Design and Implementation of a Best-in-Class Organization Structure and Variable Pay System

Client Situation

Our client is a leading UAE group of companies with diversified business interests in five operating divisions: aviation, financial services, construction and trading, facility management and HR consultancy. The client wished to restructure and optimize the organizational architecture and develop a variable compensation framework for the three of its identified businesses and their shared support functions.

Cedar’s Approach

The client mandated Cedar to design and implement an improved organizational design for three identified businesses and centralized functions (shared services) within the group of companies. Cedar’s approach was as follows:

• Review of all relevant internal documents related to the organizational design, strategy and operations of the enterprise
• External assessment of competitor strategies using Cedar database and secondary research
• One-on-one interviews with relevant members of the group and the company management teams to allow articulation of their perspective on the organizational architecture
• Integration of the internal assessment, external assessment and one-on-one interview inputs to develop a summarized analysis of the current issues and future objectives
• Presentation of recommendations to senior management

Outcome

Some of the key outcomes of this program were as follows:

• Structural review of the organization structure and identification of critical issues such as:
1. Lack of clarity in roles and responsibilities, leading to overlapping functions
2. Lack of an annual appraisal and performance measurement system
3. Lack of a defined increment and bonus pay-out policy
4. Key positions within the organization were vacant
5. Unilateral decision making in some critical areas
• Recommendation of an 8-level grade structure with market-competitive job titles, some benefits of which were:
1. Title alignment to project management strategy and the reflection of technical importance of certain roles
2. Clear demarcation of roles based on levels of contribution allows for internal equity and credibility
3. Multiple grades within bands, providing space for competitive positioning for attraction and retention of employees
• Organizational structure proposal for each company under the group, as well as for the shared services entity
• Estimation of timeline and headcount calculation of 13 new employees to be hired
• Development of a job description template for hiring senior executives, also consisting of individual performance measures and their weights