← All work
2020–20222 min read

TE Connectivity · Head HR Technology, Data & People Operations

Redesigned the global HR operating model across 80,000 employees.

A multi-year, $22M+ programme portfolio that consolidated vendors, lifted data quality to 96.6%, and delivered $9M+ in cost savings, all while partnering with EU works councils on sensitive workforce data.

Case at a glance— 01
Problem type

Redesign at scale

The mandate

Bring an enterprise HR estate under coherent governance, deliver measurable savings, and shift the operating model toward shared and digital services, without breaking compliance or trust in the most regulated jurisdictions.

Workstreams

1

Distinct parts of the intervention

Headline result

$9M+

Cost savings

Measured outcomes— 02
$9M+
Cost savings
96.6%
Critical data quality
80K
Employees, 150+ countries
7,000+
Leaders served by insights
The situation— 03
Context

What was happening.

TE Connectivity operates across 150+ countries with c.80,000 employees. HR data, technology and operations were fragmented across regions, with critical exposure around salary, medical and COVID-related information requiring direct engagement with Data Protection Officers, legal teams and EU works councils.

Mandate

What had to change.

Bring an enterprise HR estate under coherent governance, deliver measurable savings, and shift the operating model toward shared and digital services, without breaking compliance or trust in the most regulated jurisdictions.

What changed

The moves that made the difference.

The intervention, broken into the moves that mattered.

01

Highlights

7 moves
  • Established enterprise data governance frameworks for sensitive workforce data across multiple EU jurisdictions.
  • Partnered directly with DPOs, privacy leaders and works councils in France, Germany and elsewhere.
  • Led the global HR operating model redesign, assessed 90+ activities across APAC, EMEA, LATAM and NAM, then stood up a 3-tier model (shared services, regional, HRBPs) with clarified roles.
  • Diagnosed HR cost-to-serve at 3.4% of revenue (>3x industry benchmark) and used the gap to fund consolidation, shifting 40–70% of HR activities into shared and digital services.
  • Consolidated local vendor contracts globally and standardised payroll/vendor agreements, delivering $9M+ in vendor savings.
  • Delivered a multi-year, $22M+ programme portfolio working with IT, procurement, legal and BU leaders.
  • Built and led digital insights teams supporting a global leadership community of 7,000+ in Tableau.
What I would carry forward
What I'd repeat: bring works councils in before the design is fixed, not after. Treated as partners, they sharpen the work; treated as a gate, they stop it. What I'd change: I'd push harder, earlier, on shifting the operating model, the savings followed structure, not effort, and we left months on the table waiting for consensus we already had.
Recognise the problem?

Tell me what you are trying to change.

Related work— Next
View all case studies →