Talent & Organization

Driving high performance through innovative

capabilities in talent, organizational change and HR

Organizations in both the private and public sectors

face unprecedented challenges in todays uncertain
and volatile marketplacefulfilling their strategic
agendas while keeping costs under control. Yet
significant opportunities are available to those that
can put in place distinctive and integrated talent
initiatives, organizational change programs and
HR capabilities.
For decades, executives have acknowledged
the centrality of human capitalpeople
and leadership, as well as the culture, HR
capabilities and organization structures
that support performanceto achieving
success. Yet, initiatives to advance talent
and organization capabilities, at the
necessary pace and in a way that produces
predictable results, have often been
challenging to implement and sustain.

Plan for the right talent in the right

places and in the right numbers to
execute strategy, expand into
new markets and drive growth.

Human capital and organization

effectiveness

Manage complex change journeys,

while simultaneously creating a change-
capable and agile organization that can
more readily adapt to evolving needs
and opportunities.

Learning and collaboration

Accenture has the approaches, frameworks

and tools to help organizations improve the
performance of their people and to keep
that performance continuously aligned
with strategic goals. With more precision
and scientific certainty, we help our clients
put in place the integrated programs to:

Manage a multi-disciplinary and

diverse workforce with more effective
and efficient HR capabilities.
Drive an environment of continuous
learning that helps workforces
develop the skills and capabilities
they need to advance and align with
organizational goals.

Human resources and talent management

Change management
We also offer industry-leading
capabilities in HR and Learning Business
Process Outsourcing (BPO) services, as
well as in HR technology solutions.
This holistic and integrated suite of
servicessupported by research-based
approaches, scientific analyses and broad,
cross-industry experiencehelps all levels
of the enterprise work together to create
an innovative, talent-powered organization
focused on the achievement of positive,
measurable strategic outcomes.

Accenture: A market leader in advancing

strategic value through distinctive talent
and organization capabilities
The Accenture Talent & Organization group
is a leader in helping clients achieve high
performance through an integrated and
market-tested suite of services covering:

High performance delivered:

Driving measurable results
Through our proven offerings and
innovative assets we drive improved
performance for clients in areas such as:
Human capital strategy. We worked
with a global healthcare company to
develop the cultural and leadership
capabilities necessary to support growth
in emerging markets.
Organizational agility. We helped a
pharmaceutical company based in Asia
Pacific with workforce planning and
deployment that created staffing in the
right numbers and with the right skills to
help the company respond more nimbly
to market opportunities.
Workforce re-skilling. An India-based
pharmaceutical company looked to
Accenture to help optimize and re-skill its
workforce following a series of acquisitions,
supporting cost reductions and productivity
improvements.
Talent sourcing. For a new business unit
of an aerospace and defense company, we
assisted in the development of a smart
sourcing strategy so that the unit could
hire the talent with the skills needed to
achieve its business objectives.
Transformational change management.
We helped a global producer and marketer
of agricultural products and services
implement a comprehensive change
enablement program to successfully

manage a major technology and business

transformation across the 50 countries in
which it operates.
Change capability. We helped a major
high-tech company create an internal
change capability that is supporting a
dramatic reorganization of the companys
global operating model.
Leadership development. We created new
leadership development programs that have
enabled a UK-based utilities company to
drive a transformational business strategy
for one of its units, harmonizing competing
operating models, systems, metrics and
cultures and helping the unit become a
single, coherent organization.
Corporate culture. For a market-leading
healthcare company, we worked with
corporate leadership to plan and execute a
strategy to reshape the corporate culture to
become more collaborative as the company
sought to evolve from a product-centric to
customer-centric business strategy.
Learning outsourcing. On an outsourced
basis, we manage and run an internal
learning academy for an Asia-Pacific
communications company that is helping
the company to execute its business
strategy of creating a truly customercentric organization, introducing groundbreaking new services to the market and
rolling out advanced communications
infrastructure.

HR service delivery. We helped a major

Asian telecommunications company
grow its managed services business by
developing practical HR transition tools to
ensure a smooth transition for employees
and support for their performance in a new
service environment.

Developing more precision and

predictability in managing change:
Cisco Systems

One company currently leading the way

when it comes to developing more consistent
and predictable approaches to managing
business change is Cisco Systems. To
maintain its market leadership position,
Cisco is in the midst of updating its global
organizational structure.
To meet that challenge, Cisco is working
with Accenture to build internal, enterprisewide change management capabilities so
that the ability to adaptas individuals,
as teams and as a companybecomes
just a normal part of the operations of the
business, embedded in all programs
and projects.
Cisco and Accenture are supporting this
capability in a number of ways, including
the creation of a comprehensive methodology
for leading change, implemented consistently
across the company.

HR technology solutions. We helped

an international brewing company
implement a new SAP human capital
management platform which has helped
drive harmonized global HR processes
and data as well as more sophisticated
talent management processes across
the company.

Accentures unique talent and

organization capabilities
Accenture is uniquely positioned to
deliver integrated talent and organization
services that can help enterprises achieve
their strategic objectives: creating
organizational agility, supporting growth,
accommodating acquisitions, re-skilling
major workforces, driving a new generation
of innovation, managing major enterprise
transformation and becoming more
continuously change capable.
We help meet our clients strategic
challenges and opportunities leveraging
thousands of practitioners across
consulting, technology and outsourcing.
Our capabilities and assets range from
HR management systems, to advanced
enterprise learning, to human capital
strategy and change management, to
advanced learning and collaboration tools
and solutions. With a delivery capability
that brings together an unmatched global
reach and a local relevance, Accenture has
the knowledge, skills and experience to
help organizations of all sizes integrate and

deliver the broad spectrum of capabilities

they need, more precisely and predictably,
at the speed and scale needed to
be successful.
Accenture brings a range of services
from strategic and operational consulting
to comprehensive HR and learning
technology and outsourcing solutions.
These market-tested offerings are
supported by advanced analytics to enable
better, data-based decision-making and
management of programs.
Our innovative ideas and practices, coupled
with our collaborative mindset, help us
address each clients unique needs and
goals. We partner with thought leaders and
major organizations, both internally and
externally, including the World Economic
Forum; Harvard Graduate School of
Education; Moxie Research; University of
Tilburg; NASSCOM; and Society for Human
Resource Management (SHRM). Working
closely with these and other leading
organizations, we create interactive live
and virtual forums to exchange ideas and
insights with our clients.
Ultimately, Accenture Talent & Organization
can help you accelerate the speed and
pace of your workforce and organization
enablement programs, synchronize them to
increase their efficiency, and continuously
align workforce investments with the
strategies needed to adapt to change and
advance toward high performance.

