Operational Change and Transformation Consulting

Situation

The HR department at a PE backed global life sciences company based in the Northeast US
had grown as the company grew both organically and through acquisitions. They were using
SAP Success Factors, but the system as implemented did not provide much governance
and had little employee self-service. Processes were inconsistent and employees would get
varied responses depending on who they reached in HR. Because of the growth in the
company, business unit leaders needed strategic support from HR, but HR did not have the
bandwidth to provide it.

Requirements

Assess the HR Operating Model to determine how to improve process and data governance,
add strategic business support, and better utilize technology. Also, review the HRIS to
determine whether to reimplement SAP Success Factors or migrate to a new system.

Assessment Results

The assessment revealed that the HR department had more resources than necessary
compared to similar companies. The lack of data governance led to significant rework being
performed. Data integrity issues and a lack of progress governance took up a significant
amount of leadership time to address self-inflicted issues. This environment left no room to
provide strategic guidance to the business. SAP Success Factors needed so much work to
properly align it to HR’s needs that the level of effort and the cost to reimplement it were the
same as migrating to a new system.

Solution

A design/build/implement project was created to put a shared service model in place with
high volume transactional work handled by HR Operations. Centers of Expertise were
created to oversee process and program design, create policies, and handle complex
transactional work. HRBP roles were redesigned to focus on strategic support for the
business. In addition, a new HRIS was selected and implemented including a new help desk
ticketing system and over 20 self-service options at go live. The efficiencies generated
through improved processes and utilization of the HRIS allowed for an overall team size
reduction of 25% by go live, resulting in annual cost savings of $1.3 million. 

Situation

A leader in the Minerals and Advanced Materials industry had been acquiring companies for about 50 years. In 2018, they began a corporate restructuring that would organize them into two business segments. Once complete, the next phase was to modernize back-office operations starting with Finance. They decided to begin with the creation of a Shared Services hub in Mexico serving the North America. At the same time, they needed to move from three ERP systems down to one and bolt-on new Accounts Payable functionality to their selected ERP.

Requirements

Assess the Finance Operating Model to determine how to segregate high volume transactional work for movement into the new Shared Service Center, improve process and data governance, and consolidate existing technology. In addition, develop new roles, hire, and train staff for the SSC in Mexico.

Assessment Results

The assessment showed that General Accounting, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Asset Management, and Treasury operations could move to the new center. Centers of Expertise were to be set up for each operating group at the North American Headquarters in the US. 

Solution

A design/build/implement project was begun to identify a location for the newly sized and scoped Shared Service center, review and improve processes, create new roles and redesign existing roles, consolidate the ERPs, as well as hire and train staff. Despite the pandemic, the project was completed on time, on budget, and yielded a three year return on investment by creating significant savings through efficiencies, technology cost savings, and wage arbitrage.

Situation

One of the largest technology companies in the world based in Mountain View, CA was unable to scale up and down their contingent workforce at the pace required. There were over 50,000 contingent workers worldwide operating in dozens of centers. The workforce was administered out of three hubs, one in the US, another in Poland, and a third in the Philippines.

Requirements

Assess and implement improvements for the onboarding, offboarding and redeployment processes. The Time-to-Onboard, Time-to-Offboard, and Time-to-Redeploy metrics all needed to be reduced by at least 25% to meet current requirements.

Assessment Results

Onsite sessions in each service center utilizing Value Stream Mapping and other Lean Six Sigma tools, we were able to determine the largest time waste points in the processes. Focusing on those points, using Regression and Root Cause Analysis yielded over twenty improvement opportunities.

Solution

A process improvement initiative was completed in three months and included new process maps, work instructions, and training for the staff. In the closeout, our measurement against baseline showed that time savings for each metric reduced at least 30% for the new processes.