The HR interim manager worked for an international real estate investment company (approx. 300 employees) headquartered in London. This company had taken over the real estate investment subsidiary in Germany from a large financial institution (approx. 150 additional employees). After the takeover had been contractually successful, the HR Interim Manager took over the restructuring project with regard to the employees in Germany. The restructuring was carried out in 3 successive phases.
Restructuring in 3 phases
Phase 1 involved consolidating the company and its locations. A branch in Düsseldorf was closed and the employees transferred to the Frankfurt site. From several companies, which the Group now had at three locations in Germany, consolidation took place in two companies controlled by BaFin (Federal Financial Supervisory Authority) and a service company in the form of a GmbH, to which the largest number of employees were transferred.
Phase 2 was the outsourcing of the accounting and contract management areas to another company that specializes in these activities. The activities of the employees in the transferred areas were then purchased as a service. The advantage of this was that the employees kept their jobs and the company saved on high severance payments.
In the third and final phase, the remaining surplus employees were reduced.
Complete project coordination
The HR interim manager acted as HR project manager for the client at the Frankfurt site in all three phases. She was responsible for overall coordination in all 3 project phases. She reported directly to the COO and the Global Head of HR in London and also liaised with the management in Germany. Her tasks as HR project manager included:
- Advising the German and English management
- Budget controlling
- Drawing up and tracking schedules
- Creating and tracking to-do lists for the project members
- Coordinating the project group members (e.g. regular calls for coordination, regular meetings with the project team). regular calls for coordination, regular negotiations with employee representatives)
Bypassing as Interim Head of HR
As these were all transfers of operations and subject to co-determination, the interim manager led the negotiations with the employee representatives. In each individual phase, she concluded the corresponding reconciliation of interests, redundancy plans and - in the third phase - a voluntary redundancy program. During this phase, the Head of Human Resources Germany left the company. The interim manager therefore also took on the role of Interim Head of HR. In this role, in addition to day-to-day operations, she conducted all negotiations with the legal advisors of affected employees and ensured that their departures took place without friction.
Restructuring successful
The entire restructuring project was successfully completed within the planned period of 24 months and to the absolute satisfaction of the client with a structured handover to a new Head of HR Germany.
