A large chemical manufacturer with a 200-year history made two significant acquisitions to expand its footprint and breadth of product offerings, transforming into one of the world’s largest science companies with a global workforce of over 60,000 people.
It soon became evident that these separate programs would have to be consolidated—or “harmonized”—to leverage their combined strengths and maximize effectiveness—enter the Weichert Studio®!
Utilizing our Program Harmonization Studio our first step in the process was helping the client identify the right internal stakeholders, being certain to include key project leaders who could effectively collect feedback and communicate back to their internal customers. Next, we helped the client build consensus around the goals of the new program, which included cost control, consistency among the three companies, ease of administration, and competitive benefits that supported talent management. Making these critical decisions upfront ensured that not only sustainable program in the future, but also allowed us to prioritize tasks and develop project milestones that could be achieved within the aggressive timeframe.
From there, Weichert’s Consultant (Studio Director) conducted a side-by-side analysis of the three programs, identifying consistencies among provisions as well as gaps and benchmarking them against best practices for their industry. Our analysis revealed that the largest of the three companies was overly generous with the benefits offered to employees, presenting an opportunity for significant cost reduction. We delivered our recommendations to the client task force, along with benchmark statistics that would support a single program.
From there, we assisted the client in designing a new policy structure with multiple tiers that reflected different employee demographics, with benefits offerings customized to meet the unique needs of each group. An extensive cost analysis was prepared to measure the impact to the company using historical cost data. Furthermore, recommendations were made on how to implement the new program and effectively grandfather relocations that were currently in progress. The proposed program and data was then presented to senior-level management for approval.
The Bottom Line: The Studio’s harmonization of policies resulted in a savings of approximately $2,000,000–or $3,600 per relocation—for the client, while retaining the competitive edge the client required to attract top-level talent.
Seeing the bigger picture can be a difficult exercise for professionals. In the Program Harmonization Studio, our Director objectively works to align and integrate different mobility policies and practices across the organization to achieve consistency, efficiency and compliance.
Jennifer Connell, Vice President Advisory Services