HR redesign for a central federal government department

A central federal government department sought to review, redesign, and implement changes to its overall HR functions, systems, and processes (particularly addressing the shared services arrangement, including provision if services to regional offices). The primary focus of this project was to re-design and implement a new approach to delivering efficient HR services. The project was conducted in three stages:

Stage 1: Investigate the current situation and identify the HR issues that needed to be addressed. This phase involved collection and analysis of costing information, stakeholder interviews, focus groups, process mapping of core services (including investigating the cost-efficiency of the delivery of shared services by central and business line staff) and information systems review.

Stage 2: Understand how other organisations address similar issues and how the HR service compares to the HR services in these organisations. This phase involved a benchmarking exercise with six comparable enterprises, to investigate

Stage 3: Provide three options for which represent realistic and distinctive choices for HR redesign in the department.

Variants of each of the approaches were adopted by at least one of the benchmarked organisations, and many other organisations. Two key principles important for success were adopted for each approach. The allocation of control and direction must be unambiguous and there must be clear accountability for HR service delivery and performance.