Facilitate Large Scale Project

Reengineering Project Anchors Human Resource (HR) Transformation

Client Profile
A billion+ dollar manufacturing company, with over 15,000 active employees and retirees, with corporate payroll, compensation, benefits and employee relations organizations, divisional HR managers, and plant employee relations and payroll staff.

Situation
A proposal to replace the current MSA payroll system with outsourced payroll processing is rejected by senior management. The Senior VP of Human Resources proposes that the group undertake business reengineering projects before revisiting potential technology solutions. HR staff is apprehensive.

Approach
Summer 1995 - Establishing the Case for Action and Strategy
Two 1˝ day planning sessions, facilitated by BRG, identify the desire to reposition HR within the company, the lack of a shared HR vision, and the opportunity to improve process performance. A strategy is developed to: (1) develop a long-range HR vision and (2) utilize reengineering as a tool to enable the redeployment of HR staff from transaction-oriented processes to higher value human asset management processes.

Fall 1995 - Developing the HR Vision
Facilitated by BRG, workshops are held with HR stakeholders, and a process vision for the future is developed. The impact of the vision on the existing HR organization and information technology is determined. Team members, while supportive of the vision, are skeptical of the willingness of the company to fund it.

Fall 1995 - Winter 1996 - Reengineering Current Compensation and Benefits Processes
Phase 1 - Facilitated by BRG, a project team is assembled and a project plan developed. The team is educated in reengineering concepts and trained in reengineering techniques. The team completes the "as-is" assessment in two months, establishing a baseline of current service levels through an employee survey, developing workflow diagrams of the existing processes, and assessing current information technology and infrastructure support.
Phase 2 - Facilitated by BRG, four redesign workshops are conducted with the project team and over fifty employees, focusing on developing ideas for change to the current process. The ideas are analyzed and assembled into the reengineered process. Over fifty ideas are categorized as "fast track" opportunities, and over thirty are implemented in the first month. The recommendations for change and redesign for the new business processes are presented and approved.
Phase 3 - Facilitated by BRG, an information technology gap analysis is performed and RFP's are issued to address the technology needed to implement the new business processes. Vendor responses are analyzed and an overall implementation plan addressing processes, jobs, organization, policies, information technology solutions and change management is developed.

Spring 1996 - Gaining Management Approval and Funding
The implementation plan and strategic justification is completed, and the overall reengineering project is presented to management. Approval is gained at the presentation, and the required appropriation request is approved in seven days, a new company record. Seven implementation projects, including outsourcing, package implementation, custom development and the establishment of employee and retiree service centers are launched.

Summary

The reengineering project justified the acquisition of technology and established the foundation for change required to implement the overall HR vision. The company is now implementing the new business processes that will accomplish the overall restructuring of the entire HR function.

Role of the Business Re-Engineering Group

BRG worked hand-in-hand with the project team, from developing the project charter through the final management presentation. BRG provided education, training, facilitation, analysis, report development and overall guidance to the project, while also accomplishing both knowledge transfer and project ownership transfer. The client team is committed to the implementation, and has developed capabilities to conduct additional reengineering projects.