Change Management - Six Steps to Workforce Management Success

ECONOMIC UNCERTAINTY - RISING COSTS - GREATER COMPETITION - INCREASING LEGISLATION - LACK OF SKILLED WORKERS

One thing’s for sure – faced with these disruptions the future success of your business will rely on the flexibility, creativity & productivity of your workforce. Little surprise why many organisations are updating their systems and processes to improve the hiring, management, engagement and retention of their valuable human capital.

‘Transformative’ is a word used by many Kronos customers to describe the impact of their workforce management solutions. Cost control, employee engagement, better customer service, greater productivity and compliance being a few typical benefits.

However, I can say with confidence the businesses who evangelise their achievements will have taken one of two routes to project success:

• Route 1 – The Perseverance Route. Through dogged determination, mistake derived learning and a couple of implementation iterations – they now have a solution addressing their better understood business needs.

Or....(recommended route)

• Route 2 – Thoughtfully Executed Change Management The organisations took change management seriously – it was planned early, the business worked in partnership with their vendor, project was resourced appropriately and it was fully supported by the leadership team.

Change Management Framework

There's plenty of collateral and training available support your change management journey – Prosci being one of the leading resource providers. What this article provides is a simple framework to get you thinking deeper about change management and the impact on accelerating ‘time to value’ and ROI.

Also, I’ve shared some valuable nuggets of advice from my customers regarding the tactics they've deployed to make change stick.

Step 1 – Understanding Your Business Goals

An essential starting point for any project - clearly understanding your business goals, not your aspirations. All too often projects start without a clear definition of the goals – or maybe those goals are not clearly cascaded from the project procurement team to the project delivery people.

In the case of workforce management, each goal will typically fall into three categories: Labour Cost Control, Minimising Compliance Risk or Increasing Productivity.

Make a start by creating simply table listing your key goals.

Once these have been documented, the next step is to consider how they will impact your people and the work they perform.

Customer Comments on Business Goals

• Organisations are often bad at cascading their goals and objectives from executives to the shop floor
• There can often be a gap between ‘what the board wants’ and ‘what can be achieved’ - the reality of life on the shop floor can often be opaque to the board
• Creating transparency at board level into what WFM can deliver is important and helps define which project KPI should be defined and measured
• ‘How will this solution benefit our employees’ should be at the forefront of your mind during the change management process. Staff need to know you’re helping them rather than working against them
• Having a clear understanding of business goals will help with communication to teams and individuals. Those communications need to be open, honest and transparent.
• The visibility delivered by WFM can be a challenge, as nobody has anywhere to hide any longer – be considerate of this during implementation, accept previous failings and move on
• When thinking about benefits to employees, mobile apps are delivering real benefits – empowerment and greater visibility.
• Company values and the decisions you take during the change process must be congruent to avoid detractors

Step 2 - Engaging Leadership

Business leaders have a critical role to play in the change management process. They are the people who will provide credibility, authority and momentum to the project.

Senior leaders must be active and present during the project to demonstrate their own - and the organisation's - commitment to change.

Set the right expectations of your executive sponsors:

• Why you need their help
• Delivering active and visible leadership throughout the project
• Building a coalition of support with peers
• Communication to employees and managers
• How we will support you

It’s essential for you to work with them to prepare a plan for their leadership. YOU will also need to prepare their communications and be ready to report regularly the positive impact of their efforts.

 Customer Comment on Engaging Leadership

• Senior leaders need to send the message they are fully behind the project. Behaviour at their level sets the standard for the rest of the organisation
• Leaders communicating ‘it works’ will play a big factor in successful change
• Speaking with regional leaders (store/plant/office managers) individually and staying close to them during the project is important – system usage and adoption will be far greater
• Giving extra 'love and attention' to heads of operations - especially those most vocal - will improve system adoption rates. Every manager believes their operation is different in their eyes. This may or may not be true, but under this view is important
• Focus attention on senior managers up front to get their buy-in - it can act as a catalyst to the rest of the organisation
• Accept there will be ‘Front Runners’ and ‘Fun Runners’ in the process. Celebrate the achievements of the ‘Front Runners’ because it will accelerate the adoption of your ‘Fun Runners’.
• Give your project a name (branding). This will stop people talking only about the software package, when ‘change’ extends much wider.

Step 3 - Future State Behaviour

Change happens one person at a time, therefore it’s essential to plan how projects will affect individuals. Documenting how ‘future state’ processes will happen and the impact these processes will have at an individual level will help to plan better communications and training.

Identify how individuals will need to change their behaviour and anticipate potential issues or objections that you may need to address.

