Use Case

To meet the demands of its diverse employee population and to enable growth, a global financial services firm that had recently gone public needed assistance with:

  • Streamlining HR processes.
  • Assessing current diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) benefits and programs.
  • Enhancing the structure and operation of the HR function.
  • Evaluating and selecting enhanced human resource information systems (HRIS).

The company was preparing for growth but was limited by highly manual processes and systems that could not scale to support HR and the firm’s employees and increasingly complex reporting requirements. That’s when it engaged CrossCountry Consulting for an end-to-end assessment of the HR function.

Our Approach

CrossCountry Consulting deployed a team of hands-on HR experts to initiate a full-scale assessment of the client’s HR operating model and systems.

Working in collaboration with the CHRO and key HR and IT stakeholders, we analyzed all existing processes to develop recommendations on how the client could better support employees. The detailed analysis included:

  • Assessing, benchmarking, and enhancing HR processes.
  • Aligning the HR operating model to the firm’s objectives and leadership’s vision for the future.
  • Identifying requirements and options for an optimized HRIS and the better usage of automation.
  • Ensuring the DEI program mapped to the company’s commitment to a supported, diverse workforce.

We focused first on addressing immediate concerns to achieve quick wins, with our consultants delivering value throughout the organization at multiple stages of the partnership before moving into longer-term strategic recommendations.

Our Impact

The team was able to right-size the HR operating model, ensuring it enabled the growth of the business and empowered employees in their roles. After defining HRIS requirements, we assisted with the development of an RFP for demonstrations, selection, and implementation.

We provided a series of HR optimization opportunities and recommendations, including:

  • Identified and diagnosed current-state pain points with processes, systems, data, and organizational design.
  • Developed short-, medium-, and long-term solutions for future-state process improvement.
  • Uncovered gaps and challenges with existing DEI efforts.
  • Identified DEI metrics to measure, opportunities to expand, and goals to pursue – all in a seamless reporting model so employees, leadership, recruits, and investors can track DEI progress.
  • Discovered areas for process improvement and increased efficiency throughout the HR function.
  • Paved the way for the implementation of best-in-class HR systems.