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The People Side of Re-Engineering is intended to serve as a tool to help managers address the human resources implications of re-engineering activities.
This guide was developed as a companion document to the Blueprint for Renewing Government Services Using Information Technology. It articulates the human resources vision and guiding principles for people management that are contained in the "Blueprint". It is intended to help managers:
It is also useful for Human Resource specialists and employees who are either considering, or participating in the implementation of re-engineered processes.
The guide is not designed to be used as a technical manual for re-engineering activities. It does, however, focus attention on major areas of concern.
The guide was sponsored by the Human Resources Policy Branch (HRPB).
Organizations that have contributed their experience and insights to date include: the Council of Administrative Renewal, Privy Council Office, Public Works and Government Services, Human Resources Development, Environment Canada, The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada, The Public Service Alliance of Canada, Public Service Commission, Natural Resources Canada, Transport Canada, Heritage Canada,Statistics Canada, Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, Radian, Farm Credit Corporation, Industry Canada, Revenue Canada Customs, Excise and Taxation, Department of Health, Manitoba Human Resources Regional Council, and all the Branches of TBS.
Special thanks to Jim Ewanovich, Conrad Thomas and Barbara Elias (who started it all).
It is essential to modernize administrative operations. Public servants, as well as those using the systems, suffer as a result of complex, iron-clad administrative rules and procedures. It is high time to simplify them and promote greater flexibility.
Michel Rocard
former Prime Minister of France (1988-1991)
Re-engineering, as an emerging theme for the '90s, is a tool to address the growing gap between demand for services and continuing fiscal constraint. Through the use of enabling technology, re-engineering seeks to improve the service and administrative delivery processes while reducing costs. Re-engineering is not synonymous with downsizing!
When properly introduced, technology not only improves service but inherently contributes to an improved working environment for the employees who must deliver those services. One constant to the success of re-engineered processes and organizations is the involvement and commitment of staff.
A major challenge of re-engineering (and administrative renewal) is creating a positive work environment throughout the period of change. This means being prepared for the inevitable staff and related "people" issues, including those associated with the introduction of new technology that accompany significant organizational change.
A common question for employees is, "what's in it for me?". Re-engineering is an opportunity to automate mundane and repetitive work and to eliminate steps in the business process that are redundant and of little value to clients. It allows employees to focus on what is important for clients and to have input into deciding the best way to serve their clients. Employees can take pride in eliminating barriers and irritants and in shaping their work environment. They will also be in a position to express their opinions, to question and to shape management practices during the change process. By participating in the re-engineering process they can see and understand the business process changes early and place themselves in a position to learn and adapt.
Building on a foundation of thoughtfully introduced change, re-engineering methodology generally is divided into the following overlapping phases:
Successful completion of each stage depends on the people who must make it happen. Accordingly, a comprehensive human resource strategy and plan are required to deal with the people issues that will arise along each step of the re-engineering journey.
While the basic approach to re-engineering is the same for both government and the private sector, there are differences that may make re-engineering more difficult in government:
While you can't plan totally all the changes associated with re-engineering, experience has taught that there are a number of prerequisites and recurring themes that are associated with organizations that have re-engineered successfully:
The challenge for leaders is to paint credible pictures of how the organization will work, and how the workplace would feel to the employees. The goal(s) of a re-engineering project must be clear and simple. A compelling vision will articulate a sound rationale for the change, including benefits to clients and opportunities for employees.
The most important factor in successful re-engineering initiatives is strong executive commitment and leadership. Deployment of key personnel to the re-engineering team sends a strong signal that these changes are important. With unswerving commitment to make things happen, the leader must be personally involved in managing the human dimension of re-engineering.
This is a statement explaining the need for the re-engineering effort. It defines the business context, the pay-offs and the consequences of inaction. It is based on a rigorous analysis of human resource implications, strategies and costs.
Front-line staff have expert knowledge of customers as well as inefficiencies in the processes. They are able to make suggestions for improvement and should be involved in developing the case for action. Their involvement will also help to win their support and reduce the inclination to maintain the status quo.
