Top 5 (Near) Future Shared Services and GBS Trends

Last month I was lucky enough to be at SSO Week Europe, SSON’s flagship European event. Not only was it a great opportunity to understand what the shared services community are currently focusing on, but their aims, drivers and future goals. Based on this insight, I’m predicting the following (near) future shared services trends. Let me know in the comments your thoughts.

1. Rapid and diverse expansion of services

Many shared services have now done a fair amount of centralizing, optimizing, and automating and in the next few years this will only grow. So, what’s next? In order to continue to add value, shared services will up their ambition when it comes to service lines. They’ll provide more advanced and more bespoke services to their organizations, helping them gain a competitive edge. 

2. GBS will be seen as THE place to build a multi-hyphenate, diverse career

The days when someone chooses a role and sticks to it, are over, and that’s no bad thing. Nowadays employees want to try different job roles, work around the world, and often switch career paths (without going back to square one when it comes to salary). Traditional recruitment methods have not caught up with this yet. But GBS, with its rapidly growing service lines, agile business model and global centers, can provide the answer. It’s only a matter of time (and branding) before candidates start to realize this and GBS becomes THE place to work. 

3. We’ll all become digital 

The gap between IT and the business has been diminishing as employees get more tech-savvy and technology more user-friendly. In the next five years this gap will close further and GBS will not only drive enterprise digital transformation for the organization but be seen as an incubator for new technology and its application possibilities.

4. More And more GBSs will commercialize

As shared services become more mature, they’ll seek to add value to their organization through revenue. It won’t be an easy transition as the model needs much additional preparation and tools, but with big brands such as Tesco and ArcelorMittal already getting started, surely others will follow. 

5. More GBS leaders will become board-level (and more will be female)

With shared services leading digital transformation, owning many of the most important service lines and acting as a crucial engine to organizational growth, it makes complete sense that GBS leaders will get a seat at the table. In the last SSON State of the Industry Report, 55% of shared services already reported into the CEO or CFO, and this will only grow. From an equality standpoint, in 2023, only 10% of Fortune 500 companies have women at the helm, a meager 2% growth from 2022. As an industry where women are well represented, albeit not currently in leadership roles, my hope is that GBS will lead the charge for promoting and growing more female GBS leaders.