mobility matters, S4 episode 6: transforming stress into success: the baker hughes implementation story

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Terri: Hello and welcome to today’s episode of Mobility Matters. I’m your host, Terry Bonfiglio, Director of Consulting Solutions here at Cartus, and today I’m excited to be talking about implementation. It’s a topic we know a lot of our listeners are a bit weary of. While it seems like a good idea, we also know the work effort can feel quite daunting. So, we’re hoping to alleviate those fears today and share a real-life account of just how successful implementation can be.

And here to discuss his own recent experiences with implementation, is Arjun Jonnalagadda, Head of Mobility at Baker Hughes. Arjun is currently leading his organization’s mobility program transformation. He emphasizes the importance of leveraging technology solutions to drive innovation in global mobility and firmly believes that collaborating with an external relocation partner can accelerate technological advancements and promote progress within our industry.

If you’re not already familiar with Baker Hughes, it’s an energy technology company that provides solutions for energy and industrial customers around the world. For more than a century, their inventions have revolutionized energy. Welcome Arjun and thank you so much for taking the time to be with us today!

Arjun: Thank you, great to be here.

Terri: Also joining us today is Cartus’ very own, Morgan Snapp, Director, Strategic Business Solutions. Morgan worked closely with the Baker Hughes team during their implementation and is here to share her expertise on what it takes to deliver a positive experience, as well as to spell a few myths along the way, as to how challenging it really is for the in-house mobility or HR team. Welcome Morgan!

Morgan: Hello. Glad to be here.

Terri: Before we get into really analyzing how implementation went, let’s set the scene a bit. Arjun, can you share with our listeners a little about Baker Hughes’ mobility program? Locations, volume, that type of information?

Arjun: Yeah, certainly. I consider Baker Hughes as a medium-sized mobilization program. So, we mobilize anywhere between 1,000 to 1,500 employees, globally, touching over 65 countries, and sometimes to emerging markets and challenging locations as well.

Terri: So, when you decided to potentially change suppliers, Arjun, what was your key objective, and what ways did you want your mobility program to evolve?

Arjun: For us, we wanted to partner with someone that was technology-first. Someone that could also bring creative solutions to conventional mobilization challenges and help us be cost-focused but also manage and not compromise the quality and customer centricity.

Terri: Morgan, let’s turn to you now. Can you talk us through the timeline? When did the implementation kick off? What was the go-live date?

Morgan: Yeah, absolutely. So, Baker Hughes had a very robust RFP process that they worked through. Their executive leadership team had given them a firm go-live date of January 1, 2025, and when we received the wonderful news that Cartus had been selected, we were given the task to make sure that, however it needed to be accomplished, that our implementation process was smooth and successful and complete but also done by January 1, 2025.

So, when we got the news, we collaborated with the Baker Hughes’ in-house team to determine what the key milestones would be. We built around some SLAs with onboarding to make sure that everything flowed smoothly from both sides. And then we started off with a kickoff workshop, which was great. It really helped propel the knowledge transfer, understanding the culture of Baker Hughes really cementing our partnership together. And then we worked through key objectives, ongoing. We had multiple workstreams going at the same time. So, we had financial workstreams with those stakeholders meeting once a week. We also had the account teams around the world being pulled in as they were needed to answer questions about the current program.

Baker Hughes decided to do what we call a “lift and shift”. So, we kept everything pretty much the same and brought it all on board. If there was any low hanging fruit or easy to identify efficiencies, we wrapped those in as well, but for the most part, we brought over the program as it was with their incumbent, and then, of course, after go-live now, we’re starting the process of reimagining their program to be more efficient, more sustainable, and more in line with the future goals that they have.

Terri: That makes a lot of sense. Arjun, would you add anything to that?

Arjun: No, I think for me, it was a very aggressive timeline by my standards, but full credit to the teams on both sides to living up to the challenge and delivering January 1st. I think the leadership and our Chief HR Officer, our Chief Total Rewards Officer, were really impressed by us achieving that milestone.

Terri: That’s amazing. But I also understand that you were personally in the middle of a relocation yourself during that implementation.

Arjun: Of course, I think more than that, I think our organization always is agile in adapting to the, you know, external factors that govern our business. So always we are, I think, internally trying to be operationally efficient. So, at any time, or during the time that we were doing the RFP, we had multiple workstreams trying to operate in a way or structure themselves in a way, to be agile. So, this was one aspect of that. Also, we were preparing to do another global RFP around the same time.

