Insight from the Top 20 Most Admired GBS

One of the highlights of last week’s SSOW London was a panel discussion with SSON’s Top 20 Most Admired Global Business Services. If you weren’t one of the hundreds onsite, we’ve summarised the key take-away’s below.

Speakers: Andras Kohl, Head of Finance Business Services, Tesco Business Solutions and Leigh Nicholson, Strategic Solutions Lead, Takeda Business Solutions.

The Top 20 Most Admired GBS/SSO award is a prestigious accolade that recognises outstanding achievements and exceptional performance benchmarks of Global Business Services Organisations. The results of the benchmarking aid others in the SSON community to assess their own performance, highlighting valuable data and promoting strategic business improvement.

Both Tesco Business Solutions and Takeda Business Solutions stand out as high performers, featuring regularly in the Top 20 list.

SSON identify candidates and award the winners based on two factors:

1. Firstly, companies are shortlisted by optimizing cross- channel data from the large SSON Global community consisting of 200,000 members.
2. And, Secondly, through performance study and industry feedback we invite shortlisted companies to participate in a thorough benchmarking study. The results of this study coupled with industry feedback help SSON decide the highest achievers, who will receive recognition for their outstanding performance.  

From the session with Andras Kohl, Tesco and Leigh Nicholson, Takeda, we narrowed it down to three key takeaways:

1. Managing Attrition 

It was identified that Employee Value Proposition (EVP) needs to be improved and elevated to retain valuable talent and aid in the expansion of skill sets within the workplace. The panellists noted the importance of shifting traditional perspectives on hiring talent to look at a broad variety of skills such as empathy, willingness to challenge the status quo and a natural tendency to explore. In the SSON State of the Shared Services & Outsourcing Industry Global Market Report 2024, one thing that was noted was the challenges with retaining the younger demographic. 84% of respondents stated that they thought their Gen Z employees were likely to stay in the company just 3 years or less in some cases. To further improve talent acquisition organizations are looking at implementing programs that help diversify and develop skill sets such as risk management. The panel also suggested implementing in-house management programs that are low-risk and user-friendly. When leadership potential through leveraging programs can be identified, those with higher efficiency can be delegated to other functions for career expansion. Resulting in a greater focus on training employees to face challenges, taking skills to the next level, and broadening horizons to further business development.

2. Automation and Where The Subsequent Cost Savings Go

The SSON State of the Shared Services & Outsourcing Industry Global Market Report 2024, shows that 88% of businesses are focused on cost efficiency and savings.  Ultimately cost savings arise from a business culture of continuous improvement. This includes looking for effective solutions and tools for current issues whilst highlighting pain points within a business.  However, the panel did note that often these cost-savings don’t immediately translate to improved bottom-line as many are re-invested in Automation or AI tools.  What can also help is implementing a resource management team to identify inefficiencies that can translate into monetary value. The panel also noted that the best ideas don’t necessarily come from the top, employees on the ground can be equally insightful. Therefore, using a tracker whereby ideas from all levels can be contributed to both innovate and solve problems, is a great addition.

3. Talent Management & Learning and Development 

Bulking up the training portfolio can ensure a continuous learning journey for staff. It was mentioned that a 47-question annual survey with plenty of room for comments, helps management identify areas that can improve the quality of working life for staff. Having this forum to air any concerns or queries enables staff to feel safe and heard when giving feedback. Additionally, partitioning out meeting groups with higher levels of management is a great people strategy to get a good idea of what is going on at all levels of the company, shaping how employees work together and communicate. Asking questions is a great way to gauge thoughts but it is useless if action is not taken, the aim here would be to ultimately get conversations out of ‘kitchen gossip’ and into a forum for management to act on it.  

If you’re interested in hearing more from GBS experts don’t forget to register for our flagship European event here: Shared Services & Outsourcing Week Europe, May 2025.