the West Midlands, our quiz master Helen Livesey, Business Director at Hays will host the event at the Hays Birmingham office and if you are based in the East Midlands, Simon Lydon, Senior Manager at Hays will lead the evening at Baresca in Nottingham.

We can promise a challenging and fun quiz to get you and your team in the festive spirit whilst we all raise some money for charity too!

We hope you can join us.

We are delighted to invite you to the Midlands Shared Services Forum Summer Social to be hosted by Mitchells & Butlers at The Saxon Mill in Warwickshire.

The summer social is a fantastic opportunity for you to network in a relaxed environment with the forum committee, friends, colleagues and peers within the Shared Services community. To get the conversations going, and to give you a chance to help shape the MSSF 2020 agenda, we are also asking Andy Bass, an external consultant, to lead an engaging and interactive session, which will be a great way to start the evening.

This is a free event for our members and will include both a buffet and drinks.

Please ensure you register for this event as soon as possible as we only have 50 spaces and we look forward to seeing you there.

We are delighted to invite you to the next Midlands Shared Services Forum in Derby hosted by Rolls Royce.

At this forum, Sharon Walton, Service Head – Client Operations at Infosys BPM and Linda O’Connor, UK Shared Services Finance Director at Essentra Packaging & Security Limited will introduce their story and experiences of Shared Services and Outsourcing.

Rob Shortland, Finance Director – GBS, Innovation Hub and Head Office, Rolls Royce will bring to life the “Rolls Royce Outsourcing Journey”, discussing key moments, challenges, lessons learnt and successes.

There will be plenty of time for Q&A and an opportunity to meet the team and have a more informal discussion with the people at the heart of the journey alongside the MSSF experts.

You will also have the opportunity to network and take a tour of the Rolls-Royce heritage centre.

Join us for our next P2P Quality Circle

Presentation & discussion topics will include:

• KPI’s & Reporting Industry trends
• Payment practices & Reporting analysis

We are delighted to invite you to the Midlands Shared Services Forum Quiz and Social at All Bar One in Brindley Place, Birmingham.

With Christmas long behind us and the new year’s fitness regimes in full flow, we all need something to look
forward to, so please come and join us for a fun and competitive charity quiz!

Our resident quiz master Helen Livesey will provide a challenging and engaging afternoon as Elfords (Halfords)
look to retain their title.

As per last year this has a charity flavour supporting both the Hays charity, Action for Children and our hosts
M&B`s charity, Birmingham Children’s Hospital. Tickets are £5 per person and to reserve your place, please pay
your donation to the just giving page with your name or team details (teams are ideally 6 people but we can be
flexible). Tickets will include a buffet, a few drinks and a taxing quiz, all for two great causes.

We are also hosting a few mixed tables for those who may come on their own, are keen to network or those who
recognise their colleagues will probably let them down and they are better off in team with others!

We hope you can join us.

We are delighted to invite you to the next Midlands Shared Services Forum, and our first East Midlands event at the Donington Park Farmhouse Hotel.

At this forum, Tim Hall, Senior Director, Hays will discuss findings from the national What Workers
Want – The Applicant Journey 2018 report, which explores the candidate journey and how improving
the recruitment process can help ensure you secure the best talent in a highly competitive market.

Neil Smart and Danny Whitbread from Mitchells & Butlers Employee Shared Service Centre will
present on how their people agenda has had a direct impact on customer service.

Andrew Parris, Director of Shared Services at Tarmac, Linda O’Connor, Director of Shared Services at
Essentra, Emma Line, Head of Finance Shared Services at Britvic and Ian English, Head of Financial
Shared Services at Halfords will then take a lead on breakout discussions around the key challenges
you are facing and how the East Midlands can get the best out of the Midlands SSC Forum.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Join us for our next P2P Quality Circle

Topics to include:

• Payment Practice Reporting
• Expenses Automation
• Purchase cards

We are delighted to invite you to the next Midlands Shared Services Forum event.

At this forum, Andrew Parris, Shared Services Director, Tarmac will be bringing Process Ownership and Process Improvement to life. Continuing the process theme, Hannah Pearsall, Client Engagement Director, Hays and Tim Hall, Senior Director, Hays will discuss findings from the national What Workers Want – The Applicant Journey 2018 report, which explores the candidate journey and how improving the recruitment process can help ensure you secure the best talent in a highly competitive market.

We are delighted to invite you to the next Midlands Shared Services Forum event in Lichfield, hosted by Mitchells & Butlers at The Bowling Green.