Terri: That’s amazing. So, Morgan, you’ve spoken about the aggressive timeline. What steps did you take to help speed the process up?

Morgan: I think the most important thing that we did was we paused, and we listened, and absorbed. It’s not about Cartus. It’s about making sure that Baker Hughes feels that we’re an extension of their team, that we fully understand their culture, their processes, and from that initial conversation, even before the RFP, getting to know them and understand them. Then learning about them more through the RFP process, keeping everybody within all levels at Cartus aware of Baker Hughes’ needs, their priorities. That way, when we had that kick-off workshop, we really came with a full understanding of everything that we had experienced, that we had discussed, the team was well prepared.

And that way, the time was really meaningful. It was really impactful. And we really started to dive into those details, outlining exactly what we were going to proceed with, where we were focused, how we were going to prioritize different things. Baker Hughes is a very robust global program. They have several different regions. They have nuances in those different regions, different compliance concerns. So, all of that had to be taken into account to understand what their priorities were and how we could best support them.

The onboarding process is a full learning experience for both sides. They’re getting to experience how Cartus works, getting to learn a little bit more about our teams and how we can support them and the different solutions that we offer, but it’s also a chance for us to really step back and listen carefully and make sure that we’re understanding what their goals and objectives were. And I think the team did a fantastic job.

Terri: That’s terrific. And Arjun, I’m wondering, from your perspective, did the Baker Hughes team see value in the face-to-face workshops, and what did you get out of it?

Arjun: Absolutely, I think for me, two main things, right? I think one was expected structurally: Cartus was trying to come in house and see, how are our policies set-up. What is our governance. What were our requirements in the space of technology. Also, at the program design level. So those were sort of expected in any transaction like this, but for me, in the leadership, what was really impressive was the cultural aspect that Cartus was genuinely interested in knowing about Baker Hughes’ mobilization philosophy, the way we work, the behaviors we conduct on a day-to-day basis.

I think their [Cartus’] investment in that area has clearly shown some positive outcomes, and them also being interested, from day one, to take our culture and actually orient their teams to kind of attune that true partnership model.

Terri: Yeah, that’s really helpful. And I really do believe that relationships and communication are at the core of every success. So, thank you for sharing that. Morgan, is there anything that we learned that we now apply to other implementations?

Morgan: Oh, there’s something you learn from every single onboarding or implementation process! Our implementation team is so good at listening and absorbing and really applying lessons learned for the future. What I personally learned is Cartus is able to achieve a really tight timeframe and keep it kind of fun and lighthearted. I felt like we didn’t get bogged down by any of the conversations. Everything kept moving. You know, Baker Hughes has a fantastic procurement team that supports their mobility team. Tracy [Tracy Day, Global Category Manager, Baker Hughes] was our leader in those conversations, and she prioritized Baker Hughes’ needs. She prioritized getting everything on track and keeping it on track. And she had several other things on her plate, as most procurement people do.

As Arjun has mentioned, they were doing another RFP for a different service line within mobility. So, they were very pulled in many, many different directions, but we never felt, you know, frustration or hesitations on their part. Everybody was gung ho. We actually met and exceeded some of the milestones. So, some of the milestones we accomplished a week or two early, which really shows the collaboration on both sides. Detailed spreadsheets and Teams folders, and other shared drives really kept us on track. Leveraging technology has been so valuable as we’ve continued to learn more things, and then there’s just more to do and more to grow. We’re really excited to see where Baker Hughes imagines their program for their future and helping them get there and develop solutions that really exceed their expectations.

Terri: That’s wonderful. Thank you. Arjun, I’m wondering, going into the onboarding process, what were you most anxious about? What was on your mind? I knew you had multiple things happening at the same time.

Arjun: Yeah, I think two aspects for me, like I said, we have multiple policies to support our domestic cross-border and international expatriate programs. I was not nervous, but I was cautiously optimistic that whether our Cartus partners could memorize every aspect of that policy. So, where I was impressed, probably, I use this word a lot in this podcast(!), is we never had any scenario where employees came to us and said the partner [Cartus] did not know what they were talking about. So that was extremely impressive. For the short time they had to, like, internalize all of those policy aspects, that was one.

