Functional Focus
KBR’s functional departments keep the business moving. Functional Focus is your quarterly update on what’s happening within these departments, how their projects affect you, and how they will benefit KBR going forward.
Working Smarter: KBR Aims to Standardize, Automate and Optimize
This year, KBR has its sight set on further standardizing, automating and optimizing processes across all KBR support functions. As KBR continues to grow, this focus will help make employees’ jobs easier, increase efficiency, reduce errors and move the company towards One KBR.
From helping to train U.S. Special Forces to constructing a Formula One race track, KBR serves a diverse group of customers around the globe. However, business practices should be the same no matter the customer, project or location. To enhance each of these functions, KBR will tap into the knowledge and expertise of all employees, and especially those who are familiar with the pain points and opportunities for growth.
Here are just a few examples of how functional departments are incorporating standardization, automation and optimization in 2020.
“The company is depending on every person in KBR to engage in this transformation as it impacts how we work on a day-to-day basis. Our employees’ expertise and passion will be key drivers to our success.”
IAN MACKEY, KBR EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT AND CHIEF CORPORATE OFFICER
Finance
KBR’s global finance strategy has progressed to support the company’s ever-growing and evolving needs. With a goal to maximize KBR value, priorities for 2020 focus on reducing errors and irregularities, and increasing consistency with a renewed emphasis on getting it right the first time.
Surge Team This dedicated team was created to work on four key initiatives: talent alignment between KBR entities, accounting manual updates, renovating the closing process and balance sheet control.
Cash Flow An important part of every business is cash flow, and the finance team plans to implement the OnBase financial tool, enhance invoicing and continue to refinance debt.
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Consistency is vital when managing a large company. With Government Solutions U.S. fully on Costpoint 2.0, extending Costpoint to establish ERP uniformity for all of KBR is the natural next step, in addition to SAP upgrades and pursuing new financial IT opportunities.
Automation and Efficiency Too many labor-intensive functions can bog down one’s ability to focus on the real job at hand. KBR will rearrange certain manual processes to different locations for greater efficiency and consistency, as well as utilize shared services and automation to lower manual workload.
Human Resources (HR)
KBR’s HR team is working hard to modernize practices and leverage best-in-class technology. A few of HR’s accomplishments include:
Workday Rollout HR led the rollout of KBR Workday in 2019, which automated and standardized many HR functions. This intuitive human capital management system allows employees to access their information easily and in one place. It brings together many cross-functional systems into one application. Workday automates several employee transactions, such as training, performance actions and annual salary reviews.
Driving Adoption of Processes HR has already standardized many of its processes, yet only 20% of them have been widely adopted. HR’s immediate focus is to drive adoption of these standard processes globally to increase efficiency for all employees.
Assessing Current Process HR will review its processes that still lack uniformity and standardize or discontinue them altogether. Over the next several months, the HR leadership team will host a series of virtual meetings to outline its focus areas and how the department will work together on this important business transformation.
Health, Safety, Security and Environment (HSSE)
This year, HSSE will focus on digitalization and crisis management, as well as introduce new Zero Harm icons.
New Zero Harm Icons HSSE will introduce new Zero Harm “Absolutes” icons to help employees remember the importance of safety at home and work. The icons will represent different elements of Zero Harm, such as Courage to Care.
Digitalization HSSE will focus on digitizing lone worker forms, travel authorizations and pre-task risk assessments with plans to include others in the future.
Crisis Management HSSE developed the KBR Global Crisis Management Program to protect KBR employees and assets in the event of a regional or global disaster. In 2020, HSSE will develop specific training for this program based on regional crisis exercises performed last year. These HSSE initiatives make KBR a safer company, encourage greater individual commitment to Zero Harm and contribute to a healthier planet.
Information Technology (IT)
Last spring, KBR IT reorganized to increase its operational and business focus. With its new vision, “Creating the Future with You,” IT is focusing on customer centricity and putting employees first while driving standardization, automation and optimization across five key areas: leadership, culture, workforce, process and customers.
Business Processes and Tools Customer-centric objectives include: optimizing software assessment management processes, automating hardware asset management processes, and developing dashboards and business intelligence reporting to quickly detect problems and provide solutions.
IT Support IT launched #TheHub, Tech Bar and Vend-IT machines in Leatherhead, England, and Houston, Texas, resulting in faster customer access to IT services and support. Additionally, IT migrated employees to one Government Solutions enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, Costpoint, and completed the email migration of Government Solutions U.S. employees to us.kbr.com.
Employees First IT has deployed a communication campaign and quarterly employee survey for increased engagement and is encouraging strong work/life balance, as well as opportunities for IT employees to seek additional professional development opportunities. The continued successful execution of these initiatives and innovative goals for 2020 are enabling KBR IT to grow into a proactive and future-focused team.
Legal and Risk
This year, Legal and Risk will focus on:
Digitalization We will improve efficiency and speed of legal services to our internal clients through the use of electronic signatures and electronic workflow and approval processes.
Enterprise Risk Management KBR’s approach to enterprise risk management (ERM) will be modernized in a way that drives risk anticipation and resolution by entrenching ERM at all levels, such that KBR leadership can visualize, and act, according to the risk landscape and exposure across the enterprise.
Guarding KBR Intellectual Property We will identify, classify and protect KBR intellectual property and know-how across all of KBR’s business segments.
KBR Looks Forward
KBR will build a more sustainable future by standardizing, automating and optimizing its processes. This new focus will lead to better business practices and benefits for employees, such as making jobs a little easier through technology. These new processes will more closely connect the company and will allow KBR to act as an agile organization.
“KBR always looks for opportunities to grow and dream bigger for the sake of our business, employees and customers. Focusing on standardization, automation and optimization is a natural next step in becoming One KBR.”
MARK SOPP, KBR EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT AND CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER
