Case Studies | WH People

Strategy and Process Engineering

Initially Personio was looking for talent to focus the business on strategy and operations to make improvements to help the business get ready for rapid triple digit growth. It was suggested that instead of looking for talent in this space to engage WH People. We believed that this would be a great opportunity to leverage WH People Team’s experience to set the structure for our growth whilst empowering our own teams.

When we first engaged WH People, right from the first friendly, yet professional, conversation we were inspired by their experience, they immediately shared valuable insights, and we could tell that from our limited budget we would get maximum value from the partnership with honesty and flexibility.

We knew that we needed structure and support throughout operations, if we’re going to be successful in scaling our business. We invited the WH People team to spend 4 days onsite to get know our business so they can make suggestions on our direction and help us have process guides that our teams can continue to build on. Right from landing at the airport, one of my team shared a train journey with the WH People team and the consultative engagement started on the train. The intensity of the 4 days, covered 2 weeks worth of consultative time, but not only that, it was evident in the office that WH People we were literally part of the team in Personio fully immersing themselves with the wider visiting teams, being part of office activities and really getting to know our wider business. Coming out of that onsite session, we had several follow up sessions virtually, which resulted in recommendation paper with 9 outlined recommendations and Service Operational Procedure guides, Process maps and Change Management suggestions. The sheer volume of work in a short timescale to make the correct recommendations to support Personio’s team be ready for scale whilst focusing all the time on operational efficiency, team and customer engagement.

I would highly recommend the team at WH People, because their friendly, honest advice, consultive nature, detailed operational knowledge combined with technology expertise. The team fitted in with Personio, both culturally and even used technology that was familiar to our business, for example using the Miro board to write up the process maps, which was helpful to upload directly to Personio’s infrastructure. The work delivered by WH People was a great starting point to have the foundation for the success for 2 new hires to understand the priorities and to accelerate their success. I’ve worked with some consultants in the past that would charge to simply pass over documents into your branding, but WH People made the whole process easy, working in a way that suited our business needs and delivered in a fraction of the time what we needed to get ready for a strong start in 2025.

James Kitching

Head of Payroll Operations

Personio

”I approached WH People as I was concerned about the rising cost of my global payroll especially in the USA and wanted to drive cost savings and efficiencies. I only had a short window of opportunity before by current Provider’s contact rolled over.

Within a short discovery call with WH People they were able to establish what TFG needed from a risk profile. After the call WH People ran it through PACE - where they were able to establish 3 alternative vendors that could offer the services TFG required. We needed full support for HR, Tax Advice, Treasury and Gross to Net Payroll services within 5 countries.

WH People ensured that TFG had the buy in of the CEO, and that he was supportive to go ahead with the project. WH People offered the choice for TFG to lead the process or them to support, as their support could accelerate the overall process for us with the intended aim to deliver a new supplier within 4 - 8 weeks’ timeframe.

It was clear that a hard cost saving could be achieved through migrating, the business case was formed which not only covered the one-time costs but enables much richer functionality to help our employee experience and support our growth plans. The next stage was to facilitate the discovery and cross compare our existing service support against our chosen 2 vendors, which continued throughout the process. WH People ensured that we as a team fairly documented the feedback from all sessions, so metrics were available to measure the evaluation of the 2 vendors. WH People had a 33-step process which rapidly accelerated to blackline agreement, which enabled us to get contracts sighed within 6 weeks and 2 days from start to finish. Which is amazing.

In additional to the outstanding support we got from WH People, they also added value throughout the process by making valuable suggestions for risk prevention throughout the evaluation, contracting and delivering the project. Overall, TFG had all the power to make our own decision with the support of a trusted partner that deeply understood the market so we could get to the outcome in 6 weeks of making savings, driving greater efficiencies, and structuring a great foundational partner to help our business continue to grow through exceptional employee experience .”

Dianne Hoodless

Head of Group Compensation & Benefits

TFG Group

People & Payroll Technology value realisation

Global Payroll Strategy and Market Navigation

‘When we were preparing to implement a new global payroll system, we reached the contracting stage, and our business found ourselves at an impasse. Our business felt the supplier we appointed as vendor of choice’s terms were beyond our business’s expectations. Struggling with how I could progress this, I reached out to Wendy at WH People for guidance. I knew from our personal connection that WH People were actively supporting organisations navigating complex market decisions, and I trusted their strategic lens.

Really quickly, once I explained the situation that that our legal team were struggling not with technical issues, but rather contractual nuances that could expose us to liabilities we weren’t comfortable with, Wendy knew exactly where our challenge was. She explained the clause and the rationale behind what it meant to our new service provider, more importantly in a way that my legal team could understand. Equally, she understood what our limits were in terms of business exposure. When I shared their recommendations with our legal team, it became clear that the advice could be used to strengthen our negotiation position. WH People’s guidance helped us reframe the conversation, enabling our legal team to greater confidence and clarity. What stood out most was how quickly WH People mobilised their network. With time pressure mounting, Wendy leveraged her partner ecosystem (who our vendor of choice is a strong partner) at C-Suite level to help us secure the necessary approvals and move the agreement forward. Their responsiveness and strategic influence were instrumental in getting the contract signed off within our tight timeframe, and the whole engagement was 2 hours only.

Thanks to WH People’s support in this small window, we stayed on track for implementation and go-live, avoiding what would have been a significant risk to payroll delivery. Their ability to combine deep industry knowledge with agile, high-level advocacy made all the difference. We felt supported, informed, and empowered throughout the process.’

Sharon Anderson

Global Payroll Manager

Argus