Auckland, October 7, 2021 – Human capital management (HCM) consultancy, Smart WFM, today announced it is accelerating its global expansion, setting up Indian and US subsidiaries and embarking on the
creation of a new global leadership team, starting with the promotion of Global Lead Human Capital Management and
Behavioural Technologist Rob Scott to Chief Operating Officer.
The expansion follows consistent year-over-year growth for the Australian-headquartered company. The business has
increased its revenue with a CAGR of over 67 per cent and tripled its team and client base in the past three years.
Smart WFM is a UKG services partner and works with a range of public sector, global and ASX 100 companies, including
leading healthcare and retail organisations.
Chief Executive Officer Jarrod McGrath – who exited his former business Presence of IT (later sold to Deloitte) in 2016
– founded the company after seeing the need to deliver services in a modern manner. At the core of this is unlocking
people’s passions and developing their skills relevant to the organisations of today along with driving productivity
improvements into the local and global economy. McGrath believes the company’s ability to self-fund, maintain single
ownership, and stay true to its unique people-first approach to HCM consultancy have driven its growth.
“Smart WFM simply doesn’t have P growth restraints like other consultancies do – we’ve stayed nimble, grown through customer acquisition, bank
factoring, and taking a balance sheet-first mindset which allows us to maintain our single ownership,” he said. “This
has kept competing and external interests out of the company’s development and allowed us to retain our people-first
approach to consultancy while delivering clients with modern and sustainable operating models”.
“Traditional consultancies – including the big five and major tech companies – fail to step outside of the ‘knowledge
worker bubble’ they operate in. We look at digital transformation from the perspective of all people, from the coal face
to shareholder and broader stakeholders while providing services that centre on modern people innovation.”
As 30-plus year HCM veteran Rob Scott transitions to the position of COO, the company will seek a new Global HCM lead
replacement. Scott has been tasked with building out Smart WFM’s ‘digital muscle’ to facilitate scalability and provide
clients modern digital-first services to ensure their operating models remain productive and economically viable. Scott
and McGrath will also aim to build out a wider global leadership team over the next two-to-three years to become a true
global force in HCM and UKG consulting.
The company will also introduce a skills development academy for its team, customers and partners focused on ‘maximising
people value’, which is outlined in McGrath’s recently launched book: The Digital Workforce 2nd Edition. The academy will focus on how people, technology and the operating environment can be harnessed to improve benefits
from HCM projects within organisations while driving economic growth through people.
The US and Indian expansion will also enable Smart WFM to provide services consistently to small businesses and
multinationals while allowing follow the sun service and support to its clients worldwide. The company will also bring
specific skillsets from those markets to bear for other markets. “In the US for example, productivity is very high –
particularly in the retail sector,” added McGrath. “We can leverage the insights that drive that productivity into other
markets like Australia, where productivity is waning[1].”
The enhanced service and support add to the global SLA-driven on-demand services Smart WFM introduced at the beginning
of the pandemic, which focuses on key UKG Kronos workforce management services.
The expansion and skills academy will also heighten Smart WFM’s focus on trust and transparency, people wellbeing, and
building long-term engagement with new generations of staff into the fabric of organisations – three defining issues for
CEOs in the next decade, according to McGrath.
“Company leaders need to hit the refresh button on how they attract, retain, and build long-term relationships with the
modern workforce,” he said. “That requires more than just flexibility and getting work-from-anywhere right – that’s a
given. They need to understand people’s passions and putting them at the centre of their companies’ ethos.”
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About Smart WFM
Smart WFM is a global human capital management (HCM) consultancy specialising in digital transformation. The company’s service
offerings include advisory, implementation and support. Smart WFM also offers Service On Demand and the Apitome Software Suite designed to support the HCM customer journey. Smart WFM’s framework is defined in “The Digital Workforce”, a book written by Smart WFM founder and CEO, Jarrod McGrath.