Duke Energy said Monday that it is outsourcing its human resources (HR) operations and information technology to Hewitt Associates, a global human resources services firm, under a new seven-and-a-half-year contract. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

About 100 Duke Energy employees, out of a total of 21,500 in the U.S. and Canada, will lose their jobs because of the move, but Duke said some may still be retained by Hewitt. Most of the affected employees are located at Duke’s Charlotte headquarters.

Hewitt will provide comprehensive back-office administrative human resources services, including payroll, active employee and retiree health and insurance enrollment and status, retirement plan administration, staffing and training enrollment and status, work force event and salary administration, and performance management administration, to the company’s U.S. and Canadian employees and retirees.

The company said that all of its U.S. and Canadian employees and benefit plan participants will see changes in the manner in which they access some HR information and/or how they perform certain HR-related functions.

“Hewitt currently provides back-office administration for Duke Energy’s retirement and retiree health and insurance plans, and we are confident this contract will be a successful continuation and expansion of that partnership,” said Chris Rolfe, Duke Energy vice president of human resources. “This will enable us to provide enhanced service to our employees and retirees, while providing a more efficient way to handle back-office human resources work.”

Hewitt consults with more than 2,300 companies and administers human resources, health care, payroll and retirement programs on behalf of more than 300 companies to millions of employees and retirees worldwide. Located in 35 countries, Hewitt employs 20,000 associates.

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