Citizens Financial Group: Human Resource Management

Citizens Financial Group is the eighth-largest US commercial banking group with $148 billion in assets and employs 27,000 people.

Citizens Financial Group has grown rapidly during the past 12 years, particularly through its purchase in 2004 of super-regional bank Charter Bank, which considerably enlarged the employee headcount.

This growth strained its payroll processes and technology to breaking point. In support of the bank's high-growth initiatives and rapid achievement of high performance, Citizens Financial Group embarked on the transformation of its human resources (HR) infrastructure and technologies.

Accenture, which previously worked with the group to increase employee performance levels by integrating systems and processes, was chosen to spearhead the process of transforming the HR and payroll processes while reducing costs. An aggressive timeline was set to start realizing significant cost savings within the first year.

Work on the transformation program started in April 2004 and within four weeks a multidisciplinary team with complementary capabilities was mobilized by leveraging the resources, methodologies and tools of the Accenture Global Delivery Network. The finely tuned operational excellence practiced at the network's Delivery Centers takes an industrialized approach to delivery that allows for universal consistency and flexibility to meet the needs of each client, at reduced risk.

Skilled personnel based at the Accenture Delivery Centers in Atlanta, Georgia, and Manila, Philippines, renowned for their deep expertise in PeopleSoft and HR processes, were deployed to help convert data and customize the applications to Citizens Financial Group's specific HR processes. They also trained the Group's personnel in the use of the new application software, PeopleSoft v8.8.

This successful implementation—completed within the tight timeframe of six months—was the fastest PeopleSoft v8.8 rollout in the financial services industry in the United States. The first phase of the core HR system went live in September 2004, with the second phase following by June 2005.

Citizens Financial Group has realized a $500,000 annual reduction in its overall HR costs since Accenture leveraged our Global Delivery Network resources to transform their operation.

The group has experienced a huge improvement in efficiency and a reduction of payroll-related call center volume by 90 percent. Improved business processes and technology resulted in a solution that reduced the personnel required for payroll processing by 40 percent.

"The strength of our global delivery approach, our HR assets and the strong relationship we built with the client's HR and IT groups enabled us to deliver a cost-effective HR solution that is above and beyond what Citizens Financial Group expected," said Anthony Abbatiello, senior manager-Financial Services, Accenture. "This solution is further proof that Accenture's Global Delivery Network provides more than economic value to the client—our delivery excellence approach is critical to their success."