The key to assuring outstanding quality, service and productivity is the commitment of staff. Buy-in is obtained during the initial stages by involving and consulting staff and their bargaining agents. Involvement and consultation with them must be meaningful. It demonstrates management commitment and support for employees trying to absorb the effects of change and sets the tone for the transition and the future working environment.
Mixed messages must be avoided. Re-engineering that has been justified to senior management based on cost-savings, cost avoidance and job reduction has to be supported by a thorough and rigourous analysis of the human resources implications and actual costs and savings. The tendency to use overly optimistic "guess-timates" and timeframes must be avoided.
Using overly optimistic numbers on potential savings, then advising employees that change is necessary and positive followed by communication that asks for their support and involvement sends mixed messages. Anxiety is increased at the outset if employees view the exercise as one of "job cuts", especially when the first messages to them also outline the Workforce Adjustment Directives.
Getting employees and stakeholders (including bargaining agents), involved early and as much as possible in the process of change is one of the key tools to acquire the support which necessary for success. Without bottom-line support and buy-in, the probability of failure is high and no amount of "after-the-fact" communication will rectify the situation.
Local and departmental labour management committees are the prime consultation and communication fora to discuss re-engineering activities and people related issues. Early consultation is essential and can contribute to management's understanding and the resolution of concerns and issues that are important to employees and their bargaining agents. The committees should not be used simply as vehicles to communicate "cast in stone" decisions on re-engineering.
Strategies to obtain buy-in and commitment
Re-engineering provides a vehicle to open up communication and improve management practices. It changes the way people work and can create an environment that encourages innovation and change. It provides opportunities for employees to develop and improve their client-oriented approach. Middle managers will be impacted as the role of coach and facilitator takes on greater importance. This will in turn will improve client service.
Speed of execution and quick progress are key tools to mobilize support. Implementing tangible elements with immediate returns or payoffs can be used to sustain commitment and support for longer-term changes. Employees can be encouraged to identify irritants and quick-hit possibilities.
In general, technology should be viewed as an enabler in re-engineering projects rather than the key driver of change. Technology must be viewed as a means of improving clients' dealings with the public service and a vehicle for improving the work and work-environment of those who deliver the service. There must be clear line management ownership with access to the best possible advice and counsel of specialists. It is the line manager who must face the employees and deal with the people issues associated with technology.
Innovative business processes rarely occur if their planning, design and testing are totally managed within the existing organizational structure. To succeed, a separate governance structure outside the organization's existing processes and management hierarchy is recommended.
There are a number of critical roles that must be addressed to carry-out a re-engineering program successfully. Selection of the right people to perform the respective roles in the governance structure is critical to a successful project.
Education in re-engineering and team building are essential in developing the re-engineering team and in fostering buy-in and collaborative work styles for the design and implementation of new processes. Re-engineering workshops for all managers and information sessions for employees and their representatives are recommended.
Following is an example of a governance structure.
What we are doing is 5% technology and 95% change in culture
Chief Informatics Officer
The vision of client-centred service that puts people - clients, stakeholders and employees -at the centre must be paramount. "Where you are now" must also be quite clear. The vision must be supported by people principles that guide the human resource aspects of the re-engineering activities.
Example 1: Extract from the Blueprint for Renewing Government Services Using Information Technology.
People Management Principles
People Management
Employees, their involvement, development and commitment, will be critical to successful business renewal.
Rationale
Implications
During the initial stages of the re-engineering initiative, an environmental scan or conscious assessment of the ability of the organization and its employees to accept change should be undertaken.
It is important to evaluate the internal climate, i.e. take the organizational pulse, identify organizational barriers to change and create a change management strategy to minimize their effects. Employee climate surveys are a useful tool, regardless of the format, but should be supported by face-to-face discussion.
Key objectives are to understand the organization's environment, including its strengths and weaknesses, communicate the need for change and start the managers and employees thinking about its current performance and alternatives.
The most-often-cited barriers to change are employee resistance and a "dysfunctional corporate culture". The failure to anticipate and deal with resistance may hinder the re-engineering effort.
