Our manufacturing client had reams of data spelling out the math. Moving to a shared services model and outsourcing transactional jobs overseas would help them survive the recession and position them for the next downturn in their very cyclical business.
However, fraught with emotion and concern for managing complex cultural integration and communication issues as well as retaining key employees through the transition, key leaders would not buy-in to the strategy.
Our team was called upon to help drive alignment around the issues and the case for change. Through executive coaching and facilitation, we opened a dialogue between leadership and the project team to ensure concerns were understood and a change plan developed to mitigate the risks.
With leadership on board, we moved quickly to identify affected stakeholders, assess the nature and level of impact, and outline a communication strategy and plan to engage them in the change process and garner their support. We collaborated with our client to define the new operating structure and shared services roles to support objectives of the transformation. Our team guided the development of a workforce transition and retention plan to minimize disruption of daily operations and lessen the impact on employee productivity and morale.
We actively managed the outsourcing provider recruitment process to hire and train new employees, as well as designed training to effectively onboard new shared services employees. This specifically involved creating learning experiences for offshore resources to shadow employees to ensure proper understanding of processes and knowledge transfer. Approaching the work holistically, we also designed learning events for shared services employees to better understand the culture of their new offshore teammates and how to effectively communicate with them and the business.
Through effective communication and education, resistance was minimized and all key employees were retained to ensure a smooth transition. Today our client continues to realize significant cost savings, increased efficiencies, and improved performance resulting from the transformation.