Months of Admin Eliminated: Australian Org Design Story

Energy Industry  |  10,000 Employees  |  SAP SuccessFactors HR System

Workforce restructuring has evolved from a once-every-few-years event to a near-constant reality for enterprise organisations.

For the Executive Vice President, People and Culture at a large energy organisation, the tools her team relied on, spreadsheets, PowerPoint and Visio, had quietly become the biggest obstacle to doing their jobs well.

Find out how org.manager gave their team a live, secure modelling environment that eliminated a long list of manual work, restored executive confidence and put HR leadership back in the strategic seat where they belong.

The Challenge

Every time a restructure was initiated, the same slow sequence played out:

1. An IT data request was lodged to extract workforce data from SAP SuccessFactors
2. A large raw spreadsheet arrived containing position data, salary information and diversity data with no business rules, analytics or connection to SuccessFactors.
3. The data was already out of date from the moment it landed
4. The HR team manually manipulated the data into org charts, box by box, with limited context
5. By the time a consultation pack reached the executive team, it was weeks old and built on a foundation nobody fully trusted.

Consequences went far beyond slow turnaround times. 

• IT was involved in every project by default, breaking the confidentiality that workforce design processes require. 
• HR teams were buried in manual work that had nothing to do with strategy. 
• Executives were making critical workforce decisions based on data they had reason to doubt.

“We were spending way too much time on low-value manual tasks. Drawing boxes, working with spreadsheets, not on actual strategy,” said the Executive Vice President of People and Culture.

Finding the Right Partner in Navigo

The organisation knew it had significant challenges with its HR and Finance data that was resulting in slow and inefficient org design processes.

Navigo was chosen for its ability to manage that data complexity while maximising the organisation’s investment in SuccessFactors and automating their org design processes.

Here’s what Navigo delivered:

• A live data foundation. Data has been natively integrated with SAP SuccessFactors and finance systems, creating a centralised, structured environment. A powerful calculation engine combined with the organisation’s business rules ensures harmony across all metrics (e.g. FTE and remuneration figures). Complex and expensive consultant driven HR reporting has been eliminated. No exports, no manipulation and no guesswork about what the numbers mean.
• On-demand scenario modelling. HR and Org Design teams have never been happier. They are now able to start a restructure model immediately, run multiple scenarios side by side and analyse cost, headcount and diversity impacts without weeks of data analysis in excel and PowerPoint. org.manager maintains data integrity throughout this process with integrated write-back to SAP SuccessFactors.
• Tailored outputs for every audience. Executive consultation packs, union documentation and internal working papers are all produced from the same underlying model, with appropriate information customised for each audience. One source of truth, multiple views. More importantly, resources are instantly updated as the restructure takes shape. Executives and stakeholders receive org design intelligence immediately, not days after decisions are made.
• Consistent, best practice processes across the organisation. Whether the user is an HR Business Partner, General Manager or the CEO, the org design processes follow the same framework. These consistent processes, backed by high quality data – directly improve the quality and credibility of restructure recommendations to the Executive Team.
• IT taken out of the loop. HR owns the process end-to-end, self-serve, without compromising the confidentiality that restructure activity demands. IT, who have always been reluctant participants in restructure projects are no longer required.

Figure 1. Org Design Chart & Impact Metrics

A New Era of Org Design

Implementation was fast, efficient and uncovered additional cost saving initiatives by eliminating recurring consultant driven HR reporting. Org design processes were reviewed and optimised.

Navigo handled the complexity of data configuration and business rule setup.

What’s changed for their team?

• Months of admin time recovered annually, across projects that previously consumed weeks at a time.
• Executive confidence in HR, with structured, data-informed recommendations replacing ad hoc presentations built on stale spreadsheets.
• Fast adoption with only two training sessions required, user-friendly environment where data complexity is hidden from the user.
• A foundation for continuous workforce assessment, with ongoing data refreshes and dashboards that delivers workforce intelligence to managers without a single download or data request.

Figure 2. Split View with Visualisation Rules

The Verdict: An Amazing Platform with a Big Impact

The core business case was built around time savings, process efficiency and rebuilding confidence in the org design processes. HR now acts as a strategic partner rather than data administrators.

A huge amount of repetitive, unnecessary administration has been eliminated for the HR and IT teams, saving weeks or even a month of busy work every year. IT has been completely removed from the restructure and org design processes.

What did the EVP of People and Culture say when asked if she would recommend org.manager?

Figure 3. Org Design Comparison Dashboard

Give Your Team Back Time to Do Their Best Work

If your team is still navigating org design from spreadsheets and ad hoc PowerPoints, you already know the cost.

Book a chat to see more examples of what’s working for our customers in your industry.

navigo.com.au   |   Book a demo   |  +61 3 9879 4060