Do you have the talent to grow?

Insights from the Accenture High-Performance Workforce Study
Today, many companies are looking
toward a new era of growth. But do
these organizations, in fact, have the
talent they need to grow?
Nearly half the companies that
participated in the most recent Accenture
High-Performance Workforce Study report
having a smaller workforce than they
did before the recession. Companies that
expect to execute growth strategies with
fewer employees are placing an additional
burden on the skills of existing workers to
innovate and improve overall productivity.
Yet, few executives express confidence that
their companies most critical workforces
frontline positions such as sales and
serviceare world-class.

Supporting business strategy is another

concern. According to the study:
Nearly half (48 percent) of the 674
executives surveyed globally are not
confident that their organizations can
quickly mobilize to serve new markets
and customers.

of their workforces, and to improve the

leadership skills, organizational agility,
change management capabilities and
comprehensive HR technologies that will
help them achieve high performance.

Fifty percent do not believe their culture

is adaptive enough to respond positively
to change.
Forty-four percent are not sure their
workforces are prepared to adapt to
and manage change through periods of
economic uncertainty (see chart below).
If companies are to achieve a new era of
growth in the coming years, innovative and
more precise approaches are required to
increase the productivity and innovation

Forty-four percent of respondents to a recent Accenture survey do not feel their workforce is
prepared to adapt to and manage change through periods of economic uncertainty.
1%
7%

Using a scale of 1 to 5, how well prepared would you say your

workforce is to adapt to and manage change through periods of
economic uncertainty?

8%

5 Extremely well prepared

4
3
36%

2
1 Not at all prepared
48%

Source: Accenture High-Performance Workforce Study, 2010

6

Human Capital & Organization Effectiveness

Planning and managing human capital to drive strategic outcomes
As executives in every industry look to
improve the efficiency and performance of
their organizations, they understand that
the implementation of strategy depends
in large measure on their people: the
knowledge, skills and abilities of critical
workforces, and their behaviors on behalf
of the enterprise.
Yet the experience and skills to guide
investments in human capitalhelping
people and the entire organization
effectively implement business strategy
elude many organizations today. Although
executives may feel they already have
in place an HR or workforce plan, it is
frequently not equal to the pace and
scale of change today.
What is needed is a comprehensive
program across the multiple human
capital dimensions of talent, leadership,
culture and organization design. A holistic
human capital strategyinformed and
guided by rich, analytics-based insights
can develop the capabilities and skills a
company needs, in the right numbers and
in the right places. Enterprises also need
targeted solutions to improve the skills and

capabilities of their critical workforces at

an accelerated rate to meet the challenges
of a rapidly changing marketplace, and to
innovate and serve customers better.

Human capital and organization

effectiveness services from
Accenture: Linking human
capital programs to strategic
outcomes to drive better overall
performance
Accenture delivers a comprehensive suite
of services that help our clients to plan,
architect and link their human capital
investments and programs to strategic
goals, and to improve the performance of
their most mission-critical workforces.

enterprises turn their human capital and

organizations into distinctive capabilities to
drive high performance.
Our extensive analytics capabilities and
tools deliver the data-driven insights
required to identify human capital
opportunities, and to put the right skills in
the right numbers in place to meet future
organizational needs.
We also help improve the effectiveness of
workforces most responsible for sustaining
a performance advantageincreasing
productivity, improving engagement and
building the competencies needed to fuel
future growth.
Our offerings and assets cover Human
Capital Strategy, Human Capital Analytics
and Workforce Effectiveness.

We provide an integrated approach,

encompassing the entire human capital
value chain, to translate business strategies
into specific talent, leadership, culture
and organization requirements, and then
to develop a roadmap to manage these
multiple dimensions. With innovative and
proven approaches to building leadership
effectiveness, architecting optimal
organization structures, and aligning
cultures to strategic needs, we help

Human Capital Strategy

Our human capital strategy services
help our clients create and implement
a comprehensive and integrated human
capital strategy aligned to business
strategy, supported by effective program
management and governance (see Figure 1).
We work with our clients to develop a
clear vision and strategy for implementing
human capital initiatives and interventions
that will multiply the effectiveness of their
talent and enable the entire enterprise to
execute business strategy and adapt to a
changing marketplace. Our work integrates
four essential elements of a human
capital strategy:

Talent: We help our clients define the

workforce capabilities needed to execute
business strategy, including identification
of mission critical workforces, development
of competency frameworks and detailed
workforce planning.
Leadership: We work with enterprises
to align their leadership capabilities to
support the corporate strategy, including
defining the processes such as performance
management, succession planning and
governance that will shape the attributes,
capabilities and behaviors of their leaders.
Culture: We leverage a comprehensive
process for assessing an enterprises current
culture, define the culture required to
support their strategy, and design and
implement a transformation program
involving targeted changes to processes,
policies, systems, rewards and leadership to
enable large-scale, sustainable change.

Organization: We help our clients to

design an organizational blueprint and
operating modelincluding structure,
governance, processes and reporting
relationshipsaligned with business
strategy, and which enables the workforce
to perform optimally in support of
strategic goals.
This human capital strategy then informs
many of the companys most important
decisions about where and how to
compete, and supports the enterprise as it
balances short-term decisions with longerterm imperatives. In this way it can meet
todays business needs, while being agile
enough to reposition itself for ongoing
market competitiveness and growth.

Figure 1. Accentures human capital strategy approach

Accentures approach optimizes four critical dimensions needed to execute
business strategy, and defines the associated impacts on HR capabilities.
Business Strategy defines the
direction, positioning, scope, objectives
and competitive differentiation.

Business Strategy
Human Capital Strategy

Human Capital Strategy defines

the leadership, talent, culture and
organization requirements to execute
the business strategy.

Leadership

Analytics
Culture

HR Strategy articulates the

strategic direction and imperatives of
the HR organization and builds out
the capabilities required to align to
the human capital strategy.

