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Contents
1 About this guide 1
3 What is change? 4
What causes change? 5
Why pro-actively manage change? 6
How do you manage change? 7
4 How does change feel? 9
The link between health, work and wellbeing 9
The emotional journey 10
How do you overcome resistance to change? 13
8 Appendix 1 27
What does the law say? 27
9 Appendix 2 29
Some tools for managing change 29
10 Appendix 3 33
Sample internal communication strategy 33
11 Appendix 4 37
Important changes to making employment tribunal claims 37
Acas Training 39
CONTENTS
About this
guide
Change can be threatening and Although every situation is unique,
disruptive. It can also be very hard and every organisation is different,
work because it usually involves there are common elements to
adapting to a new environment, managing most change. This guide
working practices or personal provides advice on how to:
circumstances.
plan for change although some
change comes out of the blue it is
There are some changes that most
better to have to review your plans
of us have been through such as
than to have no plans at all
starting a new job, being retrainedor
moving to a new workplace. This provide leadership this is
shared experience of change is an particularly important during times
ideal starting point for understanding of uncertainty when employees will
how change can affect you and your need reassurance
employees on both a personal and
organisational level. keep up-to-date with the law
there is a great deal of legislation
covering such things as handling
This guide will help line managers
redundancies, transfer of
and employers manage major
undertakings (TUPE), contracts of
change more effectively by focusing
employment etc (see Appendix 1,
on:
p27).
the personal experience of change
and what this can tell us about the
kind of support employees need
a summary 2
The answer to this questionshould change can mean anything from the
be quite simple. After all, recent introduction of new training courses
3
research has shown that or company policies to new canteen
organisations undergo major change facilities or travel arrangements.
about once every three years, Change often alters our routine,
and that within that cycle of major challenges our perceptions and
change is an almost constant swirl of makes us reflect on how things are
minor change. done. Change is usually
characterised by a desire to improve
Major change can include mergers, things whether its cashflow,
redundancies, re-structuring ornew products or processes.
working practices, while minor
Major change
every 3 years
Constant
minor change
WHAT IS CHANGE? 4
Employees often feel caught What causes change?
between the two cycles of change, Change can be caused by:
expected to be able to instantly
adapt to whatever comes their way. external pressures such as
Employers often find it difficult to changes in global markets,
focus on processes like employee new competitors or technology,
communication and engagement, government legislation and
when faced with constant planning customer feedback
and reviews of products or
performance. They may not even
internal pressures such as the
need to review policies and
always be aware of the imminent procedures, accommodation
change. issues, pay structures and
employee feedback.
How we react to change often
depends on whether we see it A certain degree of pressure is an
coming and how many people it essential part of working life for many
affects. Change is either: organisations it can be often be a
motivating factor. Change often
planned or unplanned planned starts when pressure reaches a
change might include an office
move or the introduction offlexible tipping point and employers realise
working, while unplannedchange that something needs to be done.
might include lay-offs or For example, if a competitor
redundancies brought about by an launches a rival product you may be
economic downturn forced to respond if your own sales
figures are adversely affected.
individual or organisational some
change largely affects individuals, Force field analysis (see Appendix 2,
such as a newjob description or p29) is widely used to understand
individual redundancy, while other and manage change. In force field
change, such as an office move or analysis, change is characterised as
company re-branding, affects the a state of imbalance between driving
whole organisation. forces (such as changing markets or
new personnel) and restraining
forces (such as cultural inertia or fear
of failure).
WHAT IS CHANGE? 6
How do you manage It is impossible to be too prescriptive
change? about how you should manage
Academics have analysed the change effectively but the basic
different ways we manage change building blocks many organisations
and some of the more popular use include:
theories include:
Underpinning all change
1. Change: moving from one static management is an understanding
state to another. Lewins Modelof of what people go through when
change sees organisations they experience change see
operating in an almost How does change feel?, p9
permanently frozen state. Toalter
the status quo organisations
If Acas had to answer the question
how do you manage change?
unfreeze, overcome the obstacle in three words our answer would
or hurdle, and then refreeze. be Communicate, communicate,
2. Change: influencing the way we communicate (see What do you
think and behave. Beers Model of tell people and how?, p14)
change focuses on task alignment
to manage change and suggests
Change can be traumatic and
disruptive. As a manager your key
that employers can use formal responsibilities are to:
policies to institutionalise change.
create a vision
3. Change: not a beginning or an
end point but an ongoing process. lead
Shaws Model of change sees
consult particularly on those
change as an untidy and at times
issues covered by the law, such
clumsy process but also a natural
as redundancies and transfers
part of how organisations evolve.
of undertaking
engage with employees (see
How important is employee
engagement?, p24)
reflect on how you have
managed change and what
can be improved in future and
celebrate successes.
