SSF UK Collaboration Week 2024 is taking place from May 13th -17th and you can view the full agenda and register for which sessions you would like to attend below. All session are virtual and will be recorded and available for playback from the website afterwards.
The Hackett Group – 10am: Developing Self-Leadership in Challenging Times
Join Philip King, Senior Director, Global Business Services Advisory at The Hackett Group to explore:
· Challenges the modern business environment brings
· Actions to improve our resilience in challenging and difficult times
· Further self-leadership behaviours including development, stakeholder collaboration and change
Get Knowledge – 12pm: LEAD the 'BEST way' and reduce costs, whilst delivering Process Excellence
It is well understood that a core challenge for Shared Service Leaders is “How to reduce costs whilst delivering for customers”. This session with Jason Elliot, Co-Founder at Get Knowledge will help you, as a Leader/Manager in Shared Services, to think differently around how you approach this challenge.
Email jason@getknowledge.co.uk for the Teams link to join.
Vista Employee Services – 2pm: How to Manage Conflict Using Insights Colour Energies
We all bring the unique us to work every day, which means that conflict will be inevitable. How we handle it influences our relationships, and this is where colour energies help by offering useful insights into how to resolve conflict effectively.Insight colour energies represent different personality traits, communication styles, and preferences for approaching work challenges. In this live webinar designed for HR professionals, Vista’s leading industry experts, Sharon Andrew and Beth Armstrong will provide you with practical tools and techniques to share with your managers.
You will learn :- Why we feel negatively about conflict- How to flex our style with colour energies in mind, to manage negative reactions to conflict- How to get to the nub of the issue that's causing conflict.
Re:find Interim & Executive Search - 10:00am: Mastering the Art of Networking.
This session is not just about understanding the importance of networking; it’s about mastering it in a way that aligns with your career goals and personal brand. James Cumming, Managing Director and Executive Search Specialist at Re:find Interim and Executive Search will share actionable strategies and leave you with a newfound confidence in your networking abilities, setting you up for continued professional success.
Work Positive - 13:00pm: The Power of Appreciation: What every people manager needs to know
We all like to feel that we’re appreciated at work. It can help us feel seen, strengthen our connection with colleagues and build our sense of psychological safety. In fact, it’s an important contributor to our performance and our wellbeing.
Good line managers help foster a culture of appreciation, directly and indirectly. They notice the good in their team, highlight what’s working well and ensure people feel valued individually and collectively.
In this session, Michele Deeks & Martin Galpin, Chartered Psychologists and Directors of Work Positive will explore how positive feedback and appreciation is a vital (and often overlooked) part of an effective people manager's toolkit. They will look at the psychology that underpins the topic and share some top tips for practical application, to help you build a positive organisational culture.
LACE Partners - 3:00pm - HR Shared Services Trends 2024: embracing automation and building core resilience
Whilst operational efficiency has always been the premise of HR shared services (HRSS), driving employee experience is now equally part of its DNA. Technology is keeping HR leaders awake at night, with nearly half of the respondents saying their top challenge is that current HR systems and digital enablers are not fit for purpose.
In this session we’ll talk through some of LACE Partners’ HR Shared Services Trends Report findings, looking at a variety of different interesting topics that came from the report, including:
· The trend to become a specialist provider continues and the function is increasingly becoming an innovation centre - two of the top three areas for future service expansion sit under ‘innovation’: improving experience (49%) and HR systems (21%)
· HRSS is taking an increased formal responsibility for people experience across the HR function, placing greater emphasis on addressing the line manager experience
· The data suggests a steady rise in HR services becoming part of a Global Business Services (GBS) model - 12% of survey respondents in 2020 were part of GBS, increasing to 32% in 2024
· Most (71%) still do not have defined career pathways for their HRSS team members - this has not changed since at least 2020
· Taking baby steps with generative artificial intelligence (AI), with returns largely in line with expectations – 29% currently use AI, with just over a third piloting it.
F=@# Mental Health - 10:00am - The Workplace Wellbeing Movement
How Shared Services and Finance professionals, leaders and workplaces can keep moving the mental health conversation forward. Javed Bobat, Mental Health Speaker and Trainer will share useful hints and tips on the following:
Exploring Wellbeing Trends and Insights
YOLO Wellbeing - 2:00pm: How to avoid Burnout. The 2D Approach to managing stress
Are you aware that 9 in 10 workers in the UK experienced high levels of stress and feelings of burnout in the last 12 months.
When we are stressed it's more difficult to focus; decision making is harder and our attention to detail suffers; not to mention the impact it has on our health and wellbeing.
In this interactive workshop YOLO Wellbeing will look at how to identify stress behaviours and emotions; discuss the two D's to manage stress better and provide you with simple tools and techniques to help you reduce stress.
Fab Solutions – 10am: Building Trust and Loyalty in Customer Service
This interactive session with Garry Gormley, Founder at Fab Solutions will look at the tools and techniques Customer Service Agents and Leaders should be using to improve trust levels, build empathy and create rapport in their conversations. Garry will look at how using emotional intelligence techniques can diffuse customer tension and explore what makes a Customer Service agent a trusted Advisor to your customers to help build loyalty and an enhanced customer experience.
ESG PRO – 3:00pm: Green Horizons: Strategies for Excellence in ESG and GHG Carbon Reporting
The "Green Horizons" webinar underscores the necessity of ESG and GHG reporting for UK businesses to satisfy the dual demands of stakeholder transparency and competitive edge, without incurring prohibitive costs. It presents practical, cost-effective strategies for integrating sustainable practices, leveraging technological tools, and fostering a culture of environmental stewardship to achieve credible reporting.
Purchase to Pay Network – 10:00am: Fridays, Fraud and your Finance Team
Sometimes it seems that fraud in Purchase to Pay is impossible to prevent. Almost every week at PPN we report on fraudulent activity across finance, procurement, AP and related departments – each one often bearing very similar traits to the last. But fraudsters are often opportunistic and in most cases their activity follows a pattern. And every activity that follows a pattern leaves a trail of clues. All an organisation needs to do is look out for them, notice them, and know how to act when those clues start to add up. In this Shared Services Forum Collaboration Week special, join Ellen Leith, CEO at the Purchase to Pay Network, industry subject matter expert, Stephen King and CEO FISCAL Technologies, David Griffiths and find out:
· Why Fridays are your most at risk day
· Why fraud is an ESG issue
· How risk affects compliance in today’s regulatory landscape
· The fraud clues to follow
· How digitisation provides insight
· Why people are your problem and your best asset
Chartered Institute of Credit Management (CICM) - 12:00pm - Credit and Collections Essentials for 2024
If you work in Credit Management and Debt Collection, you must keep on top of your professional development and knowledge to perform at your highest. This event covers technical, interpersonal and strategic skills and how you can harness these to enhance your career and professional development.
AAT – 2pm: Understanding the evolving skills landscape for future finance functions
The pace of change in accountancy and finance is significant, as Artificial Intelligence and technology continues to impact the way in which finance professionals operate.
It is key for businesses to understand the ever evolving skills landscape in order to thrive in the future.
Join Jordan Osborn, Employer Account Manager as he explores insight on market trends covering:
