Puretec

At the time when Melanie joined, many core HR processes were still evolving. Workforce planning and reporting were largely managed through spreadsheets, with limited system integration between HR and finance. This made it difficult to quickly produce accurate headcount, track vacancies, or align data across HR and finance. 

“The problems were mainly around reporting,” Melanie adds. “Roles were duplicated, the data seemed inconsistent, and it didn’t align with finance. We had a recruitment budget in place, but sometimes we’d appoint someone significantly over that. There was just no oversight.” 

While tools such as ELMO had already been introduced, they had not yet been fully optimised to support a structured, scalable workforce framework. Under the old employee-led workforce setup, vacancy status was unclear, FTE was difficult to report on, and producing even basic workforce numbers required hours of manual effort, all falling to a very small HR team.

The HR team played a key role in building these foundations: reviewing contracts, establishing policies and procedures, and reshaping the ELMO implementation approach to better align with business needs. And it became clear that improving visibility, data accuracy, and workforce planning capability would be critical enablers for the business as it continued to grow.

Across a business of around 130 staff, job titles had crept wildly. In some teams, multiple titles had emerged for what were essentially the same roles. 

To address this, Puretec transitioned to a position-led workforce structure, creating a more consistent and scalable approach to managing roles, reporting, and organisational design. 

The first step involved standardising job titles, consolidating position descriptions, and restructuring the organisation to ensure alignment across teams and systems. With approximately 80 position descriptions to review and implement, Puretec’s HR function combined internal expertise with AI-enabled tools to streamline the process and improve consistency. 

Support and guidance from ELMO’s implementation team also played an important role in accelerating capability and enabling practical, hands-on learning. Joanna Santiago played a critical role early on, spending time helping Melanie get across the system and understand what it could do. “She was fabulous,” Melanie recalls. “She spent a lot of time with me helping me get up to speed.”

The biggest lessons came in hindsight. “I think we needed to spend more time on structure,” Melanie reflects. “We launched straight into position descriptions and then had to go back and do cleanup because the org chart was all over the shop. My advice is to start with your org structure, get your job titles standardised, and then move to position descriptions.“

The second lesson was about change management. Weeks after the new process went live, managers were still raising requisitions the old way.

“I think we missed a trick on communications to the wider business,” she adds. We were so busy in the back end, we forgot about what managers were seeing and doing.” Her recommendation? Sit with managers one-on-one, show them the system in real-time, and walk them through exactly what’s changed. 

More broadly, Melanie’s advice to other HR leaders considering the move to a position-led workforce structure is to treat it as a mindset shift. “Treat it as a business transformation, not a system project,” she shares. “Bring finance and leadership along early, and focus on the long-term gains, not the short-term effort.”

Since transitioning to a position-led structure in January 2026, the impact has been clear and has extended well beyond position management itself. As Melanie puts it, getting position-led right has ‘unlocked other areas of ELMO’ that weren’t fully accessible before.