Talent

Organization

HR Strategy
8

A comprehensive human capital strategy

for GE Healthcare
GE Healthcare has become one of the
leading practitioners of a human capital
strategy approach, especially in the manner
in which the company has integrated
culture, leadership, talent and organization
change initiatives in support of new global
business opportunities.
The business strategy driving GE
Healthcares human capital strategy
has been parent company GEs
healthymagination initiative to bring
quality care at lower cost to more people
throughout the world. Corporate executives
knew that the success of the initiative
would depend on a cultural trait they
termed boundaryless collaboration.
GE Healthcare worked with Accenture,
using the Accenture Culture Value Analysis
methodology, to examine six particular
characteristics of open or boundaryless
collaboration: teamwork, trust,
managing conflict, minimizing political
maneuvering, eliminating siloed behavior
and openly sharing information across
the organization.

The diagnosis identified several areas

where GE Healthcare could strengthen its
collaborative capabilities to take advantage
of opportunities for growth. These insights
have helped GE Healthcare take specific
steps to build a more effective culture. The
company is also integrating culture change
initiatives with other programs relating to
leadership and talent, and focusing on the
organization structures needed to reinforce
desired workforce behaviors.

Human Capital Analytics

of proprietary tools and assets can deliver

predictive and forecasting capabilities to
help our clients see the road ahead of them
and refine their action plans.
We work with our clients through the
end-to-end process of defining strategic
needs and identifying data requirements,
to data collection and analysismaking
connections in complex data to recognize
patterns in areas such as customer
demands, workforce needs and productivity
levelshelping to isolate the drivers of
performance and supporting more
informed decisions.

Accenture offers advanced analytics and

diagnostic capabilities to deliver fact-based
insights, helping our clients to shape their
decisions and direct their human capital
investments toward the programs most
essential to improving organizational
performance. Our approach goes beyond
traditional analytics which often assesses
only past behaviors and trends. Our suite

Driving increased retention and

better recruiting
This global management company,
with more than 50,000 employees, was
experiencing turnover in excess of 30
percent. A talent and organization analytics
program for the company included detailed
analysis of the existing workforce along
two dimensions: performance and the
inclination to remain with the company.
Based on the analysis, the company
was able to create accurate profiles of
employees who were both top performers
and most likely to remain with the company.
New programs are being put in place to
attract employees with this profile, and to
retain those already in the workforce.

Workforce Effectiveness
Accenture leverages industry-leading tools,
assets and approaches to help clients drive
more skilled, motivated and productive
workforces that can support an enterprises
most mission-critical capabilities. Based
on an analysis of relative strengths and
weaknesses, we help our clients develop a
roadmap to drive targeted improvements
in their customer-facing workforces (sales,
marketing, customer service, etc.), their
enabling workforces (finance, human
resources, IT) as well as industry-specific
workforces.
Our industry-relevant and scalable services
are grounded in research and experiencebased approaches, and drive measurable
results for our clients by narrowing
performance gaps, decreasing time to
proficiency and improving productivity. We
leverage our broad and deep experience
across consulting, technology and
outsourcing to develop and launch holistic
shared services models to drive efficiency
and productivity.

Transforming the sales workforce at

Canon Europe
To maintain its market-leading position,
consumer electronics company Canon
Europe was looking to boost its
differentiation and value in the eyes
of retailers and distributors.
The company determined that a
transformation of the sales functionand
the way its sales workforce was trained
and rewardedwas essential to ensuring
competitive advantage. More specifically,
the sales function would need to shift from
its traditional focus on volume to a more
consultative approach emphasizing mutual
benefits to be achieved with retailers.
Accenture worked with Canon Europe to
restructure the European sales function
into eight core new roles designed to
achieve the companys transformation
goals. Accenture then developed a
customized sales academy, including
competency identification and the design
of a learning curriculum to develop role
specific competencies. The sales academy
was also closely integrated with Canon
Europes performance management system,
enabling more objective, accurate and
strategically driven performance appraisals.
As a result of this transformation effort,
Canon Europes differentiation and
perceived value among retailers has been
directly impacted: Although Canons
account management had lower-thanaverage customer satisfaction levels prior
to implementing the sales academy, it is
now ahead of the competition in this area.

10

HR & Talent Management

Driving improved workforce performance and better execution of strategy
HR and talent executives are being
asked to do more than just provide support
services. Their charge now is to enable
strategic outcomes and drive measurable
improvements in performance. To meet
this challenge, executives and their
organizations must respond effectively
to a host of important questions:

Can we adequately manage HR as

a businessoptimizing HR operations
continuously to drive more efficient
and effective services?

organizations need the right

strategies, processes and tools to
make that happen.

Are we sufficiently leveraging

the right technologies, tools and
analytics capabilities?

Does my HR organization understand our

organizations strategy and the
executive agenda?

Senior management is not always

confident its HR organization can adequately
answer these questions. According to
the latest Accenture High-Performance
Workforce Study, only 10 percent of the
executive respondents believe their HR
function is extremely well prepared to
adapt to and manage change through
periods of economic uncertainty. Only 8
percent rate the ability of their HR
function to effectively support the larger
enterprises pursuit of strategic goals as
industry leading.

HR and talent management

services from Accenture:
Creating the HR capabilities
that support growth and
efficient HR service delivery

Can we support a global strategy with

consistent HR services and processes that
are standardized where necessary, while
still local enough to attract and retain
top talent?
Are we developing world-class
capabilities in recruiting, workforce
planning, performance management,
engagement and retention?

Accenture HR and talent management

services leverage innovative tools,
approaches, strategies and technologies
to help our clients create HR
organizations, processes and practices
that can deliver measurable improvements
in the performance of people and
the organization.

The HR and talent management function is

essential to putting the right talent in the
right place to execute strategy. However,
11

We improve our clients HR capabilities

and their ability to deliver predictable,
high-quality HR services. We help the
HR organization to become a better
strategic partner with the business. We
provide guidance in developing the talent
management capabilities that can result
in measurable performance improvements.
We help clients optimize their HR function
over timereducing costs and increasing
efficiencies in the design and delivery of
traditional HR operational processes. At
the same time, we support clients as they
move their HR organization into newer
and more differentiating processes in
areas such as workforce planning and
performance management.
Our services combine deep functional
acumen in leading HR and talent management
practices and processes with innovative
technologies, well-designed governance
models, cost-effective HR operations,
advanced analytics, and new HR service
delivery models including outsourcing and
shared services.
Accenture can provide a full suite of
integrated consulting, technology and
outsourcing capabilities in the HR and
talent management area, including shared
services work in more than 100 countries.
We can help clients drive positive strategic
outcomes including improved operating
efficiencies, better workforce productivity
and more scalable HR processes in support
of growth and globalization.
Our offerings and assets cover HR Strategy, HR
Effectiveness and HR & Talent Management
Process Excellence (see Figure 2).

