A large chemical manufacturer made two significant acquisitions, transforming into one of the world’s largest science companies with a global workforce of over 60,000 people. The acquired organizations each had its own program and policy, and it soon became evident that these separate programs would have to be consolidated—or “harmonized”—to leverage their combined strengths and maximize effectiveness.
Our first step was helping the client build consensus around the goals of the new program: cost control, consistency, ease of administration and competitive benefits that supported talent management. From there, we conducted a side-by-side analysis of the three programs, identifying consistencies among provisions and benchmarking them against industry best practices.
Our analysis revealed that the largest of the three companies was overly generous with its benefits, presenting an opportunity for significant cost reduction. We delivered our recommendations to the client task force, along with benchmark statistics to support a single program. We then designed a new policy structure with multiple tiers reflecting different employee demographics, with benefits customized to each group. An extensive cost analysis was prepared to measure the impact to the company using historical cost data, and recommendations were made to implement the new program and grandfather in-progress moves.
The harmonization of policies resulted in a savings of approximately $2,000,000 for the client, while retaining the competitive edge required to attract top-level talent.