Questions to help assess readiness:
Answers to these and similar preliminary questions will help to anticipate problems before they arise
Where:
Which specific areas of the department or other departments will be impacted by the changes?
How Many:
What numbers and types of employees will be needed in the future to deliver the anticipated new or revised services?
Profiles:
What are the current composition and skills of employees in the affected areas and in the department as a whole?
Training:
Will the current employees be able to fit the future profile with or without training? What kind of training will be required?
Work Force Management:
Will the changes result in a reduction of the workforce, if so, to what extent? Are time frames optimistic? Will attrition and careful replacement be a solution?
Of those that cannot be retrained to fit the future profile or are declared surplus, what are the options with realistic estimates of numbers and costs:
Are preparations in place to support affected employees?
note: the Workforce Adjustment Directive must be complied with.
Retaining Key Personnel:
What key personnel will be needed during the transition period and what incentives can be used to retain them?
To what extent will you need to recruit new employees with special skills? From where and how?
Communications Strategy:
How and when should planned changes and anticipated human resource impacts be communicated to employees? How will consultation be undertaken?
Unions:
Have unions been involved from the beginning?
Support Systems:
What special programs will be needed to help employees adjust to changes (counselling and advisory services)?
Costs:
What will all of this cost?
To what extent will transition funding be required and where will it be obtained?
Will the new organization be less expensive than the current organization?
It is important, first of all, to identify the key characteristics of the current organization and existing workforce that will be affected by changes to the processes. Information systems, organisation charts and special studies or surveys will be useful sources of data. This data should include tombstone, demographic and mobility data such as:
The current state of management processes, values and culture of the organization should also be recorded during this stage, for example, management practices, career paths, performance measures, rewards and recognition.
This information will form the basis of the assessment of the human resources impacts of the re-engineering processes on the existing workforce. Human resource strategies and plans will be developed from this information.
A similar exercise is required to identify the shape and characteristics of the emerging organization and workforce. This is a more difficult exercise and will have to be based on the vision of the new organization in terms of its shape, size and skills requirements, and the re-engineered processes. Refinements will have to be made as the project progresses. It will project the future state in terms of people in the organization, competencies, structure and geographic locations (regional, HQ and other), etc.
Questions to be addressed include:
Factors that should be considered when visualising the re-engineered organization, include:
Organization Structure
Staff
Culture and Values
Gap analysis highlights the HR issues and challenges that require management strategies to implement the business solution. By mapping the data from the current workforce and organizational profiles against the future state, analysis will identify the "gaps" between existing employee skills, knowledge and competencies, and the new organizational requirements. It will also allow managers to perform impact analyses to ascertain the organizational and HR implications including costing of various future states scenarios.
Results of the gap analysis should include the...
The results of the analysis in context with the anticipated time frame for re-engineering will permit managers and HR specialists to...
The results will form the basis of the transition strategies, implementation, and ultimately the TB submission. They should also be used for making decisions with respect to employee support activities, for example, counselling, job search training and marketing of employees.
Transition is a time of "passage", when people are apt to carry around some of the baggage of their past, as well as feel the first stirrings of their future. It is also a time when employees have to face a number of challenges as old processes and ways of doing business make way for the new.
Very often, this may mean parallel processes and organizations and their attendant problems such as: who do we train first?..who do we move to the new work first and how?... will there be a pilot?...how will appointments be made to the new structure?...is a shadow organization needed until the new processes are up and running?...initially, do I need more people and investment?
Transition challenges include:
Strategies are required to meet the above challenges, to ensure a smooth transition and to realise the benefits of re-engineering. A well-picked transition team will be critical at this stage to "make it happen". Competencies and individuals that should be included on the team are: business-oriented instead of systems-oriented, quantitative, results-oriented, process modellers, technology experts, HR specialists, communications specialists, detail planners, financial specialists, specialists from the private sector, and bargaining agent representatives.
While it was important initially to establish high visibility for the project by forming high profile teams and roles, the actual changes to the organization should be more subtle. The formal structures, job titles or classification levels can be changed over the duration of the re-engineering initiative. An effective method is to overlay processes onto existing functions which will help employees to adjust. Initially, the new process owner will wear two hats: one as the head of the original function and one as the owner of the new process.
