Next steps following video
That video could feel overwhelming with a lot of information to absorb. Do not stress yourself, just follow this step-by-step guide below to help you get going and see successful completion. If you feel it is necessary, get a Strategic Planning Facilitator to support you through this process and always revert to legal counsel for labour relations concerns.
Step: Get your mindset right
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Action: Read leadership articles and resources on remaining calm and emotionally stable during the process of re-design. You should aim to feel prepared mentally to make tough decisions that can or will affect your employees.
- Suggested timeframe: Next 24 hours
- Suggested tools: Quieting your inner storm to lead through the outer storm
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Action: Schedule a meeting with your team to get them aligned on the organisational re-design, its necessity, aims and outcomes. It is important to have your team's buy-in to the process as well as allow them to mentally prepare themselves. It will be on your team to ensure that panic, fear and over protection of roles does not spread through the organisation. The necessity of an org re-design with the end goal of a sustainable lean business will require input from the larger organisation. As such the more collaboration and management of internal conflict can be achieved the quicker the process will go.
- Suggested timeframe: Next 48 hours
- Suggested tools: Getting the team aligned to lead through the storm
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Action:: Schedule 2 workshops to look through each role, responsibility and/or process in your organization and re-evaluate them from a clean sheet perspective. Dependent on how large your organization is and the organizational complexity you may want to split the workshops into departmental workshops. Regardless, the 2 workshops process and outcomes should remain the same. (You may want to pull in C-Suite level for the later workshops as the 1st workshop steers towards identification)
- Suggested timeframe: Next 48 hours
Step: Workshop 1: Identify roles and processes in the organisation
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Action: Run scheduled workshop #1 to identify critical processes in the organisation required to survive the storm. List processes or responsibilities per role and department and define how those responsibilities and processes are carried out
- Start with a literal clean sheet or blank canvas
- List the departments or business units in the organisation (10 mins)
- For each role clearly define their responsibilities - each responsibility is individually broken out (1 hour)
- For each role and responsibility determine what the cost to company is. It might be hard to quantify non-tangible responsibilities or roles, however, the requirement of this process is to put a price tag on every role and responsibility to assess its applicability in the new normal post CV-19. (Guesstimate if needs be) (30 mins)
- Next determine on a scale of 1-5 (where 1 is "not critical" and 5 is "critical") how important that responsibility or role is to the bare minimum service you have to provide customers. In other words what are the things you HAVE to do otherwise there is no business. (10 mins)
- Finally, for each role and responsibility determine whether it can be simplified or changed to save costs whilst still fulfilling the bare minimum service requirement. The answer should be a simple YES/NO at this point. (30 mins)
- Suggested tools: Org. Re-design Excel tool
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Action: Leaders and departmental heads take the workshop # 1 output back to their units. Each team detail further roles and responsibilities. This consolidated input will then be used in workshop #2
- Leaders call meeting of subordinates or team
- In meeting leaders communicate aim, progress and direction of this exercise (ensuring not to cause panic or fear)
- Team is directed to desired outputs from them: quantified processes and responsibilities, as well as input standards (ZAR, % etc)
- Suggested timeframe: within 2 days of workshop
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Suggested tools:
- Getting the team aligned to lead through the storm
- Org. Re-design Excel tool
- Team members define and describe processes or roles clearly (relevant levers ideally to be defined)
- Team members assign a cost to the company of that role or process (if the aim of this exercise has been communicated well it will avoid team member becoming defensive over their roles)
- Inputs are consolidated and reviewed by the leader / team leader.
- Suggested timeframe: within 4 days of workshop
Step: Workshop 2: Quantify and re-design roles and processes
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Action: Schedule and hold workshop #2. The input received from team members post workshop #1 will inform this workshop. Much like workshop #1 but even more so, workshop #2 will be detailing sensitive information. As such participants should be carefully selected
- Run scheduled workshop #2 to review the consolidated roles and process matrix and critically decide on high priority roles, what the improved roles and processes will look like and who will be handling the responsibilities of that role.
- Review consolidated process matrix as leadership and ensure universal agreement (30mins-1hr)
- Using the provided tool on a scale of 1-5 (low to high) rate how 1. easy it is to change that process / role and 2. how quickly that process or role can be changed (30 mins)
- Using appropriate outputs from models, tools and discussions decide what the high priority processes are. This will be a visual output that will easily show which roles or processes should be the first the leadership to re-design (10 mins)
- Selecting the 5-10 highest priority roles and processes define what the improved process is going to look like / how will it change (for example consolidating roles under 1 person or pausing certain responsibilities as they are not critical to bare minimums service) (30mins-1 hr)
- Finally, the team determines what resources are required resources to change that process and to execute on that new process. The importance here is to quantify as you want to compare what the old process cost you vs the cost savings of the re-designed process (30 mins)
- Finally, owners are assigned and weekly follows up are scheduled to regularly measure performance against target
- Suggested tools: Detailed cost reduction planning tool
- Suggested timeframe: 4-6 days after workshop #1
Step: Rework Organogram
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Action: Update the organisational structure of the business based on the new roles, responsibilities, and processes
- Schedule meeting with leadership to design new organogram
- In meeting define clear expectations for roles in the organisation (1 hr)
- Decide and define a clear reporting structure (30 mins)
- Define clear areas of accountability (30 mins)
- Define what the communication channels and feedback loops are going to be (30 mins)
- Visually represent the structure (5 mins)
- Train your key shareholder on new norm
- Communicate new structure with workforce being sure make clear responsibilities and reporting lines (Structure is a great asset in times of uncertainty)
- Suggested timeframe: within 2 days of workshop #2
- Suggested tools: Organigram structure template
Step: Engage in the dismissal process
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Action: Seek out legal counsel and / or labour relations expert to ensure proper legal guidelines and procedures are followed. The courts are extremely strict on due process so compliance is key and the process itself is mandated and structured.
- Suggested timeframe: Before engaging in any labour discussions
- Using the revised organigram and new structure based on the re-defined roles, processes and responsibilities schedule meeting with relevant leadership team and legal council
- In meeting discuss and agree on the selection criteria for selecting affected employees by the org. re-design (1 hrs) (critical to ensure that substantive and procedural fairness are followed closely)
- Select the employees who are affected (30 mins)
- Define and describe exactly how they are affected (1 hrs)
- Draft issue 189 (3) Notice of intention to retrench
- Schedule individual meetings with affected employees ensuring proper HR and legal representation is present
- Suggested timeframe: within 1 day of meeting legal council
- Employees consulted on the severance pay (Severance pay must be consulted on regardless if Section 41 of the BCEA prescribes minimum severance pay)
- Re-employment and other assistance is described and made clear
- Retrenchments effected by way of written notice of termination of employment
- Changes in terms and conditions effected by written notice and confirmation of employee
- Suggested tools: Retrenchments and Restructuring video
