Best Practices for Human Resources Shared Services in the Federal Government

Based in Washington, D.C., Z Street Consulting is a shared services consulting firm for federal government clients. In an era where federal government agencies face increased demands to do more with less, senior administrators seek to reduce management services costs in order to focus resources on core functions. While prior centralization of services focused on financial management, information technology, and payroll systems, recent Office of Management and Budget directives have emphasized expanding the scope of shared services to include the whole suite of human resources. A Capstone team was tasked with capturing best practices for the transition to human resources shared services and developing recommendations in this arena.  The team conducted extensive research on shared services literature and practices and also interviewed shared services practitioners in the federal government. The team developed a series of best practices to inform future shared services implementations in human resources and created infographics to translate these best practices for quick reference.