In 2008, a global healthcare client undertook a substantial corporate restructure to address the challenges raised by the imminent expiry of a number of key drug patents. The aim was to shift to smaller, customer-driven business units with reduced, more flexible cost structures and a renewed commitment to innovation.

To support this new business structure, the client needed to transform its Human Resources (HR) organisation and looked for a professional services firm with global reach and extensive HR transformation experience to support the change.

Over three years, more than 200 consultants from member firms in 20 countries worked on the project to standardise policies and practices across 26 countries, while also designing in flexibility to accommodate local variations in laws, regulations and cultures. Our HR service delivery model now supports around 90,000 employees – 83 per cent of the client’s total headcount – across 26 countries and in 11 different languages.

In delivering this assignment on time and to budget we were able to draw on the experience of over 100 global HR transformation programmes, and although this is one of the largest we have undertaken, it has also proven to be one of the smoothest.