Feature

At Rohm and Haas Company, "continuous improvement" isn't a catchphrase; it's a way of life. This leading supplier of specialty materials, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, operates in more than 27 countries and has a global workforce of more than 16,000 employees. For nearly a century, Rohm and Haas has thrived in a competitive industry by meeting the needs of their customers, investors, and employees.

That philosophy of meeting stakeholders' needs extends to human resources. "We constantly look for new ways to deliver better and more cost-effective HR service to employees," says Anne Wilms, Company Vice President, Director of Human Resources, and Chief Information Officer of Rohm and Haas. "We have to ensure that our HR operations are flawless, that it's easy for employees to satisfy their HR needs and get any question they have answered quickly."

In a quest to improve HR operations, near the end of 2001, Rohm and Haas converted their HR and payroll systems to an SAP platform. But even with the use of state-of-the-art technology, it was clear that HR wasn't going to realize their full potential on their own.

"We recognized that we weren't delivering HR services in the most efficient or cost-effective manner in all cases," says Steve Hallett, Global Director of HR Operations and Shared Services. So they decided to consider outsourcing. "We know we're not the expert in every area, and we wanted to partner with someone who could help us deliver better service and achieve some of our organizational goals," says Hallett. "Rohm and Haas adopted a tagline a few years ago: 'Quietly improving the quality of life.' That's how we approach HR sourcing. It's a blended model: Some things we outsource, some we cosource, and other processes we retain in-house. We consider all options and choose the one that will improve the quality of our service delivery, with the desired end state being flawless HR operations."

Rohm and Haas experimented with an HR business process outsourcing (HR BPO) arrangement in 2004. It went live in 2005. A few months later, not satisfied with the results, HR management revisited their sourcing strategy.

"We decided that we would either bring the work back in-house or outsource it to Hewitt," says Hallett. "We knew that Hewitt understood our culture, and we had a trusting relationship with them. That was important, since we had to move quickly in order to improve our service delivery. We wouldn't have time to spell out all the details; we had to trust we would work out many of the finer points along the way."

Partnership With Hewitt
Hewitt Associates has provided HR consulting services to Rohm and Haas since 1988 and benefits outsourcing services since 1993. Rohm and Haas had approached Hewitt earlier about the potential for an HR BPO relationship, but the timing wasn't right. "At the time, our delivery model could not absorb an SAP platform," says Mary Sales, the portfolio executive at Hewitt who is responsible for the Rohm and Haas relationship. That changed with Hewitt's acquisition of Exult in late 2004 and the evolution of Hewitt's delivery models.

In July of 2005, Rohm and Haas signed an HR BPO agreement with Hewitt to deliver services—including payroll, an HR service center, employee data maintenance, leave management, and tuition reimbursement—to more than 12,000 Rohm and Haas employees in the United States and Canada. "We believe our partnership will enable us to become as operationally efficient as possible while still delivering great customer service," says Hallett.

Customer Service a Priority
Customer service is a high priority for Rohm and Haas, and the key factor used in measuring the success of the HR BPO relationship with Hewitt. "Our employees are used to a 'high-touch' environment and have high expectations," says Hallett. "So it's very important that whoever delivers services to them provide the same touch and sense of caring, whether that's someone internal or an external partner."

With that in mind, Rohm and Haas hosts an educational session for the Hewitt associates who deliver services to their employees. "We want them to know about our culture and the expectations of our employees, so Hewitt can provide the level of service that our employees expect," says Hallett. "Of course, they also need to have subject matter expertise. When employees call the service center, they want to get that sense of security that the person on the other end of the line is truly an expert in the area, or has access to an expert who can satisfy any questions employees might have."

To help ensure a smooth transition, Hewitt and Rohm and Haas jointly identified which services made the most sense to move to Hewitt. "We defined a scope that we all felt we could succeed with in a very short period of time," says Sales. "We'll revisit processes that might be transitioned at a later date."

