plusHR (www.plushr.com), the HR outsourcing specialist, has been announced as the first supplier chosen by the newly-formed Project Oscar – an m-commerce joint venture between Everything Everywhere, O2 and Vodafone that will provide a unified smartphone-based service offering an alternative to cash, credit cards or loyalty cards for in-store shopping.
plusHR fought off a shortlist of fifteen competitors, winning the contract to provide Project Oscar with retained HR administration, Payroll Services, HR Management Services, Recruitment and Reward Support – facilitating the expected growth of the London-based company from 40 staff to 150 by the end of the first year and providing enormous cost benefits through scalable activity and a ‘more for less’ outsourced service.
Project Oscar wanted to differentiate itself from its parent companies by building the business on flexible, scalable processes which were unique to the new organisation. Through outsourcing the primary areas of HR administration and management, Payroll Services, Recruitment and Benefits, Project Oscar has been able to rapidly establish simple, streamlined business processes.
Heather Wootton, HR lead, Project Oscar, “By virtue of starting as a joint venture, rather than a typical start-up, we found ourselves to be a sizeable organisation from day one, with no time to grow slowly. We had an urgent and immediate need to put into place an HR management foundation and a structure within which to build corporate values and ethos, but in a way that defined Project Oscar as distinct from its parent companies. The only way to achieve this therefore was to outsource our HR to a trusted, proven supplier with a track record of supporting fledgling companies both in their initial phases and once they had grown to maturity.”
plusHR was therefore selected on the basis of its impressive industry credentials – with the business being built by ex-HR Directors and having proven success in projects of similar complexity to Project Oscar – as well as its ability to directly accommodate three of the four areas to be outsourced, whilst offering oversight and support for the fourth, benefits. This breadth of service was a prime differentiator in selecting plusHR.
Wootton continues, “Considering the speed with which we are aiming to grow our headcount, the aim for Project Oscar’s HR activity has always been to keep things as simple and agile as possible and escape the complexity of process that has at times constrained our parent companies. What was important to us was therefore freeing up our HR resource to build an internal culture and help grow the business, by outsourcing our HR administration, payroll and recruitment to a trusted supplier, whilst also adding to our senior resource by having experienced HR support on hand whenever required.”
As with any successful outsourced function, plusHR has acted from the outset as an extension of the main HR operation, with no discernible division between the internal and external teams. For instance, the outsourced team’s HR correspondence, payroll support and even candidate dialogue within the recruitment process all share the values, tone and approach taken by the internal team.
Wootton adds, “plusHR’s team worked as a seamless extension of our team, without needing to be asked to. This innate cooperation was vitally important to us – we didn’t want employees or potential candidates to realise – or be concerned – that they were engaging with an external organisation. plusHR’s professionalism avoided all of these concerns.”
The plusHR team comprises a dedicated HR administrator, payroll manager, HR manager, recruiter and strategic HR consultant, along with their own support teams – all of whom work together closely from the same premises and are able to ensure that the same approach filters throughout all activities. In addition, the senior HR resource and recruitment team’s activity can be scaled up and down according to need, reducing overhead costs at times when it might not be necessary – something that clearly cannot be done with employed staff.
Wootton explains, “The cost benefits are often cited as the main driver for outsourcing, and while this wasn’t the principal motivation for Project Oscar, the stark contrast in cost between internal and external resource was a welcome additional incentive. To have hired an HR administrator alone would have been double the cost to us than the entire plusHR contract, and of course with plusHR, we have much more than mere HR administration support. In addition, to have contracted a typical RPO would have been as much as five times the expense of the recruitment element of plusHR’s contract!”
Sharon Crooks, HR Services Director, plusHR concludes, “For plusHR to be chosen as the first supplier for Project Oscar reaffirms plusHR’s credibility, experience and breadth of high quality service. In a very competitive market, Project Oscar must move swiftly in the early months to retain their advantage. Having the right people in place quickly is critical, and supporting them with best practice HR will ensure they are performing at their best. An outsourced HR service can meet the requirement for speed and flexibility, but to deliver all the benefits, it must be underpinned by very close collaboration and a real understanding of the business goals. We are privileged to work with Project Oscar in this ground breaking new sector.”
