Improving Employee Engagement in a Procure-to-Pay Center
Situation
A global chemical company's multiyear outsourcing transition involved transferring procure-to-pay processes to innovation centers while managing an existing European location. 145 resources, predominantly contractors, experienced increased work pressure and uncertainty despite minimal day-to-day changes. Declining morale and murmurs of work stoppage threatened severe operational disruption to both service provider contract delivery and client business operations.
Project
JCY Advisors facilitated a multiday onsite workshop focused on resetting dialogue, improving engagement, and identifying improvements. The approach included initial research of staff and management perspectives, six workshop sessions with 20-25 participants each divided into four role-based groups (process clerk, procurement, business requisitioner, supplier), using collaborative techniques including storyboarding, empathy mapping, and ideation exercises, culminating in a playback session.
Results
The Design Thinking intervention transformed an adversarial workplace environment into collaborative opportunity:
Measurable improvement in employee engagement and motivation
Enhanced end-to-end process understanding from multiple perspectives
Created six implementation teams with identified change champions