The transition to Hewitt was completed in 14 weeks. "Our transition was done in record time, and it went very well," says Hallett. "That's a tribute to the people on the transition team, from Rohm and Haas and from Hewitt. Even though there was a lot of pressure, it was a good experience. We really pulled together as a team, and it shows in the end result. While going through this type of transition in record time isn't necessarily a recommended approach, there is something to be said for knowing what needs to be done, keeping a strong focus on the end state, and getting it done quickly."

Hallett also credits the organizations' leadership. "The transition was treated as a key initiative by our company and by Hewitt," he says. "There were several times when various parts of each organization had to get involved, and the leadership on both sides made available whatever resources were necessary."

Focus on Integration
Since implementation began six months ago, overall customer satisfaction with the HR service center has exceeded 85% on average, as measured by monthly surveys. "There's a sense of calm now over the organization, knowing that the basic services are being delivered to employees with a high degree of satisfaction, which was our main objective," says Hallett. "There is still much to be done, but we have a solid foundation and we're starting to build confidence within our organization that an outsourcing model will work."

With service delivery in place, the focus now is on process improvement. Integration is a priority, to support Rohm and Haas's OneHR initiative. "The goal of this initiative is to create a more integrated HR organization," says Wilms. "We want to have a single source for all the HR needs of our employees. With one team working together for our employee customers, we believe we can provide consistently good service and remain transparent as a function."

Integration will begin with consolidation of the HR outsourcing and benefits service centers, which currently are staffed by different teams. "Plans are to bring those teams together and begin cross-training, and eventually we'll switch to a single phone line," says Sales.

Not integrating the service centers earlier was deliberate, according to Sales. "We advised Rohm and Haas that we believe customer service operations is where we can realize the biggest impact from integration," she says. "But rather than consolidate immediately, we suggested simply linking the two service teams initially. Benefits administration was working well, and we didn't want to risk breaking something that was fixed. We wanted to get the HR BPO side running smoothly before combining the centers."

Furthermore, Rohm and Haas wanted to ease the transition to a single phone number. "Rohm and Haas has a big retiree population, which has used the same benefits phone number for more than 10 years," says Sales. "The company is not underestimating the impact of telling employees they can't use that number anymore." To minimize the impact, the phone number will be kept through the fall 2006 enrollment cycle. Planning is under way for implementing that change.

"Change management is a huge part of an HR BPO initiative, and it shouldn't be underestimated," Hallett notes. "You can have the best technology and processes in place, but if your people are not ready for change, you won't be successful."

Besides managing change in the service centers, the Hewitt team is exploring other improvements to HR operations. "We continue to work on integrating our respective domains, to ensure that everyone understands their individual impact on collective results," says Stephanie Malsbury, who oversees service delivery to Rohm and Haas and is leading the integration efforts. "For instance, if you're a Rohm and Haas employee and you get married, you phone the HR center to change your status. You might add your spouse to your health plan, and maybe you also moved. Those changes impact benefits administration, payroll, and your basic employee record."

To maximize the quality and effectiveness of transaction processing, Malsbury and Sales are educating the Hewitt team about how their individual responsibilities affect the bigger picture, and they're exploring further integration of HR systems. "That's a priority for Rohm and Haas as well," says Malsbury. "They believe in a Six Sigma philosophy of eliminating defects. They understand that if we can prevent problems and streamline operations, we will all be better off." Jessica Crandall, Service Delivery Manager for Rohm and Haas, adds, "The availability of reliable metrics and the desire of both organizations to proactively work issues has been key to our early success. Everyone has worked hard to get to where we are, and we're excited about where we can go."

Quietly Improving
Rohm and Haas continues to go about the business of quietly improving, with Hewitt's help. "We're now undertaking a thorough assessment of our organizational delivery model," says Wilms. "We want to make sure that our HR strategy will support the broader organization, that we're aligned with the businesses and able to meet their human capital needs. We view Hewitt as a partner in helping us to achieve that goal."

 Back to Top