As part of a desire to become a lean organisation and create a fit for the future structure, this automotive firm wanted support to redesign one of their core central functions to drive greater collaboration, a future focused strategy and generate efficiencies.

I’m very considered with who I put in front of the Board, Wharton exceeded expectations. They gave us a credible structure within tight timescales, I was delighted.

People Director, VW Group UK

Our approach:

WhartonBC began by identifying and mapping the existing organisational capabilities across the function. We then overlaid desired future capabilities to define the ‘to-be’ mandate to achieve VWG’s objectives.

We considered a range of future capability configuration options, resulting in the proposal of eight ‘to-be’ designs. Through a series of workshops and close engagement with VWG’s stakeholders, the top 2 ‘To-Be’ options were selected.

Following Board agreement on the preferred design option, WhartonBC co-created the detailed design, calculated efficiency savings and produced a detailed capability gap analysis to identify skill discrepancies between the old and new design.

In addition, we engaged with and briefed the Heads of Business and nominated business experts to map priority processes, creating RACIs to articulate how the processes would work in the new model. Finally, we created a consultation and implementation plan to support the team in deploying the new model.

 

VWG praised the ability of the WhartonBC team who:

·     Confidently engaged senior stakeholders and attended board meetings to keep the business informed and bought into the design and delivery of the project

·     Gained the buy in and confidence of the project teams so they participated in the design work and were supportive of the change activities

·     Worked closely with HR and Heads of Business to identify the change impacts of the design, along with any recommended interventions / mitigations

·     Were an engaged and personable team, able to co-design and co-deliver with the VWG team

·     Provided considered consultation, demonstrating openness and a want to listen to employee feedback

 

The project resulted in the following outcomes:

·     Successful launch the new function design within the tight timescales and within budget

·     A clearly defined set of the skills, competencies and knowledge required for each stakeholder group

·     Priority processes mapped and updated with the new roles and responsibilities

·     A year later, a review of the new structure received positive results and reconfirmed that the design was right for the function