SHARED SERVICES centres in Ireland have the potential to create significant new employment, with new research from Accenture finding that management at 48 per cent of them expect to increase their number of employees next year.
The research, carried out in association with IDA Ireland and the UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, found there were now 140 such centres in Ireland, employing 35,000 staff.
Shared services centres typically provide functions such as technical support, finance and accounting, human resources and payroll to their parent organisation in a number of countries.
Barry O’Leary, chief executive of IDA Ireland, noted the level of sophistication of the centres had increased significantly in the last 20 years.
The study found 25 per cent of Irish centres were sophisticated enough to be classed as “masters”. This compared to just 8 per cent of centres worldwide.
Mark Ryan, country managing director for Accenture Ireland, said Irish centres were generally on the “leading edge” in terms of the work they were doing, and their use of technology. However, the sector would have to be better promoted to graduates and other potential employees to expand.