HR Strategy
Our HR strategy service brings together
Accentures highly experienced practitioners,
as well as proprietary approaches and
diagnostics, to help our clients create
a new HR vision and roadmapone
capable of supporting strategic outcomes,
attracting top talent and delivering
cost-effective HR services. This strategic
work must cover much more than simply
the design of the HR organization. HR
professionals must ensure that the
companys business strategy, human capital
strategy and HR strategy are all aligned
around the purpose of the organization.
We provide a comprehensive, market-tested
approach to help our clients:
Assess their current HR capabilities,
benchmarked against leading practices.
Understand the complex demands that
the business places on the HR function.
Define a practical, actionable and
phased plan of improvementscovering
operating models, processes and
technologiesto meet the needs of
the business.
To help our clients understand how their
HR function is performing against their
peers, and to identify critical capability
gaps, Accenture offers an extensive
quantitative benchmarking capability,
comprised of more than 250 cross-HR
function and process level metrics spanning
16 areas of measurement, matched with
comparative information from our database
of global companies.

Our HR capability assessment model and

HR health check tools help our clients
assess the maturity and effectiveness
of their HR function and identify
where improvements can most help the
organization. We also help our clients
develop an HR technology strategy to drive
improved HR performance and quality
of service.

Delivering a more effective HR strategy

for an international retailer
Accenture worked with a leading international
retailer to support a business expansion
strategy. The company was looking to ensure
that its HR function had the right structure
and processes to enable business growth.
The retailer worked with Accenture to
conduct a rapid diagnostic of the companys
current HR function and design a futurestate HR organization to support business
growth. Accenture deployed a suite of
HR transformation diagnostic tools to
baseline the HR organization, design a
new HR operating model, and develop a
high-level implementation roadmap and
business case.
Accentures HR strategy work has helped
the company realize significant benefits,
including defining the HR strategy,
building senior leadership buy-in to the
business case for change, and developing
broader strategic capabilities among the
HR management team.

Figure 2. Accenture HR & Talent Management offerings

HR Strategy
Creating a vision, roadmap
and business case for improved
HR performance

HR Effectiveness
Designing and delivering
state-of-the-art HR operating
models on a global scale

HR & Talent Management

Process Excellence
Creating a leading-practice
business design across all human
capital processes

12

HR Effectiveness
Our HR effectiveness service helps our
clients to optimize the efficiency and
effectiveness of their HR function
improving the design and delivery of
HR services on a global scale to support
the critical needs of the organization.
Our service leverages leading HR
technologies and processes as well as
advanced sourcing strategies.
To improve HR effectiveness, we
collaborate with our clients to:
Accurately define HR roles and governance
structures so that the right work at the
right cost is performed by the right people.
Design and build differentiated, flexible
HR operating models and define the HR
roles these models require.
Design and implement shared
services functionality that takes
advantage of new HR technologies
and call center capabilities.
Implement HR information systems
that can deliver higher-quality services
at lower cost.
Accenture has broad and deep experience
across consulting, outsourcing and technology,
enabling us to launch shared services models
and IT solutions at speed and scale, with
less risk.

Global financial services company: An HR

model to support a new business strategy
To achieve its strategic goals of becoming
a leader in its market, this global financial
services company realized that it needed a
workforce both highly talented and highly
engaged, as well as the HR structures to
support their work. The company turned
to Accenture to create a model for the HR
organization with employee engagement
at its core.
In an initial phase of work, Accenture
worked with the companys HR directors
to assess how well the existing HR model
aligned with strategic business goals. The
conclusion was that the company would
need a new and bolder model to foster
employee engagement within the business
unit and the HR group. The team then
developed a new HR steering plan which
served as a detailed blueprint for the
transition to the new HR model. The plan
identified more than 50 initiatives in HR
management, development, organization
and systems, and also detailed the scope,
timeline, resources and cost estimates
for each.

complemented by innovative career and

succession planning tools and exciting
communications to ensure maximum
awareness and involvement.
Because of this work with Accenture,
the company has advanced toward high
performance in several ways. Employee
productivity is way up, for example. Line
managers are now much more involved
with performance management with all
10,000 employees, and that has meant that
more than 30 percent of the companys low
performers are now meeting their business
objectives on a regular basis, translating
into a significant contribution to the
bottom line.
The company has also enhanced its
competitiveness in the war for talent. The
new HR model, with its novel approaches
to succession planning, career planning,
performance management and worklife balance, offers staff and recruits
an employment deal that is extremely
attractive in the marketplace.

The company now operates based on an

HR model that engages employees through
a multi-channel approach to service
delivery, performance and productivity
management at the line manager level,

Our HR effectiveness service helps our

clients to improve the capabilities of
the HR function to support growth and
globalization. The HR organization is
strengthened and becomes better
prepared to partner with the business
to architect HR services with rigor and
measurable outcomes.

13

HR & Talent Management

Process Excellence
Accenture HR & Talent Management
Process Excellence helps our clients drive
best practices, operational excellence
and continuous improvement across HR
and talent management processes such
as recruiting, performance management,
compensation and rewards, employee
administration, workforce planning and
payroll. We then help them properly link
those processes to the HR operating
model and the underlying HR technology
architecture.
We leverage Accentures proprietary Human
Capital Logical Operating Modeldeveloped
from our broad experience and insights
working with clients around the globe
which provides a holistic, process-oriented
view and architecture of HR and talent
management capabilities.
Accenture can help organizations develop
and deliver leading-edge capabilities across
the entire talent management lifecycle.
For example:
Our Recruitment Health Check helps
organizations align their recruitment
strategy to their HR, human capital
and business strategies. The health
check can enhance an organizations
recruiting capabilities across key
areas including employer brand,
sourcing, technology and recruitment
service delivery.
Our workforce planning and talent
segmentation assets can help organizations
minimize skills shortages and operation
stoppages. We help align workforce
skills and capabilities with the long-term
business strategy and vision.
Organizations can improve their ability
to attract and retain top performers.

