Many studies show that a significant proportion of mergers, acquisitions and other significant organisational restructures fail to meet their objectives because they have not paid adequate attention to the needs of employees.
The Keil Centre's Chartered Psychologists have worked with many organisations to identify and overcome problems they are likely to face retaining and motivating people in times of transition. Some of the key factors to consider are:
- How much do people understand about the need for the change?
- Have people had any opportunity for involvement in the change process?
- What skills, knowledge, styles are going to be required in the new arrangements?
- Have these been clearly communicated to people so that they know what will be expected of them, and how to prepare themselves if there is to be a selection process for new opportunities?
- Will there be job losses, or a fear of job losses?
- What opportunities are there for dialogue with employees about what is happening, their fears, hopes, expectations?
- What support needs to be provided for people to deal with their personal reactions to the change? (see managing yourself in times of change)
- What support needs to be provided to help people to develop new ways of working?
There is no easy answer to fit all organisational circumstances
The Keil Centre's Chartered Psychologists draw upon their understanding of the psychological factors involved in motivation and coping with change, along with their experience of a wide range of organisational change projects to provide appropriate support to organisations, e.g.
- Design of a series of workshops for senior managers responsible for managing a plant closure to understand and work through their own response to change, the likely responses of employees and to plan appropriate strategies to meet the challenges they faced. As a result the key managers stated that they were able to cope with the personal effects of the redundancy process much more effectively and consciously. They also recognised that they were able to be much more helpful and supportive to staff who were leaving.
- Design of workshops for a group of managers and specialists going through a major reorganisation which would result in significant job losses as well as significant change for those who remained.
- Design of a competency framework and supporting development processes to enable the organisational change required in a local authority to meet its strategic objectives.