Customer Comments on Future State Behaviour

• Spend time in the field to learn how processes currently operate. This will clarify how activity will change and help you recognise the journey people will need to take, and the support you will need to provide for individuals
• Decisions need to be taken on how and where new processes will happen, e.g. moving timecard sign-off from central operations to the field, or moving labour forecasting and scheduling from the field to central operations. The reasons for making these changes need to be carefully planned and communicated to staff.
• Changes like those described above will insight different reactions from different managers. Each will need to be addressed on an individual basis
• Explaining clearly to mangers that the system will not remove their managerial responsibility and control is important. Manager will always have a critical role to play – the technology is there to help them perform better.

Step 4 – Communications Plan

90% of successful change management comes down to good communication. As stated earlier, communications must be structured based on the receiver thinking “What’s in it for me?”

80% of messages should be for the receiver and 20% for the organisation. Communications should clearly explain the reasons for change and how users can make it successful. All messages should be tailored for their respective audience.

Use multiple communication channels – face-to-face, email, newsletters, posters, internal blogs, videos, etc.

Below is an example communications plan.

Customer Comment on Communication

• The topic of labour management and labour hours can be a very emotive subject in most industries. You must be prepared to answer the ‘Why?’ question with examples of benefits, using multiple communication methods as appropriate - videos, training, meetings, newsletters, etc.
• Messaging needs to be tailored for each role and keep communications short, simple and relevant
• Communicate face-to-face whenever possible, allow people to ask questions
• Use a specific email address for project communications. This will help you identify trends of common questions or issues, meaning you can address them quickly
• Think about what employees may specifically want or how they could benefit from the solution – this will help you sell the future vision to them
• As stated previous, name the project – this will stop people referring only to the software package and gets them thinking wider about the project and its objective.
• Be realistic and up front with staff over what may go wrong and the challenges people could face. This stops the 'well you didn’t warn me about that’ scenario, meaning issues can be anticipated and addressed more effectively.
• Where possible involve people on the ‘Change Team’ who will have credibility with the end users – i.e. people who have performed the same role. This will improve adoption and credibility greatly
• Identify quickly negative people and address issues on a 1:1 basis, before negativity starts to spread

Step 5 - Training

No project will be successful if users don’t know how to use the solution. Getting the level, timing and delivery method right for the training is important. Training needs to be delivered appropriate to the role of individuals and what they will be expected to do in the new solutions.

The training plan you produce should clearly define the audiences, delivery approach, timing, content and the wonder of the training.

It’s important to have a candid discussion with your stakeholders before creating the training plan. Individual behavioral needs will help guide the different forms of training that will work best.

 Customer Comment on Training

• The environment where training takes place is important. Making it less formal can engage people better and encourage them to ask more questions
• Avoid ‘Chinese whispers’ particularly when new staff join - go back and train them face-to-face rather than them picking up from others
• Prioritise the topics on which to train, rather than trying to cover everything in one go. Some information should be considered on a ‘need to know’ basis, so you don’t unnecessarily overload people with new knowledge
• Training on site using the actual environment (trial/development environment) will ensure what people are shown will be the same as what they will finally be using – adoption will be easier
• Training needs to be backed up by support – employees need to know they can ask follow-up questions and receive support
• Senior managers should be trained too. They need to understand what's going on at the shop floor/store level too – this will add significant credibility

Step 6 - Reinforcement

Change management is never a one shot and done project. Just like learning any new skill, constant reinforcement must happen until the new systems and processes become ingrained.

Reinforcement consists of three elements:

• Auditing for compliance

−   Are teams complying with your standards and processes?

• Taking corrective action

−    Re-educate and communication on the “right way”

−    Involve direct supervisors to coach employees and managers

−    Involve project sponsors and the leadership team as needed to reinforce expectations

• Recognizing and reward success

−    Celebrate success – people love recognition for doing the right things

 Customer Comment on Reinforcement

• Constant reinforcement of what’s expected of people and the best practice use of the solution is essential
• Compliance analysis will help you identify future process improvement opportunities
• A structure must be established to provide ongoing support and reinforcement to users
• Your workforce management solutions will continue to evolve; therefore you will need to continue to engage with and update users
• To help drive adoption, organisations should consider setting MBOs, KPIs and even bonuses based on completing key WFM tasks
• Board level support for setting KPIs and peer pressure shouldn’t be underestimated as a force for driving successful change

In Summary

Workforce management solutions have an important role to play in offsetting the disruption faced by many businesses today. The size of benefit and 'time to value' achieved will correlate directly to the quality of your change management process.

For more information on the benefits of workforce management visit www.kronos.co.uk

Neil Pickering

Twitter: @Zamberp

#IWork4Kronos