Christopher Paterson from Alchemy CM, is facilitating our HR Forum Wednesday 15th May.  Here is some information regarding his session for those that can’t make it.

Managing survivors, their managers and their engagement.

Downsize planning is weighted to the front end, leading up to the change event itself and at the expense of the post change reality.  In all but a few cases, there is little planning or even thought dedicated to the experience of those remaining.  This paper discusses why most projects fail and how to drive staff engagement through to the next chapter for the business.

The Post-Change Reality

Change is hard, downsizing is harder.

HR teams focus on the staff members leaving.  This is not only the right thing to do, studies show that providing outplacement programs increases the engagement of the remaining staff (Aberdeen Group, 2011).

Then why do 75% of change programs fail?

John Kotter from Harvard Business School shows that one of the main reasons for change failure is declaring the project to be complete too early.  During a downsize, the ‘change event’ is only part of the process and we often see two groups being neglected in the planning and execution:

1. Survivors Remaining Staff

2. Managers Direct Line Managers with People Management responsibility

The Commercial Reality

So is it any wonder that the pain of the change event only results in greater challenges for the business moving forward.  Failing to support surviving staff and their managers quickly jumps from an HR issue to a commercial issue:

This is clearly demonstrated in the commercial research on downsizing events.

In a meta-analysis of 16 studies across over 2000 firms, not only was there a failure to achieve a financial result, the downsized businesses also failed to decrease costs, experienced a fall in productivity and a marginalised brand reputation (Gandolfini, 2008).

So what do the successful 25% do?

A Guide to Recommitment

The evidence and our own experience has taught us a thing or two about what works and what to avoid when navigating the challenging post-change environment.

Your Checklist

1)      Prepare for Post Change at the Start

2)      Managers are your Front Line

3)      Communicate Early and Often

4)      Provide Survivor Training

5)      Measure and Track Progress

In today’s Sydney Morning Herald, there is an article regarding Yahoo’s CEO Marissa Mayer decision to remove the option of work from home for the Yahoo team.  A link to the full article is here http://www.smh.com.au/it-pro/business-it/mayer-feels-heat-over-telecommuting-ban-20130227-2f4rj.html

Now Mayer’s decision had raised criticism from Virgin main man, Richard Branson but was applauded by Mr Donald “You’re Fired” Trump for her efforts to turn around the performance of Yahoo.

The question that comes to mind is whether the removal of work from home options will be fitting of your business model. 

In the IT development environment, it would seem that collaboration and the energy generated from tech gurus bouncing ideas off each other would make it seem logical to keep everyone together.  

“But the unwritten rule at major Silicon Valley companies is: just because you can work from anywhere doesn’t mean you should. Most Silicon Valley companies such as Google and Facebook have informal policies allowing telecommuting, but they champion the concept of closeness. They design their campuses to encourage it with gourmet cafes dishing out free food and inviting, comfortable meeting rooms where employees can lounge and talk.”

Would a non-developing office environment benefit from the same type of synergy experienced by the likes of Google and Facebook with their staff onsite?

Coming across this aged article, the thought of “how do I speak?” blazed through my mind. The article takes a look at the speaking ways of US President Barack Obama with insight to his style by Michael Kelly.  This article was press released by AFR.

Measured Manner a Winning Way
Jill Margo

At the best of times, public speaking can be daunting.  In theses turbulent times it can be even more challenging, particularly for business leaders who have to talk about the impact if the financial crises on their enterprise.

Michael Kelly, a Sydney speech communication expert, says they can learn much from watching the US presidential race.

Almost every night on television, Barack Obama demonstrates techniques that underpin successful public speaking.  He doesn’t rush.  He takes his time to move, to pause and to search for the right words.  He trusts himself to find the words and others trust he will find them too.  His audience is not anxious that he will stumble.  What they see is a self-possessed man, whose measured deliver signals authority.

Kelly says composure creates the impression of a person not easily ruffled, of someone who can be trusted.  Obama’s body language shows a man who is comfortable with himself and who, in front of a crowd can occupy his space with ease.

“Early on, Barack wrote that he understood a key perception about himself.  That is, that white people were relieved and pleasantly surprised to interact with a black man who was not aggressive and angry,” Kelly says

“He put that into practice in the way he moves and uses his body.  He never moves quickly or ‘aggressively’ in order not to surprise or startle people.”
His smooth carriage reinforces the notion that he is under no time pressure and his gestures appear so natural they make him appear genuine.

Kelly describes him as graceful and says he meets the criteria for goo oratory set out centuries ago by Cicero, who wrote that and orator “ must practice an economy of movement, with not extraneous effort – the carriage of his body straight and lofty: his pacing measured and kept within bounds…. Governing himself in the expression of his whole body, with a manly torsion from the waist; using powerful gestures when moved, and none at all when calm”.

Obama is also bless with a smooth, deep and balanced voice that can become loud with little effort.  Kelly believes his voice is rooted in the “preacher style” of the church he attended.  But it also has a lyrical swinging cadence which is pleasing to the ear. : Barack expertly uses pauses and strings words together like a jazz musician.”

During the debates with republican John McCain, Obama listened with his eye.  Regardless of what McCain Said, Obama kept looking at him.