Get the truth to people before the rumours take over. Tell them what happened, what's happening and what will be done.
The only thing that is worse than bad news is uncertainty. Effective internal communications from DAY ONE is critical for successful re-engineering. A corporate communications and consultation strategy is required to ensure that employees are kept fully informed. Elements of the strategy:
At this point in the re-engineering project, attention should be focused on developing a detailed human resources implementation plan. The costs and limitations associated with the plan should be clearly articulated. It should address the issues that were identified in the gap analysis exercise.
Formal, co-ordinated consultation with central agencies regarding potential impacts of planned activities and strategies should be initiated as part of a draft planning process to ensure that potential impacts are factored into government plans, policies and negotiations with unions.
Job profiles identify the knowledge, skills, abilities and competencies required for various types and levels of positions throughout the organization. Training curricula can be developed from these profiles. Job profiles will also highlight career opportunities and paths for employees and can be useful to managers in identifying potential candidates for new positions. The content of new jobs and profiles should be carefully written to avoid the perception of "winners and losers" in the new organization.
A comprehensive education and training program is critical to successful project implementation. It is a key component in providing employees with the knowledge and skills for their new roles. It will also be the vehicle through which fundamental changes in attitudes and orientation can be conveyed.
Training needs may be unique to each re-engineering effort. Thus, there are no "off-the-shelf" solutions. The degree of cultural change sought as well as the process changes that will be required demands a unique and individual solution. Issues that usually require attention are:
The normal processes such as deployment, assignment, secondment and competition should be used. Seldom are all employees moved at the same time. During the period of migration and training of employees, openness and fairness are essential. Employees must have the opportunity to question movement and training activities since it will be natural for those working on the legacy process or system to wonder about their future when they see others moving and learning.
Candidates for redeployment to the new jobs created by the process should be evaluated on their total abilities, for example, ability to work collaboratively with others, creativity, diagnostic and problem-solving ability, rather than just their existing knowledge base.
The tendency to start immediately to use workforce adjustment to move employees out of the old process by declaring them vulnerable and then using internal priority systems to move them into jobs should be avoided. WFA activities and support systems should be reserved for those that truly will be disadvantaged. WFA should be a manager's tool of last resort.
When the paradigm shifts, substantial knowledge of the job can go back to zero. While there will be areas where specialized expertise is required, more often, employees will need the ability to learn quickly. Planned training and developmental assignments and secondments have proven to be effective for interim periods.
Vacancy management is an effective way to transform the organization incrementally over time during the re-engineering processes. Use the opportunity to change the organization each time an employee leaves through normal attrition or mobility. Analyze carefully each job as it becomes vacant to decide how the resources for that job can best be used towards the new organization. Can it be used to move towards the composition of staff and to provide the skills required in the new organization? If the job is still needed, as is, while undergoing re-engineering then consider a staffing decision which will minimize any future impact on WFA, for instance, hire a term employee.
Organizations that re-engineer successfully don't just set new directions and fill positions. They also identify their core competencies, i.e., the collective learning and skills they have to maintain on a continuing basis. The core competencies need to be protected and further developed during the migration to the new process.
Whenever possible, employees should be deployed and then returned to be the trainers and coaches of other employees to reinforce ease of learning and success.
Positive reinforcement is a powerful technique to induce changes in beliefs and behaviours. Rewards and incentives encourage desired behaviours while disincentives can deter undesired ones. A variety of positive reinforcements can be applied including formal and informal recognition of contributions. It may be necessary to revise the performance measurement systems and the complementary rewards and recognition process to reflect the new values such as teamwork and empowerment. Simple appreciation for a job well done is often a strong motivator.
The Guide to the People Side of Organizational Transitions deals comprehensively with management of downsizing that may result from streamlining and simplification of processes. It outlines a number of principles and strategies that can be employed to cope with transition challenges. A brief summary of these related principles and strategies follows.
By definition, jobs change when processes are re-engineered. With support and education the majority of employees should be able to make the transition. However, there will be some who are displaced.