And also, culturally and communications-wise, we did a bit of informal voice of customer. And in the short span that they have had, we have had nothing but great things from our relocating employees on how the teams have, you know, collaborated and partnered with them. So those were two things.

Terri: Thank you, Arjun. I really appreciate that, and I do think that’s tremendously impactful. So, I appreciate that, and I know our listeners will find that interesting. Arjun, what were some of the key factors that you considered when you made your final selection, to make your decision in the RFP process?

Arjun: Like I think for us, Cartus has shown that they wanted our business, and they flexed around many aspects to show that they can be agile and work at the pace that we wanted. So that was very clear and demonstrative of them, and then even in the way our implementation was complex. I guess I will not mention how many policies we have, but I think Cartus’ team were extremely impressive in going through our policies, asking the right questions, to ensure the implementation, the go-live date was successful. So, they did a lot of heavy lifting to make things simpler, because I understand many mobility programs out there are lean in the way they are structured. So, they did a lot of heavy lifting to ensure everything was read through, all the questions were asked, everything was documented.

So, we didn’t necessarily have a project manager. We had a procurement manager, but they brought the project manager that ran through everything to make sure that go-live date was met.

Terri: That’s wonderful. Thank you. So, Arjun, back to the present day now… You are through the implementation. You’re on the other side of the go-live date. I have to ask, was it worth swapping out relocation management companies? And before you answer that, let me be clear that we love honesty here at Mobility Matters. So, we’re really interested to hear your thoughts, because we know there are mobility leaders out there that may be considering a change in providers but just can’t face the complexity of it. So, was all the time and effort during the implementation worth the final result?

Arjun: No, totally. I think I would also preface by saying, when we were preparing for these dual RFPs with many other changes within the organization, we were intentional in the direction we were taking. We wanted to set the program and the roadmap or lay the ground for the next three to five years. So, we were really intentional in making this happen. For me, the way I look at it is sometimes you’d have to lay a ground for a bullet train when you’re still operating your conventional train tracks, running parallelly. So, it was more than worthy to invest the time, even if it was a short-term, you know, challenge. I think it has a long-term return for us, for sure, and I am really glad we took the plunge, and also the partnership we have had with Cartus so far.

And you need to understand, and you will understand once you start working with us; we are an ambitious group. We put a lot of us on the table. So, I am extremely impressed by how Cartus was able to manage our expectations and also face all the needs we have put on the table.

Morgan: I would echo what Arjun said. We love partnering with companies that are going to propel us and drive us forward and are going to bring creative ideas that we can provide solutions for and, you know, really bring to life. That’s always so much fun. So, we are super excited about this partnership.

And I would just say to those listeners who are considering a change, and they just aren’t sure if it’s worth the work effort you’re already doing. The work effort of an RFP, it’s not that much more work effort to make a change. So you know, if you’re just kind of, as Arjun had said, if you’re kind of on that regular train track, or maybe you’re still with a steam engine, you know, and you want to propel yourself to different heights and things like that, if you want to see what’s out in the market, you certainly should. And then if you decide that there’s something that’s better for your program, either for, you know, reporting or analytics to, you know, core/flex, to distributed workforce, whatever the case may be, that really, you need to find a better alignment. It’s not as bad as it sounds, it’s not as heavy as it sounds. It can be done it can be done very efficiently. It can be done quickly. It can be done slowly, if that’s how your stakeholders prefer it to be. But don’t let that hold you back from finding the right fit for your program and then moving forward with your plan.

Terri: Yeah, that’s really good advice. So, Arjun, what are you excited about for the future? Where do you see your mobility program headed?

Arjun: For me, the excitement is around, if I can use “limitless” as a word, limitless possibilities we all experience in the world around us, the Amazons, the FinTech, the AI, everything that’s powering the world today. My aspiration for the industry, and not just for Baker Hughes, is how our partners can use these technologies in, you know, powering the employee experience. That’s what I’m extremely excited about.

Terri: That’s fantastic. Well, it’s been lovely speaking with both of you, and I want to personally thank you for taking time from your busy schedules to have the conversation. And I want to thank our listeners for tuning in. Remember, you can email cartussolutions@cartus.com or reach out on LinkedIn with any follow-up questions or ideas for future podcasts. We’ll see you next time. Thank you!