“This ‘eye listening’ convey confidence and assuredness.  It can be difficult to watch someone verbally assault but doing so, and not flinching, is akin to “taking it like a man”, Kelly says.

McCain averted his gaze when Obama spoke, almost creating the perception that he was not listening.  Holding contact with calm eyes, particularly during disagreement, suggests you are not easily riled.  When the stakes are high, the audience observers the speaker carefully, alert for subtleties of tone, expression and anything that can give a clue to what the speaker really thinks.

Obama’s facial expression appears to reflect what he is feeling, which helps to portray him as authentic.  While McCain’s war injuries have affected his body language and restricted his ability to move and make gestures, both his face and voice lack passion.

Well ladies and gentlemen, it’s that time of the year again.  The time to celebrate another successful year and make merry but let’s do so safely.  Here are 14 tips to mitigate risk at your celebrations found from the HR Daily website.

14 tips to mitigate end-of-year function risks

Speech time at the work Christmas party is a good opportunity for employers to pause the flow of alcohol and help prevent incidents arising from excessive consumption, says the Australian Drug Foundation’s head of workplace services, Phillip Collins.

He suggests not serving alcohol while formal proceedings are conducted to allow people to eat more food and drink water, which will reduce their alcohol intake.

The Australian Drug Foundation has developed a checklist, as part of its Good Hosts program, which helps HR professionals and employers plan work events that avoid alcohol-related harm and corporate embarrassment.

Employers should follow all of the steps in the checklist to ensure a fun event that isn’t too focused on alcohol, Collins says.

The first step is to implement an early intervention strategy to prevent incidents occurring at an event, he says.

If someone at an event is consuming more alcohol than everyone else, employers should have a procedure in place to identify the risk and how to handle it, and consider ways to “mitigate any risks in the future”.

For example, increasing the amount of water provided to the person, table or group could be beneficial. Employees should also know who the person responsible for the event is.

This is “absolutely critical”, he says, so that if something happens at the event, there is someone to turn to who will have an action plan.

Employers should also control the flow of alcohol, bearing in mind how they have served alcohol at previous events and whether it was successful, Collins says.

“So historically it could have been you [had] alcohol in a big ice bin and people [could] simply go and grab what they want, or there could be an arrangement on the table.”

Requiring employees to go to the bar to get a drink can help reduce the amount of alcohol consumed, he says.

Alcohol should not be the focus of the night, and instead the event should focus on entertainment, such as speeches or having arcade games at the venue.

Employers should consider whether some of the people attending the social event are non-drinkers, and “engage them in activities where they can actually enjoy themselves without having to… think they need to have alcohol to have fun”, Collins says.

To avoid rapid consumption of alcohol, an event should not have any kind of drinking games, he adds.

Further, employers should avoid placing an emphasis on alcohol consumption, for example by not promoting “drink until dawn” on a communication flyer or having alcoholic-based lucky door prizes.

Employees must know when to leave the venue and how they are getting home, and employers should make them aware of this before the event, “as opposed to on the night”.

Employees should be advised of the event’s start and end time, and whether public transport is available, or if taxis will be provided, Collins says.

Further, if someone at the event consumes a lot of alcohol and is evicted from the premises, “companies must have a policy in place to ensure that that person does get home safely”, he says.

This safe transport policy should require the employer to place the evicted person in a taxi, give clear directions to the taxi driver to take the person directly home, and pay for that trip.

Depending on the length of the event, substantial food should be served regularly to help prevent intoxication. Collins says food should be available within an hour of the bar opening.

It is also important for employers to cater for the diversity of their workforce, so that all employees who might be drinking alcohol can “have that food intake to balance everything out”.

Employers should ensure they have an adequate number of security guards for the event, and that those security guards know the employer’s requirements.

They should be briefed on: the number of people attending the event; the employer’s alcohol policies; how and what people are being served; who’s in charge; and how to take an evicted person out of the venue, Collins says.

“Having security guards there is not only to stop people coming in that shouldn’t be there, but also to ensure that the [employer's expectations] are actually met,” he says.

Lastly, after an event has taken place, employers should debrief about the event, and discuss what they did right, what they did wrong, what they can do in the future, and document it for next time.

Managers should set the standard

According to Mills Oakley partner Luke Connolly, the biggest mistake employers make when planning end-of-year and other functions is failing to communicate to managers the importance of modelling desired behaviours on the night.

“Management themselves don’t lead by example. They tend to forget who they are and who they’re representing, thereby creating a culture of partying that breaches a number of standards that ought apply at these type of events,” he told HR Daily.

“Ultimately managers need to lead by example. It’s management that the junior staff will look at on the night, to see how they’re behaving. And how they behave will dictate how juniors think they can behave – it becomes a cultural lead by example thing.”

In general, he says, employers tend not to take a highly disciplined approach to Christmas parties, in communicating to employees “what they’re really for, and that is to celebrate the year as opposed to getting as drunk and wild as you can”.

Employers should communicate to employees before the event what the expected behaviours are, and what won’t be tolerated, he says.

“It’s about setting those boundaries and culture prior to the event, and making sure that management live and breathe those cultural boundaries. By not doing that, and by everyone throwing their hats in the air and kicking off their shoes and going berserk, they put themselves at huge risk.”