Our performance management capabilities

can help companies redesign jobs and
roles in support of pressing strategic
imperatives, create cost-effective grade
structures and engage with the local
market to set base pay levels. We then
help clients review and redesign their
performance management systems and
design more effective incentives.
We also build proper controls into HR
processes so they can be managed in a
Lean Six Sigma manner over time. We offer
industry-specific views on key HR and
talent management processes to help our
clients understand which processes they
need to improve to maintain competitive
advantage in their industryhelping to
properly direct investment dollars.
Our process excellence services help
our clients drive operational excellence
through standardized HR and talent
management processes across countries
and business units. We also help
organizations reduce risk by increasing
their focus on HR accountability,
transparency and data protection.

Accenture Technology Services for

Human Capital Management
One of Accentures key differentiators
is our ability to offer comprehensive,
integrated capabilities across the full
breadth of our consulting, technology
and outsourcing offerings. We deliver
end-to-end solutions for our clients
at speed and at scaleand drive
measurable improvements in workforce
and business performance.

in our Global Delivery Network (consisting

of industrialized global delivery centers
in 32 countries across the Americas,
Europe and Asia). Our skilled teams deliver
solutions across Oracle, SAP, Workday and
SuccessFactors platforms, among others.
With more than 20 years of HR/IT
experience, our HCM capabilities include
helping worldwide enterprises develop
strategies, design and build solutions,
and then manage ongoing operations.
Step by step, we facilitate the creation
of a results-driven roadmap and a winning
long-term HCM plan, allowing clients
to integrate the right technologies,
optimize workforce performance and
boost operating efficiencies.
Our solutions help HR leaders with their most
pressing priorities: hiring faster; controlling
people costs; harnessing information to
anticipate workforce needs; managing a
complex global payroll system at lower
costs; developing talent acquisition
strategies for new markets; and responding
to employees ever-increasing demands
for self-service options, social networking,
collaboration and mobility.
At the same time, our team helps clients
stay focused on driving business results
and making HR far more than just backoffice support, We enable HR leaders to
empower strategic decision-making so
they can play a vital role in the success
of their business.

Our innovative Human Capital Management

(HCM) offerings help enterprises unleash
the full potential of their workforce.
Accenture is among the largest and
most experienced global providers of
HCM services with more than 10,000
experienced human capital practitioners

14

Learning & Collaboration

Delivering the capabilities to fuel a new generation of growth
Rocked by economic duress, workforce
layoffs and massive change on a global
level, most organizations todaywhether
public companies or government agencies
are facing the overwhelming task of
assembling the capabilities they need to
meet a new generation of challenges.
This puts enormous responsibility on the
enterprise learning function.
New marketplace realitiescontinued cost
pressures, increased competition, rapid
industry change and the global nature of
the workplacecreate new imperatives for
how enterprises link learning to strategy,
how they make more productive a
multi-generational workforce and how
they source and deliver effective learning
and collaboration.

The importance of the learning function

to the entire organization means
that new strategies, technologies and
operational capabilities must be designed
and implemented. To maintain an agile
organization, workers must often be
re-skilled to take on different roles;
learning opportunities need to be made
available anytime and anyplace, not just
in formal classrooms, and then reinforced
across channels; innovations such as
simulation and gaming are needed to
energize a new generation of workers
and to increase the long-lasting strategic
impact of learning; collaborative solutions
and platforms need to be in place to
harness the collective intelligence of the
enterprise.

Learning and collaboration

services from Accenture:
Developing the distinctive
skills and capabilities to drive
a performance advantage
Accenture delivers a comprehensive
suite of learning and collaboration services
to help our clients drive measurable
improvements in workforce and organization
performance. We understand how to align
learning to organizational strategyaided
by advanced technologies, analytics and
innovative learning designshelping our
clients to develop the distinctive skills
and capabilities in their people to drive
strategic outcomes.

Above all, learning must be designed

and executed with a close link to an
overarching human capital strategy, and
then measured according to business
impact. This environment requires
advanced capabilities and technologies.

15

We offer our clients end-to-end

capabilitiesfrom formulation of a learning
strategy; to design, development and
delivery of innovative learning programs
and integrated collaboration tools; through
to targeted academies focused on the
needs of critical workforces and functions.
We work with our clients to develop a
continuous learning approach, leveraging
formal and informal learning to
create a sustainable and high-impact
learning environment.
With industry-leading tools, assets
and technologies, we help our clients
create a broader and more expansive
learning environment that harnesses
the collective knowledge and experience
of the organization, as well as external
expertise, and deliver learning anytime,
anywhereon a mobile device, through
social networking tools or through
virtual, Web-based platforms.
We also work closely with the Accenture
Learning BPO practice to industrialize
development, delivery and measurement
of learning and to drive ongoing cost
savings and efficiencies. We have a
demonstrated track record of delivering
learning and collaboration services that
improve workforce productivity, speed
time to competency and rapidly advance
the performance capabilities of
critical workforces.
Our offerings include Learning &
Collaboration Strategy, Learning Design &
Delivery, and Accenture Academy.

Learning & Collaboration Strategy

Organizations today invest significant time
and money in developing and administering
learning opportunities for their employees,
and increasingly this investment is under
scrutiny to ensure it is delivering maximum
value. To justify learning spend and to
ensure learning programs are directly
supporting strategic goals, a clear learning
strategy is required.
We help our clients create that learning
strategy and link it to desired outcomes.
We leverage our advanced tools and
assets to conduct an organization learning
diagnostic. This analysis provides an
in-depth, comprehensive assessment of
the current state of learning across the
organizationincluding the competencies
the organization needs to succeed,
matched against its current stateand then
identifies areas for improvement.
We then work with our clients to create
a comprehensive and prioritized learning
roadmap that sets forth the specific steps
needed to make the learning vision a
reality, providing direction in key areas
such as governance, operating model,
technology infrastructure, and design
and delivery.

