1 supporting

1 supporting mobility, efficiency and consistency of service, and standard quality data for comparability and central reporting.

In 2021, the NSSO continued to deal with the ongoing challenges posed by the COVID-19 lockdowns and the gradual easing of restrictions throughout the year. The Board members and I were impressed once again with how the NSSO met these challenges with resilience, and with a constant focus on business continuity, personnel wellbeing and customer service.

invested in upgrading its HR platform which, once fully implemented in 2023, will improve both the quality and speed of its services. Further investment was also made in robotic technology in 2021, resulting in increased digitisation across the NSSO.

Significant progress was also made to advance the Financial Management Shared Services Programme during 2021. This will be the NSSO’s third major service offering driving real transformation. It will provide a single centralised standardised accounting and finance service on a single technology platform to over 50 Government bodies. The Board is confident that this complex programme will be in a position to deliver a full end-to-end service to the first wave of clients in Spring 2022.

The NSSO continued to improve, grow and enrich the services it offered to its clients in the Public Sector during 2021. Not only did the NSSO’s client base increase by 3%, but it also broadened the services offered and increased its value through digital data analytics as a service to Government Departments and Offices. To address a critical technology risk, during 2021 the NSSO

1 Civil Service Renewal 2030 Strategy ‘Building on our Strengths’ 2 National Shared Services Office Strategy 2021 – 2023

Annual Report 2021

Last March the NSSO launched its Statement of Strategy for 2021 to 2023

Chair and Interim Chair of the Board during 2021 before my appointment. I look forward to supporting the NSSO and the Board with its governance over the coming years.

2 to drive its work and meet its key challenges and risks, and manage the pace of change. This new strategy will enable the NSSO meet its challenges to ensure the Office’s ultimate mission is achieved. The Board members and I have reviewed the progress of this Strategy regularly with the management of the NSSO during 2021.

Niamh O’Donoghue Chairperson Advisory Board National Shared Services Office

COVID-19 has changed the nature of work. A hybrid working model is essential for organisations to compete for talent and build the workforce of the future. Throughout 2021 the NSSO looked at how best to adopt this model for its staff and ran a pilot programme with a group of staff to bring them back to the office one day a week. Adapting to this hybrid work environment is a now a priority for the NSSO in 2022.

Finally, I wish to thank my fellow Advisory Board members for the valued advice they have given me, and the Chief Executive and her colleagues in the NSSO for driving forward the Shared Services model in the civil and wider public service. I would also like to thank and highlight the contributions of Secretaries General Robert Watt and Dr Orlaigh Quinn for their respective roles as

National Shared Services Office (NSSO)

Chief Executive’s Review of the Year

Figure from page 6

Figure from page 6

Throughout the year, the NSSO delivered reliable, accurate HR services to 47 client bodies and Payroll services of almost €6 billion in value, with strong controls, evidenced by the quality metrics and ISAE certification achieved for these services. The Office was led and managed effectively by our Management Team with robust operational and financial discipline despite the ongoing challenges the COVID-19 pandemic presented during 2021. As a result, the NSSO matured and made significant improvements in core operations, and strengthened our digital capabilities in data and analytics.

Using the latest digital technologies on a single platform data analytics can now be accessed by our client management whenever they wish.

In 2021, our service level targets were met and overpayments reduced by 30%. Further progress was made to improve the customer experience, with the launch of our Customer Action Plan.

As a service organisation, the NSSO relies heavily on our people for success. The unprecedented challenges of COVID-19 have required our staff to work in a new and more agile way. This is built on trust. We are now applying the learnings from the past two years to develop a progressive Blended Working Policy in 2022.

In light of the increased security risk presented by the threat of a cyber-attack in 2021, we strengthened our risk management framework, policy and procedures. We identified the need for significant investment in our ICT capability and commenced a recruitment drive to increase our senior leadership, strategic planning, enterprise architecture and cyber security capabilities.

Looking to the future, the NSSO will expand the data insights and analysis we provide to our clients. The availability of new technologies such as cloud computing and artificial intelligence will allow the NSSO to process data more efficiently which in turn enables the NSSO to expand the services that we can provide to our clients based on that data. The focus on security, protection

This year we also launched our new Statement of Strategy for 2021-2023

Over the term of this Strategy, we will work to scale up our innovative efforts by connecting and collaborating with colleagues across the Public Service. The trends and data insights we can now provide to our clients is transformative.

3 National Shared Services Office Strategy 2021 – 2023

Annual Report 2021

and proper use of personal data in the NSSO is a growing area of risk and concern of all our clients, and the NSSO has put robust governance in place to respond to these challenges.

I would also like to thank our new Chairperson Niamh O’Donoghue and the members of the Advisory Board for their support to me personally, and I thank all of the members of the Programme Boards and Governance fora for their time and commitment to help our organisation progress and achieve the longterm goals of Government.

Significant progress was made during 2021 to ensure Finance Shared Services will be ready to go live in Spring 2022. This has been one of the most complex and challenging programmes that the NSSO has undertaken, taking 31 disparate finance and accounting systems and nonstandard processes across central Government and redesigning those processes end-to-end on a new, single integrated technology platform with automation.

I have no doubt that the initiatives we undertook across the organisation in 2021 will ensure that we are very well positioned to implement the next phase of our Statement of Strategy in 2022.

Hilary Murphy-Fagan Chief Executive National Shared Services Office

While this programme has been very challenging, because of the scale of transformation and complexity of accounting needs, it has enabled our staff to gain huge knowledge from it and grow their own leadership abilities that will benefit them in every digital transformation project we embark on in the future.

I want to say a special word of thanks to all our employees for their work in 2021. Our people have continued to step up and regularly go the extra mile to deliver for our customers and clients. We continue to invest in our leadership teams, and I am privileged to work alongside some of the most talented and capable people in the Civil Service and in the Shared Services industry sector. Our depth of talent and leadership skills give me great confidence that we will overcome every challenge we face.

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CHAPTER

Mission, Vision

Figure from page 8

Figure from page 8

and Values

Annual Report 2021

The NSSO is a statutory Civil Service Office under the aegis of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.

Mission Our mission as a Civil Service Office is to deliver an excellent service to Civil and Public Service staff (our end-users) on behalf of our client Public Service Bodies and deliver value for money to citizens by providing excellent corporate business services and data insights to Government.

The NSSO is an ambitious organisation that delivers real value: • to the people who rely on us for services, by providing an easily accessible and efficient service across a broad range of pay, pension, leave and retirement services;

• to the organisations that use our business services, by delivering large volumes of administration services and data analysis, freeing up local resources for strategic management and improving business decision-making; and

Vision Our vision for the NSSO is to be a customerfocused, innovative, and learning organisation, setting the standards for and providing consistently high quality shared services and data insights that support business needs. Trusted by others, we will build a strong culture that is collaborative, performancedriven and people-focused.

• to the taxpayer, in the context of providing these standardised services in a costefficient and effective way.

As well as providing shared services to our Civil Service partners, the NSSO works to promote the use of shared services as a business model across the wider Public Service.

Values Our values, building on the Civil Service Code of Standards and Behaviour, are:

• People First

• Process and Digital Innovation Next

• Service Excellence Always

Figure from page 9