Equiniti

The PMAs judges were impressed by the Equiniti team’s “undeniably strong” results and demonstration of “great resilience” in the face of the entire transformation of the company’s HR function. Equiniti also came out on top of two other categories: the Best People Analytics Initiative and the Best Health and Wellbeing Initiative – Private Sector. 

Acknowledging that business performance, engagement and management capability were low across the group, and that there was “little structure around career progression or pay, and the HR initiatives in place didn’t deliver good value and were disjointed”, the organisation’s people function was restructured.

It was envisioned that a rejuvenated HR function would operate via business partners aligned to divisions and geographies, with centres of excellence across engagement, reward and L&D. There were numerous people changes to contend with in the senior HR team – those remaining took on the tough task of sensitively exiting more than 60 senior roles from the top-heavy business (delivering an annual cost saving of £12m); integrating a new US business and facilitating organisational redesigns in several areas of the business.

No grading structure previously existed so the team implemented nine job levels and pay ranges (1,700 job titles existed in the business previously). Lack of pay structures left huge disparities so, over three pay-review cycles, Equiniti used pay ranges and became an accredited Real Living Wage employer. Now, in 2024, all colleagues are within the pay ranges and these are published, bringing greater transparency.

Employee voice was strengthened, establishing an elected Global Colleague Forum (GCF) that collaborated to redefine and relaunch Equiniti’s values, and ED&I networks were relaunched. The monthly engagement tool Peakon was introduced, opening anonymous conversations between managers and colleagues, and this was used to drive the communications agenda and multiple business improvements – as the PMAs judges recognised. 

Now the workforce is more engaged than ever: 50 per cent of colleagues score the company nine or 10 out of 10 and actively recommend the organisation as a good place to work, compared with 35 per cent in 2023. “The team showed great resilience in making this happen, including securing seven-figure investment from its private equity owners to support HR initiatives, which happened at a point when the business was failing. No mean feat,” the judges said.