Learning strategy work helps a leading

US financial institution drive a more
consistent and scalable learning delivery
model while reducing costs
This leading US financial institution looked
to improve the capabilities of its learning
function to better support strategic goals,
and also gain more visibility and control
into how its learning investments were
allocated. Over time, the companys
decentralized internal learning function
had led to inconsistent training approaches
across locations, a lack of a centralized
system to track and monitor compliance
training, and high costs resulting from the
extensive use of instructor-led training.

Financial advisors also lacked awareness

of the availability of training and how to
address key skill gaps.
The company turned to Accenture to
develop a learning blueprint that would
enable a broad learning transformation
across the organization. The blueprint
included:
Development of a career framework
with individualized learning plans.
A learning management system to
track and monitor training, as well
as a centralized help desk and learning
administration services.
Use of a scalable content development
center to standardize the content
development process.
Development of a new training delivery
model leveraging web-based technologies
and virtual instructor-led approaches.
Design of a new governance model to
enable the organization to keep learning
continually aligned with business needs.
The learning blueprint has helped this
financial institution develop a learning
infrastructure and approach that is scalable
and flexible to support the changing needs
of the business. The new delivery model
enabled the company to launch a blended
learning program for new-hiresdelivering
consistent learning across locations,
reducing costs and minimizing the time
that field leadership spends in delivering
training. Use of the content development
center has resulted in a 200 percent
increase in training developed over a oneyear period, and the learning management
system has demonstrated strong take-up
among employees, with 100 percent of the
financial advisor population using the new
system to complete training.

16

Learning Design & Delivery

Accenture Academy

Accenture provides a comprehensive

suite of learning design, development and
delivery services to support our clients
comprehensive learning needs, including
training to support complex system
implementations, process transformations
and industry-specific needs.

Accenture Academy helps our clients

improve the performance of their critical
workforces through flexible, online learning
environments that offer rich content,
competency-driven curriculums and
industry-recognized certifications. Our suite
of core, industrialized academies includes
supply chain, finance, sustainability,
analytics and workforce measurement,
which deliver immediate access to a
curriculum tailored to timely performance
needs. We also develop customized
academies for clients in areas such as HR,
sales and change management.

Leveraging our deeply skilled learning

professionals in our delivery center
networkmore than 50 locations across the
globe, including 15 content development
centerswe can rapidly source, develop
and deliver highly interactive and
customized learning content to address
our clients strategic needs. Our services
are flexible and scalableranging from
short-term programs focused on specific
organizational needs to multi-year
programs. We use our proven approaches,
tools and assets to decrease costs, reduce
risks and drive new efficiencies.
We also help our clients take advantage
of the latest advances in learning
technologiesincluding gaming,
simulations, social media and mobile
learningto deliver programs that close
skill gaps and drive improvements in
overall performance.

Accenture Academy provides an interactive,

highly engaging and blended learning
environment, and is available 24/7
offering flexible access to learning for
our clients around the globe. Courses are
designed and updated using real-world
experience and the knowledge of industry
and academic specialists.
By taking advantage of the Accenture
Academy approaches and offerings, our
clients are able to convert strategic
goals to relevant learning experience
faster, giving their critical workforces
the knowledge and skills needed to
respond quickly to opportunities. For more
information, visit www.accentureacademy.com.

SABMiller: Driving new skills and

capabilities with Accenture Supply
Chain Academy
To support its growth strategies,
international brewer SABMiller recognized
the need for a comprehensive and consistent
approach to developing talent across its
organization. Indeed, the companys
preparation for a major global technology
implementation had revealed significant
capability gaps across its global talent.

In particular, within the companys Latin

American division, 80 percent of employees
who supported the companys supply chain
were found to have inadequate skills
in many critical areas, including supply
planning, demand planning and inventory
management. These capability gaps would
not only compromise the companys return
on its technology investments, but would
also keep it from achieving the levels of
operational and financial performance
needed to be competitive.
To support its efforts to ramp up its
supply chain skills in Latin America,
SABMiller worked with Accenture to
launch Accenture Supply Chain Academy.
Following a successful pilot, the Academy
was rolled out to 300 users in Colombia,
Ecuador, Peru, El Salvador, Panama and
Honduras. These users represented a wide
cross section of supply chain employees,
from line managers to senior leadership.
Accenture Supply Chain Academy content
was tailored to these employees roles,
competencies, and capability gaps.
Accenture Supply Chain Academy has
provided a flexible and globally scalable
platform for SABMiller, and has helped
the company to develop stronger supply
chain capabilities. SABMiller estimates
that its supply chain management
maturity has more than doubled in degree
since its implementation of Accenture
Supply Chain Academy. This progress
reflects improvements in demand and
supply planning, both of which were
identified as lagging capabilities prior to
the project. And because SABMiller has
strengthened these capabilities, it also has
seen improvements in terms of inventory
management and working capital.

17

HR and Learning Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)

Industrialized, scalable delivery of HR and learning services
Recognized by industry analysts as a global
leader in outsourcing, Accenture offers a
comprehensive suite of HR and Learning
BPO services that can generate tangible
results, including optimizing workforce
performance and productivity, and
increasing the return on people investment.
Accenture combines a deep, research-based
understanding of how HR and Learning
BPO contributes to high performance,
together with analytics capabilities,
industry insights, industrialized delivery
capabilities and innovative technologies
to help our clients drive maximum value
from their workforce investments.

leverage industry-leading approaches and

tools that enable us to deliver reliable,
scalable, high-quality learning services at
lower cost.

Accenture brings a heightened level of rigor

to the delivery of HR and learning services,
driving new levels of efficiency, productivity
and operational excellenceand a focus on
business outcomes. Our Accenture HR BPO
offering covers the entire employee lifecycle
including recruitment, performance and
progression, compensation, learning and
HR administration services.

Manages performance and progression of

more than 125,000 client employees.

Our end-to-end Learning BPO offering

covers learning planning and alignment,
content design and development, learning
delivery and learning administration. We

We deliver HR and learning services

to 1.5 million people in 100 countries.
Through our HR and Learning BPO
practice, Accenture:
Recruits more than 25,000 positions for
our clients each year.
Manages more than 500 classrooms
worldwide.