The topic this time will build on the last forum event around customer service, and look at how M&B:

• Use creative ways to engage with their customers and capture their feedback (e.g. social media and roadshow events)
• Use personal development plans as a vehicle for their people to drive continuous improvement and customer focus
• Engage their SSC people so they go above and beyond

Teas and coffees will be available throughout and the intention is to follow the breakout sessions with a BBQ in the “secret garden” (if the weather holds out), accompanied with a beverage or two and some informal entertainment following the session.

If you would like to secure your place in advance of the invitation being issued, as places will be limited, please contact Tim Hall at Hays (tim.hall@hays.com) or Danny Whitbread at M&B (danny.whitbread@mbplc.com).

We look forward to seeing you there.

We are delighted to invite you to the next Midlands Shared Services forum in Worcester.

Customers sit at the heart of every great Shared Service Centre. Embedding the voice of the customer within each process and interaction, both personal and through technology, is key to providing customer service excellence.

Emma Line, Head of Corporate Shared Services, will share Sanctuary Group’s commitment to customer service and show how customers have shaped service provision across their social housing business. As well as providing insight to current service, there will also be an engaging discussion around what good looks like and past lessons learnt.

Caroline Dawson, Communications and Engagement Specialist, will lead discussions around customer engagement and feedback purpose and methods. Caroline will also be providing Q&A to help make your customer service strategy fit for the future.

Finally, as part of the Forum’s commitment to customer service, the session will ask the audience for feedback and topic ideas for further events.

There will be a limited number of places at the event, so please confirm your attendance as soon as possible.

We look forward to seeing you there.

We are delighted to invite you to the next Midlands Shared Services Christmas forum in Birmingham.

As the festive season is fast approaching (I am sorry I know it’s only October!) we wanted to make sure you had this date in your diary. We’d love you to join us for a fun, competitive charity quiz!

Our quiz master Helen Livesey, Business Director at Hays will provide a challenging and fun quiz to get you and your team in the festive spirit whilst we all raise some money for charity too!

Of course there will also be an opportunity for networking with like-minded connections. £5 per ticket* – all of which will go to our nominated charity.

Book your place early to avoid disappointment!

*We have limited booking to 5 people from each organisation. The ticket price will cover canapés and drinks.

We hope you can join us.

We are delighted to invite you to the next Midlands Shared Services forum in Birmingham.

People are key to the success of any Shared Service Centre. The ability to identify talent at the start of their career and showcase shared services as a career of choice is something both Interserve and Bilfinger GVA have been able to achieve.

Kalbir Rai, Interserve FM’s Head of P2P will explain how Interserve’s finance operations have successfully developed and built up a finance talent pool since the creation of their Shared Service Centre and their successful partnership with BPP. Delivering a pipeline of strong individuals through leadership, mentoring and training to deliver tangible benefits to their wider business.

Sharon Walton, Senior Director COO Property Management Accounts GVA will then lead thought and discussion around the development of staff past their technical knowledge, including what opportunities are available to compliment technical CPD to grow your leaders and challenge you to think about your own personal development goals.

As always this will be a relatively informal event, with plenty of opportunities for discussion and networking.

There will be a limited number of places at the event, so please confirm your attendance as soon as possible.

We look forward to seeing you there.

We are delighted to invite you to the next Midlands Shared Services forum in Birmingham.

Technology is a key enabler to delivering efficient and effective Shared Services. We often talk about Process and regularly talk about People at our forum events, but very rarely do we touch on Technology.

Andrew Parris, Director of Shared Services, Tarmac will explain how Tarmac have considered automation within their SSC, including a feasibility study and an implementation of RPA. Sharon Walton Director, Chief Operating Officer PMC, Bilfinger GVA will also discuss how GVA have been reviewing how they share best practice and use of applications and the non-system side of automation.

The session will then go on to explore the various technologies that we use across our SSCs within the Midlands.

Andrew and Sharon will do their best to bring technology to life and you can enjoy a much deserved drink with us all at Opus Bar afterwards.

There will be a limited number of places at the event, so please confirm your attendance as soon as possible.

We hope you can join us for what promises to be an informative and valuable session.

We are delighted to invite you to the next Midlands Shared Services forum in Birmingham.

Glenn Collins, Director of Finance Operations, Interserve and Stephen Duffy, Director, Act Lean will explain how Interserve’s finance operations have successfully applied Lean principles in their operations over the last three years in partnership with Act Lean; to embed continuous improvement in Interserve’s Shared Services in the UK and to build Lean capabilities in the finance team in an innovative and involving way that quickly delivered real improvements and has continued to do so throughout this programme.

They will provide insight on how this has been achieved, the stages of the programme and the difference that this has made to the finance operations, to the team working in the SSC, and to the wider Interserve business.

There will be a limited number of places at the event, so please confirm your attendance as soon as possible.

We hope you can join us for what promises to be an informative and valuable session.