The Problem
A United States-based insurance provider was a top performer in its region for many years until regulatory change brought new competitors to the region. In early 2022, the new CEO recognized the need for structural and strategic change so the business could compete in the marketplace.
They were facing an aging, more diverse, and growing population, vertical and horizontal integration across the industry, higher expectations from customers, competitors with more resources to implement AI and other disruptive technologies, and significant challenges finding, engaging, and retaining new multi-generational talent that reflected their market.
Facing the need for a total business transformation in order to remain competitive, the new CEO brought in a new leadership team. The CHRO, who had previously worked with RBL, reached out for support as she simultaneously tried to bring HR processes up to parity and create the HR processes that would build differentiating capabilities for the organization.
The Solution
The CHRO asked RBL to help articulate the challenges the organization was facing and prioritize the ways that HR needed to change to be more nimble, agile, and impactful in supporting the business.
Diagnosis: Using Organization Guidance System (OGS), HR Effectiveness Survey, and stake-in-the-ground executive interviews, RBL guided the HR leadership team through a process to understand the urgency of the changes needed and to prioritize areas of focus in the near term.
HR Process Re-Design: RBL is facilitating a micro-design process to improve critical HR processes, including: attract and recruit, select, onboard, build talent strength, and business delivery and support.
HR Role Clarification: Additionally, RBL is working with select HR groups to clarify roles and responsibilities across the employee lifecycle between COEs, business partners, and operational support.
The Outcome
This current project is still ongoing; however, some results of this project are already clear:
- While most of the executive and HR leadership team was on board, those that were hesitant now see the value of HR and the business results it can drive for the company.
- The executive and leadership teams now have a clear roadmap of priorities to improve processes in the organization.
As the HR role clarification and process micro-design work advances, business leaders begin to see the improvement in quality and consistency of HR support, it will be easier to attract and hire employees, and HR will be role modeling the kinds of transformation that the whole organization needs to undergo to be able to compete with new entrants.