Manages payroll for more than 750,000

client employees each month.
Resolves more than 2 million calls per
year in our call centers.

basis. Our Accenture Global Delivery

Network, which stretches across five
continents and leverages standardized
methodologies, assets and tools, provides
a scalable, flexible network to help our
clients improve performance, mitigate risk
and lower the total cost of delivery. This
Global Delivery Network includes eight
content development centers; five of which
are also learning call centers that offer
24/7 support in nine languages.
Accentures strategic capabilities,
deep functional skills and proprietary
methodologies enable our clients to
continually align their HR and learning
processes with overall strategy. And most
important, we have a proven track record
of delivering measurable improvements
to our clients performanceincluding HR
cost reductions of 20 to 30 percent, 30
percent improvements in absence rates,
50 percent reductions in speed, 60 percent
improvements in time to proficiency, and
revenue increases of 30 percent or more.

Administers more than one million

workforce data transactions per year.
Offers more than 20,000 courses to
our clients.
Accenture has been named the #1
outsourcing provider in the Global
Outsourcing 100 for four consecutive
years by The International Association
of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP). We
have more than 8,500 learning, HR and
talent management professionals offering
extensive and proven skills in consulting,
technology and outsourcing on a global

18

Change Management
Driving successful change and creating a more agile organization
To compete in todays fast-moving
marketplace, companies need to be agile
able to execute strategy faster, with more
flexibility and adaptability, and to move
their companies ahead more nimbly. They
need to respond quickly to short-term
urgencies, while also anticipating and
accommodating long-term trends.
To outperform competitors, companies need
to manage change with precision and more
predictable results, and at a pace that is
faster and more effective than their peers.
Traditional change management activities
such as training and communication
are not sufficient to help companies
develop the ongoing change management
capabilities they need. To succeed
and remain agile in todays business

environment, companies must manage

a broad set of management, leadership,
culture and development components.
They must both manage specific journeys
of change while simultaneously building
the ongoing ability to manage continuous
change, knowing that progress will now
be measured based on the strategic
results achieved.

Change management services

from Accenture: Managing
transformational journeys and
creating a continuous capacity
for change

business, organizational and workforce

change in a market that is evolving at an
accelerating pace. We leverage distinctive,
data-driven assets to increase the pace
and certainty of successful organizational
change.
Our holistic approach encompasses change
planning; stakeholder engagement and
communications; change measurement
and organization readiness; organization
culture; change sustainability; and training
and performance support.
Our change management services
can drive a variety of positive strategic
outcomes, including improved adaptability
and strategic agility, increased success

Accenture delivers advanced and innovative

change management services that help our
clients prepare for and manage complex
19

Figure 3. Accenture Change Management Offerings

Strategic Planning
& Visioning

Preparation, Mobilization,
Deployment

Post-Deployment

Change Enablement
Managing organizational change

Journey
Management

Enabling system and process change

Organization
Change
Capability

Transitioning to new sourcing models

rates from transformation initiatives,

improved stakeholder buy-in and
commitment, and faster speed of transition.
The scope of our change management
offerings covers the entire lifecycle of
a change program, including Journey
Management, Change Enablement
and Organization Change Capability
(see Figure 3).

Successfully managing technology and

business transformation for a global
producer and marketer of agricultural
products and services
This market leader embarked on a major
transformational program to drive a growth
and expansion strategy. To support its
goals, the company focused on creating
consistent global business processes and
launching a common enterprise resource
planning platform across all of its business
units in the more than 50 countries in
which it operates.
The company understood that a business
and cultural transformation program of
this magnitude could not be implemented
successfully without a strong focus on

Journey Management
The scientific discipline of journey
management defines an organizations
vision or future state; develops a roadmap
to get from the current to the desired
future state; establishes a plan to achieve
the business value from the change; and
manages/measures progress along the way
to achieve desired strategic outcomes with
pace, certainty and agility.

Journey management drives pace through

the sequencing and prioritization of
initiatives. It creates certainty through
understanding the future state, measuring
progress along the journey and aligning the
organization around a common goal. And
it fosters strategic agility by recognizing
that in a multi-year journey, adjustments
must be made to re-prioritize and
refocus investments to meet new market
opportunities and mitigate risks.
The scope of Accentures Journey
Management offering includes defining,
planning, mobilizing and delivering largescale business change by connecting all
programs to the organizations strategic
aspirations. We leverage a proven,
structured and consistent approach that
helps our clients speed their journey
and realize more value from their
overall strategy.

journey management and comprehensive

change enablement. These kinds of
initiatives can ensure acceptance and
buy-in across a companys diverse
business units and support a longer-term
focus on sustaining the benefits of the
transformation over time.

Developing leadership education

programs and creating a change agent
network to foster broad sponsorship for
the program across the enterprise.

Accenture teamed with the company

to define and launch a comprehensive,
integrated transformation effort across
the enterprise which included:

Establishing a robust metrics program to

measure the progress of the change and
provide information about how benefits
are sustained over time.

Defining the purpose of the journey

and specifying its implications for
the enterprise.

The change management program has been

a significant success, driving acceptance
of the change and stronger adoption of
the new processes and systems across the
companys global footprint.

Identifying major change impacts

across the organization and
implementing numerous, large-scale
change interventions.

Planning and executing a comprehensive

communications and training program.

20

Change Enablement

Organization Change Capability

We help our clients to plan, manage,

execute and sustain their organizational
change efforts, including increasing
understanding, adoption and commitment
to change programs across all levels of
the organization through the use of a
standard and comprehensive approach/
framework, methodologies and tools.
Our services cover:

We help our clients to become more

change capable. This work involves
putting in place the competencies,
leadership, structures and metrics that
enable our clients to create a strong,
internal and ongoing change management
capability. This capability is embedded in all
aspects of how the organization functions,
such that change management becomes
part of the DNA of the organization.

Managing organizational change: We

guide our clients through the management
and execution of strategic organizational
change programs such as mergers and
acquisitions and globalization initiatives,
as well as new operating models, alliances
and outsourcing arrangements than can
drive cost containment.
Enabling system and process change:
We help our clients manage and execute
medium- to large-scale change related
to the implementation of new enterprise
systems and/or process changes within
organizations that span business units
and geographies.
Transitioning to new sourcing models:
We help our clients smooth the transition
of employees to a traditional outsourcing
or shared services (both captive and multivendor) environment while minimizing
disruptions to ongoing organizational
performance. Accenture also works with
organizations to focus on the retained
workforce in an outsourcing environment
so that their productivity and effectiveness
remain high.
As a business and technology innovator,
Accenture also leverages new technologies
such as social media tools and advanced
analytics to help encourage adoption of
change throughout the organization at
all levels.

