Customer Success Story: Baker Hughes

In addition to improving payroll accuracy and increasing HR efficiency, Baker Hughes also wanted to comply with legal and regulatory requirements and, most importantly, reduce HR operational costs.

To achieve these objectives, Baker Hughes decided to adopt a new global HR information system, to harmonize and consolidate their global HR processes, and to outsource their payroll in 14 countries, managing over 11,500 employees. As a result, HR can now focus on delivering added-value services to support the business and the future growth of the company.

Challenges and Objectives

In 2007, Baker Hughes decided to look for a long-term HR partner to support them in achieving the following objectives of their HR transformation program:

• Ability to focus on value added activities to help the business develop and grow
• Ability to readily comply with legal and regulatory requirements
• Ability to meet expansion and contraction of the employee base and ensure payroll accuracy
• Consolidate and outsource HR administration and payroll activities in order to increase efficiencies
• Cost reduction

Overall, Baker Hughes’ main HR objective was to increase HR service delivery efficiency while reducing HR costs and operational efforts. Therefore, they wanted to collaborate with a single partner which could support them from an HRIS and HR services perspective on a global basis.

Alight’s Solution

Based on Baker Hughes’ HR challenges and requirements, Alight proposed the following solution:

• The implementation of Alight’s own SaaS HR IT platform – euHReka – supporting the HR administrative and payroll related processes in 14 countries across the globe.
• Global payroll outsourcing services, whereby Alight manages all operational aspects of the payroll process for Baker Hughes’ over 11,500 employees in Europe and Latin America. Most countries are directly serviced on the euHReka platform; 4 countries benefit from the payroll services of one of Alight’s local 3rd party payroll providers through our ‘Alight Global Payroll’ concept.

The use of euHReka as their global HR technology responds to Baker Hughes’ need to have a global HR system to manage its employees. In addition, outsourcing payroll processing gives Baker Hughes the opportunity to focus on value-added HR activities. As such, this integrated HR solution allows them to drive down time-to-benefit and cost, increase standardization and quality and improve HR management.

Through all steps of this journey, Alight acts a true partner and accompanies Baker Hughes in the transformation of their HR department towards a more efficient and competitive model.

Results and Benefits

As a result, Baker Hughes can now benefit from fully integrated, standardized, and harmonized HR data and processes across the globe. The decision to outsource payroll to Alight led to a more flexible and configurable payroll solution, as well as to a more harmonized and simplified in-country payroll management.

The setup of standard processes, a single HR technology based on euHReka and global payroll outsourcing services, provided Baker Hughes with the following business benefits:

• Ability to focus on internal processes without having to spend all efforts on managing the payroll process
• Decrease of the number of issues related to the calculation and compliance of local payroll
• Alignment of all entities within a country and standardization of local and global HR processes
• Important increase in payroll accuracy thanks to a better management of fluctuations in employee numbers
• Increased standardization and compatibility of HR processes globally, which will ease further expansion
• Significant cost reductions thanks to the removal of bespoke in-country HR systems which required a lot of resources

Why euHReka

euHReka was chosen based on the following criteria:

• Innovative HR solution covering all geographies and processes in scope
• Based on solid SAP HCM technology
• Ability to support and integrate multiple HR processes within a same solution
• HR and payroll outsourcing services can be provided on this platform by a single HR partner
• Global fit-to-standard approach and proven project management methodology
• Flexibility of the solution to meet current as well as future HR needs

Why Alight

Baker Hughes selected Alight as their long-term HR partner thanks to our proven capability to meet all of their requirements. Our comprehensive solution combining the setup of standard processes, an innovative HR technology, a proven project management methodology and global payroll outsourcing services, was selected as the best response to Baker Hughes HR challenges.

Throughout the project, Alight was perceived as a true partner focusing on mutual trust and collaboration at all levels. Alight’s flexible HR solution now enables Baker Hughes’ HR department to support the business and can at easily be adapted to future requirements as well.