Every employee move needs one owner

Agree the service and who owns it before you redraw the org chart.

An HR transformation can spend months on structure and still leave a manager asking the same question: who can help me get this done?

Take a colleague moving country. HR has issued the documents, payroll has opened a case, IT has the request. Everyone has done their part, and the employee still can’t confirm a start date.

My view: start the redesign with the service, and give each journey one owner. Agree a few commitments first. Simple requests are easy to complete, difficult cases reach the right expert, and leaders get real support with organizational change. Then decide how shared services, HRBPs and specialist teams deliver them. There’s no universally right structure. It has to answer a business question.

The journey owner doesn’t manage every specialist. They need visibility of the whole move, the authority to resolve competing priorities and a fast route to a decision when the process stalls.

Where I’d start: map one transfer from the first request to the employee’s first productive day. Agree what information passes at each handoff, who receives it and when a delay gets escalated. Give the employee one view of progress.

The test: if the owner can only chase other teams, we’ve added a coordinator and left the gap open. Also check where the effort lands. A saving in HR can simply become more admin for line managers.

Sources: CIPD · Transforming HR operating models; GOV.UK · Solve a whole problem for users