Managing Restructures

– a case study

Gail Teasdale

Introduce myself

Executive director at Accent

– national HA

Responsible for Finance and

Corporate Services

Accountant!!

More importantly not HR

professional

THEME RUNNING THROUGH

MY PRESENTATION

1. Prelim or where did we start from

2. Restructure

• Stage 1 - Decision

• Stage 2 - Set-up & big decisions

• Stage 3 - Implementation

• Stage 4 - Bedding in/Assessment

3. Where did we end up

4. Implications for yourselves

Case study of a restructure

– or stage race

Accent had:

Federated governance

structure

• Holding company with 4 RPs

plus other companies

Each RP had its own board

• Requiring all that support

Each RP had its own staff

structure

• MD, Senior Team, HR,

Finance etc.

1. Starting point

Group

Accent Foundation

Accent Nene

Accent Peerless

Accent Corporate

Value for money

– could do better!

Cost too high

Services of average quality

1. Starting point

SO…

Need to do something

Evidence created the

‘burning bridge’

2. Restructure and launch of ‘One Accent’ idea

Evidence

Factual stuff

Anecdotal stuff

Come up with purpose

Purpose

Be ‘One Accent’

Develop new service

Change culture

Save money

Etape 1:

Evidence

Group board

Subsidiary boards

Chief Executive

Executive team (5 to 3!)

Regulator

Funders

Staff – site and non site

Customers! – Engaged and

unengaged

Etape 1:

Engage stakeholders and get buy in

Developed by the group board, RP boards, CE, Executive team

Consulted on with Staff, Customers groups

Took the decision to a national conference of all board members and

customer committee members

Adopted a name ‘ Fit for the Future’

Formal decision to adopt business case at each RP and group

board

Took 7 months but worth it!

Etape 1:

Business case

Etape 2: Set up & big decisions

Appointed a project manager

Decided to adopt ‘Prince light’ approach

• Roles of group board and CE

Set up overarching project plan

Etape 2:

Set up & big decisions

Set up 4 project groups;

• Governance;

• Finance;

• Shaping the service; and

• Implementation for people,

places and systems (last but

not least)

Etape 2:

Set up & big decisions

Produced a detailed project plan with

four work streams and appointed a

project sponsor for each

Engaged with more staff – senior

and more junior managers

February – Full presentation to staff

• Site staff not included

• Big decisions outlined

• Approach / Q&As

Phase2:

Set up

Big decisions

• North and South vs Functional structure

• Contact centre (s) –Yes/No, How many?

• Local offices – Do we need? How many?

• Personal, modern and better

Decision in June by Project board

Etape 2:

Set up & big decisions

Etape 3: Implementation

Staff

1. Understand the HR rules

• Did we have collective

bargaining?

• Appointed a legal firm to

support

2. Timeline established

3. Presentation to all staff to

explain the timeline

4. Adopt a tiered approach

5. Establish consultation

approach for consistency

Etape 3:

Implementation

6. Briefing managers to brief staff

• Empower to support staff

7. FAQs site

8. HR team to manage – open

conversation with the team

9. Recruitment approach

• Full presentation and interview for

exec and senior management team

• Approach full selection process

Took July – November

ICT Systems & phone systems

Workflows

New service requirements

Full ‘go-live’ November

Funders

What do you need to tell and when?

Personal visits/presentations

Regulator

Keep up to date

Etape 3:

Implementation

Customers

New service

Familiar faces disappearing

Need to keep onside

Staff regular briefings

Blog

Team meetings

FFTF briefings

Newsletters

Etape 3:

Implementation

Etape 4: Assessment

Numbers of staff

Role changes

Staff satisfaction survey

Report to the board

• Refer back to the business

case

• Lessons learned

Etape 4:

Assessment

ICT issues log

Offices closing or closed

Customers satisfaction

KPI reporting

One staff structure not four

One set of HR polices not four

One set of terms and

conditions

Saving £1.75m

No ETs, only 4 grievances

Where did we end up?

Outcomes

Staff numbers only decrease

by 38 but mix changed

substantially

• Less managers

• More frontline staff

• Fewer back office staff

CULTURE CHANGE

– ONE ACCENT

Be very clear who your stakeholders are and

what their angle is

Be very clear what you are setting out to do

A good project manager/plan is vital

Don’t forget the training of staff into new roles

Power of evidence

Importance of business case

Regular group/exec meetings just

for this project

Appreciate the scale of change

Implications for you or

What can you take home?

Good

Project plan / manager

Specific Group board

and executive meetings

Business case

Lessons learned

Could do better

Training for ‘go-live’

Appreciating scale of change

Communication

Communication

Communication…