Wayne County amends Ernst & Young contract to accelerate HR transformation
Get AI-powered insights, summaries, and transcripts
Sign Up Free
Summary
Wayne County approved Amendment 1 to extend and expand Ernst & Young’s role to implement recommendations from a county HR assessment, moving the firm from assessment to rapid implementation with deliverables and a fixed price.
The Wayne County Committee on Government Operations approved Amendment 1 to extend a professional services contract with Ernst & Young (EY) to support implementation of a strategic roadmap and talent management recommendations for the county’s People, Human Resources (PHR) function.
Rob Whittigan, chief strategy officer in the CEO’s office, told commissioners Ernst & Young’s initial engagement produced a current-state assessment, survey results, a hiring deep dive and a future‑state assessment. Whittigan said the county lacks internal capacity to implement the full set of recommendations and is seeking to transition EY from an advisory role into a rapid implementation partner to execute key recommendations.
Whittigan said the amended contract is structured as a firm fixed price with deliverables intended to be completed within roughly 24 weeks of the work starting, followed by on‑call support for fine‑tuning. He listed examples of deliverables: training materials for Oracle HCM, standardized intake processes for departments, organizational‑structure recommendations, and performance‑management KPIs.
Commissioner Wilson pressed on cost. In discussion he referenced an increase “from $390,000 to $1,600,000.” Whittigan said the price is locked in and tied to a clear set of deliverables and said staff would provide a list of deliverables to commissioners for reference.
Commissioner Killeen asked whether the new requirements represented new work or an extension; staff described the action as a contract amendment to transition EY into implementation and said the deliverables under the amendment differ from the initial six‑month assessment contract.
The committee approved the amendment in a motion that bundled items 3 and 4; the clerk announced “Motion carried.” The transcript did not record a roll‑call tally. Commissioners were told regular deliverable status and timeline measures will be available for later reference.
The approved amendment moves outside consultants into hands‑on implementation of HR process changes tied to the county’s Oracle HCM deployment.