Communicate
Communicate
Communicate
3
WHAT IS CHANGE? 8
How does
change feel?
Faced with something new or What cements these elements and
unexpected our initial reaction is creates a feel good factor about
often one of anxiety and sometimes going to work is having some control
fear. To understand how change over our working lives. The greater
feels we need to look at: the level of control you have over
how you do your job, the happier
the link between health, work and you are likely to be and the more
wellbeing
committed to your place of work.
the contrasting emotions we can
experience during periods of Change can affect the way youfeel
change. emotionally, mentally and physically.
It can also damage your self-esteem
by putting you in new and
The link between health, work demanding situations, and it can
and wellbeing deprive you of your friends. Badly
In the Acas guide Health, work and managed change can also make you
wellbeing we ask the question: Is feel as if things are out of control
work good for your health? The and affect how well you engage with
answer is that yes, work is good for your customers and colleagues.
your health because it provides:
However, although change is
financial reward generally seen as negative, this isnot
self esteem the whole picture. Any basicanalysis
of change will highlight opportunities
companionship as well as threats (see SWOT
status. analysis on p30). During a
reorganisation, for example,
employees may feel the safety of
their jobs to be under threat, but
they may also feel they have the
opportunity to achieve greater career
fulfilment.
Moving
forward 4
ge
an
Happiness
Ch
Anxiety Fear
Gradual
Threat acceptance
Guilty
Depression
Get feedback Taking regular mood checks on how people are feeling
at different stages of the change will help you plan your
communications strategy. You might simply walk the
floor or adopt more formal means of testing the water,
such as consultation meetings or focus groups. You
should be able to work out what messages are not
getting through or how to tackle any resistance to
change.
Also, encourage constructive criticism it can produce
good ideas and it shows that you trust your staff.
Look after Your employees are your biggest asset. If you manage
your staff change poorly they are likely to be less motivated and
less productive and your reputation as an employer
with customers and stakeholders will suffer.
Note: the way procedures and systems are set up and
used is just as important as the systems themselves. Line
managers with the right kind of interpersonal skills have
the ability to trigger positive discretionary behaviour in
other words, they can improve the way employees do
their jobs see p25 for a definition.
5
The visual act of communication
message
Prioritisation The important points and key issues are then identified
and prioritised through voting (three points for your most
important issue, two points for your next and one point for
your third). The points which have attracted votes are then
grouped into three or four main themes eg
communications, working arrangements, training. This
creates a joint change agenda that all have contributed to.
Future vision
You also need to set out your vision for the future where you would like to
be after the planned change. As well as forces that relate specifically to your
proposed change there are often generic forces at work that apply to most
change situations, such as:
cost
resources
attitudes of managers and staff
SWOT analysis
What is it?
SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats andis
effective tool for testing out new ideas and problem-solving. SWOT often
works well in a workshop setting (see p21 on using workshops) and can be
combined with brainstorming (see below).
Before you start, be clear about the problem or situation you are going to
analyse: this can be very broad such as wide cultural issues within an
organisation or very specific such as reducing customer response times.
Strengths Weaknesses
Opportunities Threats
The key issues that emerge can often be grouped into a few prominent
themes. These can be look at more closely in smaller groups.
Brainstorming
What is it?
Brainstorming is a method of getting a large number of ideas from a group of
people in a short time.
define and agree the objective the clearer you can be the better, even ifit
is something like what will be the impact of the new system on staff
This technique may help you to get beyond the symptoms to problems and
get to grips with the root causes.
This strategy focuses on internal audiences only and does not consider
external audiences or other stakeholder groups such as investors or customers.
In company Y
Residential care home managers (in each care home)
Careers
Qualified nursing staff
Admin and other support
Housekeeping staff
10
Early Conciliation may not resolve matters in every claim. When this is the
case Acas will issue a certificate that is now required for a claim to be
submitted to an Employment Tribunal.
From July 2013, employees have been required to pay a fee to lodge a
claim at the Employment Tribunal, followed by another fee if the claim
progresses toa tribunal hearing. In some cases, other fees may also apply. If
a claim is successful, the employee may apply for the costs of the fees to be
Remember, when a claim is lodged with a tribunal, Acas will continue to offer
conciliation to both sides until the tribunal makes a judgment and, if the claim
is successful, a remedy decision (usually financial compensation) has been
made.
11
Look at the Acas website for up-to-date information about all our training or
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call the Acas customer services team on 0300 123 11 50.
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current programme includes:
March 2014
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03/14