Case study

Transport for London

Developing and implementing a world class HR Shared Services solution in a major public sector organisation – at the double!

In order to improve its competitiveness London needs a transport system that consistently provides the best possible service to the people who visit, live or work there. In July 2003, London Underground was merged into Transport for London (TfL) to make this happen.

TfL is now guiding investment in all aspects of this vital public service, including infrastructure, management systems and people. However, as in any other post-merger situation, integration is a lot easier to plan on paper than to achieve in reality. At TfL the HR function has been at the heart of driving integration across the whole of the organisation.

At the time of the merger, TfL had a complex legacy HR structure with several different HR departments servicing the different businesses. This led to inefficiencies and fragmented service provision across the organisation, so TfL was seeking greater efficiencies, cohesion and cost savings. With PA’s help, it was decided that the best way to do this was to design and implement a HR Shared Services (HRSS) operation. Consolidation of HR services and activities would deliver significant cost savings, the ability to provide a more reliable and timely service, legally consistent advice and support, speedy resolution of personnel issues, and improved management information and intelligence. It would also provide a more flexible and affordable HR structure for the future.

With PA’s support TfL established a world class, highly automated HR Service Centre – twice as quickly as industry norms, and with double the typical industry benefits – without prejudicing the delivery of HR services to the business.