How To Execute Organizational Change
Organizational change is a popular phrase in today’s lexicon. Whether you are a recruiter, headhunter or an HR manager, organizational change usually means hiring new people, drafting new directives and evaluating the status quo for improvements. These are pretty standard procedures whether you are in manufacturing or hospitality, in California or New York.
However, organizational turnover doesn’t always go the right way. Obviously, if an organizational change is being considered, somewhere along the line, operations weren’t reaching their expected potential. Yet, just because there is an attempt at overhauling aspects of the business, it doesn’t guarantee that it will improve the current environment.
Organizational change is undoubtedly helped by awesome headhunters and thorough recruitment. Good help is always hard to find. If your organization is considering a shift in its practices, read on to learn the best tips and tricks to ensure a smooth change over.
Evaluation:
Regardless of what industry you are in, be it professional sports or construction, a honest evaluation of your current situation should be the starting point of your organizational change. Understanding your strengths and weaknesses as a company is the only way you can truly hope to change for the better.
Your expenses are always a good starting point. Where are we spending too much money? What areas can we be more efficient in? How do our costs in a particular area compare with our competition’s? Codifying the various areas of your business into quantifiable numbers will help you see the big picture. For example, if you are a maintenance company in Dallas, what are your customer acquisition costs, average gross per job, etc.? Is there a way for you to minimize one and increase the other?
The more information you have on the nuts and bolts of your operation, the more easily you can trim the fat and turn your operation into a well oiled, money-making machine. If you are too busy to undertake this head to toe evaluation, there are companies who come in and do just that. You’ll end up with a lengthy report and suggestions for improvements.
Start at the Top:
In business, there are a number of different leadership models you can follow. Back in the day, the vast majority were run top down. That means all ideas, policies and decisions start at the top and work their way down.
Google and other forward-thinking entities began a sea of change, where any employee could submit an idea for consideration. That philosophy allows ideas to come from any sector of the company, minimizing the tendency for groupthink. That approach has its limits but works great for those companies because they set their operational expectations from the start.
When you are attempting to execute a large organizational change, it is smart to start at the top and be very specific with your expectations moving forward. Organizational alignment is vital, especially at the executive level. All decisions makers and policymakers must be on the same page for the rest of the company to follow their lead and operate accordingly.
Yes, executives should debate operational policies, but once an agreement has been reached, they must remain a united front. Otherwise, the company may go in 5 different directions based on each manager’s idea for what works best. Here are some surprising statistics from a Booz & Co. survey of over 3,500 managers:
“54% of executives do not believe their company’s strategy will lead to success.” If over half of your managers think your strategy won’t deliver success, the chances of it actually working are probably less than that. No matter the industry, to achieve success at the highest level, all your workers need to be on the same page and believe in what they are doing.
“Only 20% said they think their company has a “right to win” in all the markets where it competes.” Again, this shows a startling lack of confidence in the company’s plan.
“Just 21% said that all their businesses “leverage their core capabilities.” Based on these statistics many companies should be considering an organizational change.
“56% said their company hadn’t provided enough resources in a way that effectively supports their strategy and 55% said they had trouble making sure that day-to-day decisions supported their company’s strategy." All of these statistics show that these various companies lack alignment. It’s much harder to get the ship going in the right direction if everyone thinks the guy next to him is paddling in the wrong direction. It shows a lack of trust, cohesion and investment from the people you absolutely need 100% in your corner.
We all know that running a successful business is extremely difficult. The vast majority of companies burn out within the first three years. More often than not, those businesses that didn’t make it can look back at various decisions they made that doomed them.
A motivated, happy employee is a vital asset to any company. According to an IBM report, 74% of companies that outperformed their competition understood the correlation between customer satisfaction and employee morale.
You may not have needed that statistic to tell you that invested, hard working employees are the key to a successful business. Unfortunately, finding such workers can be hard, sometimes near impossible. That is where Great Hire comes in, helping companies finding awesome employees every day.
