Region-wide HR and payroll consolidation.

In March 2020, the merger of Ingersoll Rand and Gardner Denver brought together two global manufacturing companies, each with well-established – and quite different – ways of working. One of the biggest challenges following the merger, which effectively created a new company that inherited the name Ingersoll Rand, was integrating and consolidating the HR and payroll operations of the two legacy businesses.

Nowhere was this challenge more apparent than in the Asia-Pacific region, where the new Ingersoll Rand employed more than 3,500 people across 13 jurisdictions. Before the merger, the two companies had a mixture of in-house payroll teams and a total of 18 outsourced multinational and local payroll service providers across the region. There were five different payroll vendors in China alone. The company had a wide variety of payroll calculation rules, processes and payment mechanisms in place. Managing this complexity was a challenge, and delivering the monthly payroll on time, accurately and compliantly was almost impossible.

To ensure the successful consolidation and transition of HR and payroll operations across the region, Ingersoll Rand created a brand new team, led by Gery Qian, Head of Total Rewards and HR services for Asia-Pacific. “A core value for Ingersoll Rand is a strong focus on excellence – not only in relation to products and customers, but also for employees,” explained Gery Qian. “We recognised the need for a comprehensive HR and payroll operation that delivers excellence, month on month, for all our Asia-Pacific employees.”

The challenge for Qian and her team was to standardise and integrate HR and payroll processes across the region, harmonise the widely varying compensation and benefit structures, and establish standard processes for handling further merger and acquisition activity in the region smoothly.

Having initially embarked on creating a combined payroll operation in house,  Qian and her team soon realised this would not deliver what they needed on time, cost efficiently, or in a way that aligned with the company’s longer-term strategy of outsourcing non-core activities.

The search began for an outsourced solution. A member of the Ingersoll Rand payroll team had previously had a good experience of working with TMF Group, and the company was invited to bid in competition with two other providers.

“We quickly made the choice to engage TMF Group, mainly because of its professional and attentive approach during the procurement process,” said Qian. “The company was able to commit to our very short implementation time, and showed great flexibility in meeting our rather complex needs.”

“TMF Group had proven expertise in handling M&A carve-out payroll consolidation, harmonisation and standardisation within a short timeframe. Furthermore, TMF Group is the only provider with a network able to deliver in-country expertise – in areas such as labour law and individual income tax rules – to ensure we comply with local regulations across the whole Asia-Pacific region.”

Ingersoll Rand’s payroll consolidation project was not only subject to a tight timescale – just six months from start to finish – it also involved a number of ‘moving parts’ that made implementation quite complex. As mentioned earlier, in-house payroll expertise, processes and systems varied widely across the region, with some local companies relying heavily on external in-country providers. Ingersoll Rand was simultaneously rolling out a new HR information system (HRIS), SAP(R) SuccessFactor, and part way through the project in 2021, the company acquired Seepex as part of its growth strategy. This was one of Ingersoll Rand’s largest acquisitions, having a significant impact in Asia compared to the company’s other M&A deals in this region, and required a further 200 employees to be added to the payroll.

“It really helped to have a global project manager from TMF Group to guide us through the implementation stages in each jurisdiction,” added Qian. “TMF Group’s local offices offered invaluable expertise around local regulations, backed by professional service. The team identified and helped us address some risk factors around local legacy payroll process and calculations, so we are now 100 per cent compliant.”

“The company’s experience in establishing an interface, including data translation and validation, with HR information systems was also vital. Thanks to this, we can now use the TMF Horizon dashboard to get a complete overview of payroll delivery, including metrics around timeliness and accuracy, which is extremely valuable.”

“Our payroll consolidation project had a lot of moving parts to align in a very short time; TMF Group contributed greatly to its success.”

TMF Group now provides ongoing support for Ingersoll Rand’s payroll operations in the Asia-Pacific region. This includes providing regulatory updates and guidance whenever needed, for example, around the handling of new joiners or leavers, or the impact of new regulations.

“Since we completed the payroll consolidation project, we see fewer and fewer errors in payroll accuracy, as well as consistent on-time delivery,” continued Qian. “These days it’s rare to see any suspect data. We have more time to spend on value-added tasks like reviewing internal processes to improve effectiveness and efficiency, as well as plenty of time for sign-off and approval. Our payroll team is definitely working less overtime as a result!”

“This is testament to the professionalism, commitment and attention to detail of the TMF Group team.”

TMF Group had proven expertise in handling M&A carve-out payroll consolidation, harmonisation and standardisation within a short timeframe. Furthermore, TMF Group is the only provider with a network able to deliver in-country expertise – in areas such as labour law and individual income tax rules – to ensure we comply with local regulations across the whole Asia-Pacific region.

Ingersoll Rand Inc. (NYSE: IR) is a global market leader with a broad range of innovative and mission-critical air, fluid, energy, specialty vehicle and medical technologies, providing services and solutions to increase industrial productivity and efficiency. It manufactures one of the broadest and most complete ranges of compressor, pump, vacuum and blower products in its markets, which, when combined with its global geographic footprint and application expertise, allows it to provide differentiated product and service offerings to its customers. Since merging with Gardner Denver in early 2020, the company has more than 300 years of combined experience and innovative expertise.

• US$5.4 billion annual revenue (2020)
• 16,000 employees worldwide
• Customers in 175+ countries
• 40+ market-leading brands
• 65 key manufacturing facilities.

• Services provided by TMF Group: Payroll and HR admin
• Jurisdictions covered: 13 jurisdictions across the Asia-Pacific region
• Number of employees: More than 3,500