Consulting services and global employment outsourcing following a divestment

Background

In November 2019, the client was near the end of divestment from a large energy services firm, which would result in more than 800 employees in the US and abroad transitioning to the client by the close on 17th of December.

They had expressed concerns that their current resource and capacity levels across several areas of the business would not be sufficient to support the large influx of employees within the short time frame. Airswift was engaged in November to provide consulting services and support to the client during this major transition.

Challenges

The client's IT infrastructure could not support HR with transitioning over 800 employees both domestic and international, leading to concerns over the on-boarding experience.

The client had minimal experience with international payroll and employment requirements, and no established vendor list to support mobilisation and immigration support for expatriates.

Over 50 employees across the globe were assigned to the client's GEC in Dubai, where no payroll vendor had been assigned, leading to both compliance and transition issues.

The HR team was in the process of developing and preparing for implementation of two payroll systems, but there were serious concerns over go-live date and ability to pay employees on time and accurately.

Airswift Solution

Airswift provided a Project Manager on-site responsible for project planning, vendor management, stakeholder management, and successful engagement of all services offered between Airswift and the client, including the delivery of both domestic and international payroll.

A full-time, experienced Payroll Coordinator was provided to support the client's HR Managers globally, ensuring an accurate and efficient payroll for all employees in the US and internationally.

Within four weeks, Airswift developed and implemented Bamboo, an HRIS system which automated the onboarding process for the 300 international employees within the first 72 hours of divestment close.

With 500 employees transitioning to the client on the same day, Airswift identified a need to support employee queries and established Samanage, an IT ticketing system that would streamline contract, immigration, payroll or any other queries and provide reporting, responses and tracking.

Airswift utilised our vast list of experienced vendors to support mobilisation of expatriates and provide relocation services such as immigration, household goods and school search to ensure smooth relocation for employees and their families.

Airswift oversaw the transition of expatriates from their parent company to the client across multiple countries, providing assessment of current visas, and if required, a transition plan of any new visas requiring a change in sponsorship.

Results

Nearly 10 months since the transition, Airswift continues to support the client with both our Project Manager and Payroll Coordinator working on-site with the client to provide HR and payroll support.

As a result, Airswift have been engaged to support additional scopes of work identified across the client in multiple countries, including Malaysia, Papua New Guinea and the United Arab Emirates.