Building Agility Through HR Transformation: A Global Use Case
When a global consumer organisation undertook a major business restructure, it needed more than a new operating model, it needed a People function that could scale, respond, and lead through change. This transformation shows how aligning people, process, and technology unlocked new levels of agility and impact.
Company Information
Industry:
Manufacturing & Retail
Headquarters:
Bristol, United Kingdom
Number of Employees:
~25.7k
About the Organisation
Headquartered in the UK, this global consumer business is one of the world’s largest in its category, with leading positions across markets including the UK, US, Germany, Spain, and Australia. With a history spanning over a century, the company is now focused on forging a healthier future, offering a portfolio that includes both traditional products and next-generation alternatives such as vapes and nicotine pouches.
Guided by a vision to build a strong, responsible challenger brand, the organisation is investing in transformation across its workforce, operations, and culture, with a renewed focus on agility, accountability, and choice.
The Challenge: Reshaping the People Function for a Global Business Shift
As part of a bold shift from a geographical to a line-of-business structure, the organisation needed to fundamentally rethink its People & Culture function. This included restructuring global operations, introducing new technology and ways of working into additional markets, and evolving the HR operating model to support business transformation at scale.
The priorities were clear: build a more agile People & Culture function, mature the service model to match evolving business needs, and streamline operations to enhance both efficiency and responsiveness. Equally important was leveraging technology to enable intuitive self-service, while equipping teams with the skills and capabilities required to adapt and thrive in a changing environment.
The Solution: Aligning Strategy, Structure, and Capability
To enable this transformation, the organisation focused on five key areas:
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Restructuring the global business and aligning the HR operating model to support new ways of working
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Mapping end-to-end People & Culture processes and creating service catalogues to support consistency and scale
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Integrating systems and service delivery across regions, ensuring streamlined access and usability
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Rolling out tailored change management initiatives to embed the new model and engage teams at every level
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Building future-focused capabilities across the People & Culture function, enabling sustainable impact
These solutions were co-created with internal teams to ensure relevance, ownership, and seamless execution.
The Outcome: An Agile, Tech-Enabled People Ecosystem
The transformation successfully aligned leadership, teams, and processes with the organisation’s new structure, fostering agility, enhancing operational efficiency, and enabling faster adoption of new technology and working practices.
A roadmap for an agile, responsive People & Culture function was established, bringing together service models, process clarity, and a strong foundation for ongoing evolution. Over 116 global processes were mapped and built into Workday, while 64 markets were aligned to the new structure and ways of working.
Technology enablement was key to the success of this change:
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17 countries received new People & Culture platforms
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A new People Portal launched in 11 languages
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40% of colleagues adopted the Colleague Portal at go-live
The programme also delivered deep engagement and capability building:
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2,419 People Leaders were engaged and aligned throughout the rollout
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581 People & Culture team members were onboarded to the new operating model
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Persona-driven training enabled teams to manage and adapt to change with confidence
The result is a more connected, capable, and future-ready People function, designed not just to support business strategy, but to help lead it.
11
Languages supported by newly established People Portal
2419
People Leaders engaged and aligned
116
New global processes in Workday
40%
Colleague Portal adoption at go live
17
Countries receiving new technology
581
People & Culture team members onboarded to new operating model
64
Markets aligned to new structures and ways of working
Looking Ahead
This Use Case highlights what’s possible when HR transformation is anchored in clarity, co-creation, and enablement. By aligning structure with strategy and empowering teams with the right tools and support, the organisation has laid the foundation for continued growth and adaptability, wherever the future leads.