Successful organizations take a pro-active approach to providing cost-efficient and appropriate support programs before implementing major change. Such programs must be planned and cannot be developed overnight nor during the frantic atmosphere of a major restructuring or downsizing.
Pay attention to the human factor.
Support and Strengthen the Corporate Management Team
Organizational transitions put a heavy burden on managers and supervisors who share the same anxieties as their employees but must contribute enormous amounts of time and energy to corporate initiatives. From a people perspective, immediate supervisors bear the brunt of employee reactions, yet have little control themselves in many cases over the actual choices that are made.
Use every opportunity to acknowledge the difficult task these managers face -- where possible in front of a broad range of employees. Tell transition managers where they can get assistance and that they are expected to use this assistance.
Expect transition team members to show the same range of reactions as affected employees, e.g. increased feelings of anger, discouragement or physical and emotional signs of stress. Allow them to vent these feelings and to grieve their losses (loss of colleagues and loss of familiar organizational structures).
Encourage use of informal networks for cross-branch contacts. A sense of connection -- of being in the same boat as other managers -- can be a tremendous motivator for managers in times of change. Managers should be in touch and sharing experiences with others who are undertaking re-engineering activities.
Help Employees Assess Options
Affected employees have major personal decisions to take under both the Work Force Adjustment policy and the new Executive Employment Transition policy (EET). They may have to choose between early retirement, a job at a lower level, moving to the private sector or, for executives, accepting an individually-negotiated severance package under EET.
Because of significant financial implications which are not particularly easy to calculate individuals should be provided with complete information on the impacts on their financial situation. As employees understand the parameters of their financial situation (salary, benefits, salary protection, separation from employment, settlement) they become more receptive to job search activities. Employees should always be encouraged to seek the best possible advice including the advice of their bargaining agent representative before making any decisions.
Provide Access to Counselling Services
Counselling and support to individuals is important in a re-engineering project, The focus of counselling and support activities should be small groups with similar needs. The sessions should help people recognize and express their feelings, legitimize them and develop individualized action plans to cope with the adjustment problems. All employees should have access to counselling.
Support Personal Career Planning
The requirement for pre-retirement seminars, skills assessment, career planning, résumé preparation assistance, job search techniques, and counselling services should be identified and a framework for implementation should be put in place as soon as possible after the announcement of change.
Logistical Support
Logistical support for employees could include providing access to closed offices and telephones for confidential discussions, as well as, facilities from which job searches, counselling and meetings can be conducted.
Support Outplacement
The need for specialized outplacement assistance for certain types of employees -- or employees in particular regions -- should be identified early in the process. Where organizations have highly specialized employees, such as scientists, engineers, or senior executives, management may wish to consider using an outplacement organization to help identify alternative employment outside government.
Market Affected Employees:
Distributing an overview of the affected employees' skills can help potential employers decide who is ready immediately for redeployment -- and where they could placed -- and who could be ready with some training. If assignments are sought, they should be meaningful and at an appropriate level.
The final stage of the re-engineering effort focuses on the measurement of performance and quality improvement. Continuous feedback is required to evaluate the results of the implementation, to determine the effectiveness of the training, communication and other transition strategies, and to identify the need for additional training or re-training of managers and employees.
Monitoring of behaviour and performance provides a good indication of the need for mid-course correction. Employee morale and client satisfaction are good measures for monitoring. In the long term, combined people and process changes should produce an organization better able to change and learn, and an organization that contributes to the development and well-being of its employees.
A useful tool to measure success and the performance of management is the TBS document entitled, "The Human resources Management Accountability Framework".
During the research, a question was posed to interviewees asking for their input and advice for the federal government based on their experience in such initiatives.
The following practices are characteristic of organizations and industries with successful internal communications programs:
The success of ISP Redesign depends on the active participation of management, human resource specialists, and employees, in an environment characterised by collective support and recognition of respective responsibilities. The following principles will guide us throughout the process:
Comments and suggestions are most welcome! Please contact Jim Ewanovich, Human Resources Policy Branch, Treasury Board Secretariat...tel. (613) 952-3113 fax (613) 957-0425