Lincolnshire County Council Case Study

Driving Change

When Lincolnshire County Council found themselves under increasing pressure to find more and more savings, they brought in Petaurum Solutions, a leading business in HR and people solutions, to help them with the implementation of a new IT system which was being introduced as part of a large scale Transformation Project. This would serve as a key element of the Council’s Future Delivery of Support Services Programme (FDSSP); helping them to reduce their costs whilst improving efficiency and retaining the quality of the support services they receive.

The Need: In early 2014, Lincolnshire County Council identified the need to streamline its business processes and realise financial savings, through a radical review of its support services, which included the implementation of a new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution. The previous ERP system required highly technical users, making it difficult for everyone to access the information, it was costly and was not change focused. Following an assessment of their requirements, the Provider chose the new system as it offered the opportunity to standardise and simplify existing business processes, which was not previously possible.

Petaurum Solutions were then secured by the Council to assist the Council in overseeing that the Provider managed the process of transition for two important aspects – HR & Payroll. Petaurum Solutions also oversaw training, communication and engagement with users and key stakeholders.

Implementation: With over twenty years of experience in HR strategies and solutions, Adam Davey Director at Petaurum Solutions, oversaw the management of the implementation of the HR and Payroll streams of the new system for Lincolnshire County Council.

There were a number of challenges along the way, which included the scale and complexity of the Council’s employment framework which made the transition to the new system highly demanding. The number of service providers involved in switching from the incumbent system, also provided challenges, however we remained objective and worked together to achieve our goals.

Training: Petaurum Solutions Consultant Matthew Bullock oversaw the training, communication and engagement work streams, on behalf of the Council, which involved setting the scene for change amongst all stakeholders, including staff and messaging key and salient information. Engagement with stakeholders was a critical component of the communications arm of the strategy. With this in mind, Matt started by engaging with the Council’s Corporate Management Board to share the plan and gain their input and commitment, before holding similar sessions with their management teams and asking them to brief their teams in turn.

Engaging with the workforce was, and continues to be an essential component in the success of the new system across the county. After I joined the project, I implemented a full diagnostic to gain insight into what was required by looking at the current state vs the desired future position, with the following outputs agreed, said Matthew .

• A full training needs analysis – clearly showing what the learning needs were anticipated to be.
• A Council wide engagement strategy and plan – this included face-to-face engagement sessions throughout the organisational hierarchy, a communications plan which included e-mail campaigns to all employees and to targeted groups by service area or user type.
• The introduction of an engagement group called Advocates, who were volunteers from within each service area who the project team engaged with in more depth for them to support and guide their peers out in the service areas

The training needs analysis informed the training approach with the key principle that the learning solution should be a blended learning approach, offering a range of options for users to learn. This blended learning approach included:

1. A number of face-to-face classroom based courses where users were able to embed their learning via an experiential experience.
2. A range of User Guides and Quick Reference Cards that were accessible to all users internally.
3. A range of e-learning modules where users could see a demonstration of the process and in some cases, try a mock-up of the system.

Following this, Matt set up a number of countywide demonstration sessions where the basic functions of the new system were demonstrated and took questions from those attending. These sessions were then broadcast on YouTube for any employee or member of the public to view. The team also collated all questions in a FAQ document which was loaded onto the intranet for users to view.

What the Client Said: Adam’s extensive HR background meant that he was able to hit the ground running with no further explanation needed from Lincolnshire County Council. Read the full Lincolnshire County Council testimonial here

The Outcome: Fiona Thompson, Service Manager – People, Lincolnshire County Council, said: The value that Petaurum Solutions have brought to the organisation and the way they have delivered has been an experience which I would describe as a highly professional and fruitful partnership.