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Turning Small Fixes Into Big Savings At Scale
Headline result
c.£750k sustainable savings + c.£550k/year
The challenge
An international bank's HR back office ran on standard transaction processes that had simply never been systematically reviewed for efficiency. None of them were dramatic problems on their own – the kind of small friction that's easy to live with day to day – but repeated at the volume a large HR back office runs at, they added up to a meaningful, largely invisible cost.
My approach
Rather than running a single improvement project, I built a capability. I pulled together a cross-functional team and had them Green Belt-trained in Six Sigma methodology, then directed them through a structured programme of process reviews and re-engineering across standard HR back-office transactions – individually modest changes that, extrapolated across volume, delivered real money. Alongside that, I designed and facilitated targeted Innovation Workshops and WorkOuts to open up a further stream of savings beyond the core review programme. After around a year, I made a deliberate choice not to keep the team as a permanent standalone function: I returned them to their substantive roles, so their new skills would spread as mentoring and support across HR rather than staying siloed in one team.
The impact
The programme delivered c.£750k in sustainable savings through process re-engineering, plus a further c.£550k per annum from the Innovation Workshops and WorkOuts. Just as importantly, the improvement capability didn't leave when the assignment did – it stayed in the business, carried by a wider pool of Green Belt-trained people working across HR.