Lesley de Jager reward director at Wood Plc on global harmonisation

Wood Plc, a multinational energy services company, acquired its competitor in 2017, doubling the size of the organisation. As a result, it undertook a global harmonisation project to align terms and conditions and benefits, as Lesley de Jager, reward director at the business explains.

“We took the bold approach of deciding to harmonise in every country around the world that we operate in, which is about 35 countries, looking at our terms and conditions of employment, our benefits, our employment policies,” says de Jager.

The project, which is still to be completed in some countries, has been a massive undertaking with 22 different sets of conditions to align in the UK alone. De Jager outlines the challenges they faced with aligning terms and conditions, and how the changes affected their pensions and benefits offering.

In particular, de Jager highlights the changes they made to their core benefits offering and the transition to a trust-based pension scheme for all employees.