The background
In January of 2003, a number of North American companies became part of a global water utility. The US and Canadian operations brought in a combined $2.28 billion in revenue in 2003.
The challenge
After the merger dust cleared in the spring of 2004, the company set its goals high: achieve $14.5 million in cost reductions in 2004 through restructuring and staff reductions. And one more thing - the CEO promised the Board that the new company would be in place by July 31.
SHL was quickly brought in to manage the assessment of over 650 employees across the US in an incredibly short timeframe of six weeks. SHL’s strong project management capabilities and experience with similar projects were cited as the main reasons behind our success in being awarded the $2.8 million project over two well-known competitors.
The solution
As a means of identifying the best candidates for the new company from the existing employee base, SHL designed and administered an assessment process that was credible, legally defensible and which utilized multiple assessment methods. A critical success factor for the company was that the process be fair in the eyes of all existing employees and managers.
In addition, the company wanted to surface its best talent and therefore did not restrict employees from applying for any posted position in any region.
With "the precision of a military campaign", four Assessment Centres were quickly established across the US; one in the west, one in the central region, and two in the south-east.
Over the course of 53 days, a team of 15 SHL Consultants and 22 Associates assessed a total of 665 individuals against a set of future performance criteria, using SHL’s Occupational Personality Questionnaire (OPQ) and a structured interview based on the competencies critical for the job. Minimum qualifications and technical skills were also reviewed.
The results
In the project debrief meeting in August 2004 with the SHL engagement directors and the client, the company’s Corporate Director of Organisational Development noted that “The project success was a real miracle. The project planning and management by SHL was very good; we still don’t think [competitor consultancies] could have done this.”
The client also noted that “this project has changed the organisation’s perceptions on how to do selection. The process had credibility with candidates and managers, it was fair, felt face valid, and the selection decisions made sense.”
In the end, the July 31 deadline was met, with almost 500 employees selected into roles and close to 200 employees exiting the organisation. The company indicated this project led to savings of $13 million by the end of August 2004, and anticipates their goal of $14.5 million will be achieved.