managing restructures – a case study
TRANSCRIPT
Managing Restructures
– a case study
Gail Teasdale
Introduce myself
Executive director at Accent
– national HA
Responsible for Finance and
Corporate Services
Accountant!!
More importantly not HR
professional
THEME RUNNING THROUGH
MY PRESENTATION
1. Prelim or where did we start from
2. Restructure
• Stage 1 - Decision
• Stage 2 - Set-up & big decisions
• Stage 3 - Implementation
• Stage 4 - Bedding in/Assessment
3. Where did we end up
4. Implications for yourselves
Case study of a restructure
– or stage race
Accent had:
Federated governance
structure
• Holding company with 4 RPs
plus other companies
Each RP had its own board
• Requiring all that support
Each RP had its own staff
structure
• MD, Senior Team, HR,
Finance etc.
1. Starting point
Group
Accent Foundation
Accent Nene
Accent Peerless
Accent Corporate
Value for money
– could do better!
Cost too high
Services of average quality
1. Starting point
SO…
Need to do something
Evidence created the
‘burning bridge’
2. Restructure and launch of ‘One Accent’ idea
Evidence
Factual stuff
Anecdotal stuff
Come up with purpose
Purpose
Be ‘One Accent’
Develop new service
Change culture
Save money
Etape 1:
Evidence
Group board
Subsidiary boards
Chief Executive
Executive team (5 to 3!)
Regulator
Funders
Staff – site and non site
Customers! – Engaged and
unengaged
Etape 1:
Engage stakeholders and get buy in
Developed by the group board, RP boards, CE, Executive team
Consulted on with Staff, Customers groups
Took the decision to a national conference of all board members and
customer committee members
Adopted a name ‘ Fit for the Future’
Formal decision to adopt business case at each RP and group
board
Took 7 months but worth it!
Etape 1:
Business case
Etape 2: Set up & big decisions
Appointed a project manager
Decided to adopt ‘Prince light’ approach
• Roles of group board and CE
Set up overarching project plan
Etape 2:
Set up & big decisions
Set up 4 project groups;
• Governance;
• Finance;
• Shaping the service; and
• Implementation for people,
places and systems (last but
not least)
Etape 2:
Set up & big decisions
Produced a detailed project plan with
four work streams and appointed a
project sponsor for each
Engaged with more staff – senior
and more junior managers
February – Full presentation to staff
• Site staff not included
• Big decisions outlined
• Approach / Q&As
Phase2:
Set up
Big decisions
• North and South vs Functional structure
• Contact centre (s) –Yes/No, How many?
• Local offices – Do we need? How many?
• Personal, modern and better
Decision in June by Project board
Etape 2:
Set up & big decisions
Etape 3: Implementation
Staff
1. Understand the HR rules
• Did we have collective
bargaining?
• Appointed a legal firm to
support
2. Timeline established
3. Presentation to all staff to
explain the timeline
4. Adopt a tiered approach
5. Establish consultation
approach for consistency
Etape 3:
Implementation
6. Briefing managers to brief staff
• Empower to support staff
7. FAQs site
8. HR team to manage – open
conversation with the team
9. Recruitment approach
• Full presentation and interview for
exec and senior management team
• Approach full selection process
Took July – November
ICT Systems & phone systems
Workflows
New service requirements
Full ‘go-live’ November
Funders
What do you need to tell and when?
Personal visits/presentations
Regulator
Keep up to date
Etape 3:
Implementation
Customers
New service
Familiar faces disappearing
Need to keep onside
Staff regular briefings
Blog
Team meetings
FFTF briefings
Newsletters
Etape 3:
Implementation
Etape 4: Assessment
Numbers of staff
Role changes
Staff satisfaction survey
Report to the board
• Refer back to the business
case
• Lessons learned
Etape 4:
Assessment
ICT issues log
Offices closing or closed
Customers satisfaction
KPI reporting
One staff structure not four
One set of HR polices not four
One set of terms and
conditions
Saving £1.75m
No ETs, only 4 grievances
Where did we end up?
Outcomes
Staff numbers only decrease
by 38 but mix changed
substantially
• Less managers
• More frontline staff
• Fewer back office staff
CULTURE CHANGE
– ONE ACCENT
Be very clear who your stakeholders are and
what their angle is
Be very clear what you are setting out to do
A good project manager/plan is vital
Don’t forget the training of staff into new roles
Power of evidence
Importance of business case
Regular group/exec meetings just
for this project
Appreciate the scale of change
Implications for you or
What can you take home?
Good
Project plan / manager
Specific Group board
and executive meetings
Business case
Lessons learned
Could do better
Training for ‘go-live’
Appreciating scale of change
Communication
Communication
Communication…