Creating this organization change

capability starts at the top of the
enterprise with leadership development
programs to create senior management
more effective at managing change.
Methodologies, tools and technologies
are also important because they help
manage the portfolio of change programs
and support more consistent delivery of
results. The program is also supported by a
network of experienced practitioners within
the business and support functions to
repeatedly deliver planned outcomes.
One of the innovative assets developed by
Accenture to help our clients develop an
internal change management capability
is the Accenture Change Academya
dedicated learning environment that brings
together our deep change management
expertise and broad client experience
across all industries and geographies
to help our clients develop the change
management skills, tools and approaches
to become a change-receptive and
change-adaptive culture.
With the Academy we deliver an engaging,
competency-based curriculum targeted
at the key roles necessary to drive a
successful organizational change initiative:
change sponsor, change manager, change
practitioner and change agent.

Creating an innovative Change

Academy at EDF Energy Networks
(UK Power Networks)
EDF Energy Networks, formerly a business
unit of EDF Energy and now operating as
UK Power Networksembarked on a major
transformation program called Networks
1st, a program with wide-ranging
impacts on productivity, development of
its 5,000 employees, customer service and
information systems.
According to Chris Degg, the companys
HR, communications and training director,
We realized that we could no longer rely
on occasional, ad hoc programs to help us
cope with organizational change. It had to
be something we were good at across the
entire company and at every level, all
the time.
EDF Energy Networks turned to Accenture
to establish a dedicated change academy
to help the company build an internal and
sustainable change capability in support of
the transformation program. The change
academy enables tailored capability
development at three levels of leadership:
the senior executive team, managers and
then a group called change supporters
especially influential people across the
business who agree to support change and
to be active ambassadors for the program.
The Change Academy provided EDF Energy
Networks the focus and rigor needed to
manage changeleveraging best-of-breed,
research-based and field-tested knowledge
and approaches to build a broader
foundation for successful change.

21

Why Accenture
Innovative, industry-leading services and solutions to drive strategic
advantage from distinctive talent and organization capabilities
Accenture collaborates with clients from
every industry on integrated talent, HR
and organizational change services that
help them respond to urgent marketplace
needs, improve workforce productivity,
create a more agile enterprise and deliver
measurable, predictable business outcomes.
We offer:
Relentless focus on outcomes
We continue to demonstrate to our clients
the game-changing results that can be
delivered by asking more of business
solutions and services: beyond only
reductions in learning or HR budgets,
beyond only reductions in workforce

costs, we help our clients produce

measurable improvements in performance
measured in terms such as improved
sales, faster product introduction, higher
customer retention rates and better
workforce productivity.
Integrated services
We bring together market-tested offerings
integrated across human capital strategy,
leadership, culture change, organization
design, HR technologies, learning, change
management and more. We also maintain
strong alliances with leading technology
providers, platforms and vendors which
helps us deliver leading-edge solutions that
are linked only to a clients business and
technology needs rather than being forcefitted to a single, proprietary platform.

Capabilities to move from

insight to action
We can help clients innovate and identify
new business opportunities, and then put in
place the structures to help the workforce
and organization implement those ideas. As
a leader in the development and application
of analytics-based solutions, Accentures
proprietary tools and approaches can help our
clients make better fact-based decisions and
respond briskly to opportunities.

22

A demonstrated track record of

successful, innovative delivery
Our unmatched breadth of industrialized
capabilitiesincluding tools, architectures
and metricshelps us bring rigor and
predictability to delivery. We can scale
rapidly, assembling global teams of
deeply experienced and knowledgeable
professionals across the spectrum of talent
and organization domains.
Sustainable capabilities
Beyond a single deployment of a
business or technical solution, we work
to achieve sustainable change and create
an organization with the flexibility and
capability to respond rapidly to business
needs and opportunities.
Deep industry expertise
Our services and solutions are tailored
to the unique environments of particular
industries. We serve more than two
dozen industry segments and our Talent
& Organization professionals are aligned
with specific industries so they have a
deep understanding of a clients timely
challenges and opportunities, as well as
industry evolution, business issues and
applicable technologies.
Global scale and reach
Accenture serves clients in more than 120
countries. We have extensive relationships
with the worlds leading companies and
governments and work with organizations

of all sizesincluding 92 of the Fortune

Global 100 and more than three quarters
of the Fortune Global 500. Our Global
Delivery Network and our Global Talent
and Innovation Network stretch around the
world, offering thousands of professionals
in locations across Asia, Europe, Africa and
the Americas to offer competitively priced
capabilities across both traditional and
emerging solutions. At the same time, our
balance of onshore, offshore and nearshore
delivery helps organizations increase
efficiency while maintaining a local
relevance and presence.
Commitment to innovation and
thought leadership
Accentures High Performance Business
research program continues to track the
characteristics of top performers in every
industry, synthesizing leading practices and
insights, and using those to continuously
improve the solutions and services we
design and deliver with our clients.
For more than 11 years, our Accenture
High-Performance Workforce Study has
developed fresh insights into what the
worlds most successful companies can and
should do to increase the value of their
human capital assets and to implement
strategy rapidly and effectively.
We also team with leading universities and
research organizations around the world
to generate insights into issues our clients
are facing today, as well as those just
appearing on the horizon. We help define
new generations of solutions based on
scientific analysis and research, and on our
broad experience with clients around the
world, in every industry.

23

Contact us

About Accenture

For more information about how

Accenture Talent & Organization can help
you create sustainable advantage through
advanced talent, organizational change
and HR services, please contact:

Accenture is a global management

consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with approximately
257,000 people serving clients in
more than 120 countries. Combining
unparalleled experience, comprehensive
capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on
the worlds most successful companies,
Accenture collaborates with clients to help
them become high-performance businesses
and governments. The company generated
net revenues of US$27.9 billion for the
fiscal year ended August 31, 2012. Its home
page is www.accenture.com.

talent.organization@accenture.com
or visit us on the web at:
www.accenture.com/talent-organization

Copyright 2012 Accenture

All rights reserved.
Accenture, its Logo, and
High Performance Delivered
are trademarks of Accenture.