5.2. Recommendations at the level of the Directorates General

Looking for ways to involve staff and middle management in the reorganisation

Different ways can be envisaged: informal working groups, external experts working in the same sector talking about trends affecting the work, workshops during Staff Days, giving the role to Head of Units to collect ideas at the level of their staff and channel them to senior and top management, Taskforces analyzing external current way of working and proposing ways how the DG should evolve in the future.

Such processes are not fast, nor very clear in the beginning. Ideas may be raised and discarded, contradictory views may emerge and lead to confusion and discussion. These processes are reiterative and will take a certain time before a clear picture emerges. External facilitators can help to channel the reflection process.

Addressing resistance to change

Attention needs to be paid to the way how staff will be affected by change. An analysis of the potential impact of the reorganisation on different groups of staff helps to identify potential support/potential resistance and can be used to design an adequate response. This should be supported by expertise from the Human Resource unit. Workforce planning can help to plan the end of contracts and upcoming retirements to limit the negative effects of reduction of posts.

Taking the time required, especially for planning the reorganisation and preparing people to change

More time and attention should be devoted to preparing the reorganisation. The reflection process should start in sufficient time before the new organisation chart will be adopted. Getting clarity about the vision and the strategy, by involving different levels of staff, can take another three to six months, depending on how participatory the process is designed. Also, reflections are not exclusively targeted at reorganisation but could happen independently from a formal change process.

Preparing a strategy and an action plan for the reorganisation

The external and internal reasons for change need to be analysed more closely, with a clear idea of objectives to be reached/improvements in service delivery/advantages of the reorganisation. While management could set the strategic principles in a top-down manner, this could be complemented by a bottom-up approach to enrich/verify/or where necessary revise strategic lines of action.

The strategy should explicitly cover human resource management aspects, such as guiding principles, the role of staff and the way how job changes will be dealt with during the reorganisation. This can be elaborated by the Human Resource unit. Also communication should be part of the strategy from the early beginning and it can be elaborated by the Internal Communication unit.

Involvement of Human Resources in reorganisations

The Human Resource unit in the DG should be involved in the earliest stage. Reorganisation should address both, changes in structure and improved processes. Organisational development and its methods have a part to play in developing employee engagement. Since reorganisation is a high-frequency and high-stakes activity, the Human Resource unit can play an active role to accompany management and staff during the change process with a comprehensive approach:

• Coach management on their change role and provide both specific tools and support;
• Help management to deal with resistance to change: be aware of who will be gaining and who will be losing from organisational change and have human resource strategies in place;
• Offer individual and group coaching for Directors and Head of Units
• Address the sensitive topic of staff reduction and reduction of management posts;
• Know the staff of your DG on a personal level to know their interests and career aspirations;
• Help manage in due time the fears and anxieties that inevitably are part of strategic change;
• Clarify from the start the involvement of staff and managers and what assistance will be available;
• Explain where posts will be situated in the new structure and organise calls of interest for new posts;
• Support staff in finding adequate jobs in the new structure and developing the necessary skills to grow into the new positions;
• Develop a training plan to enable employees to be effective in their new and changed roles and for those managing the often sensitive change processes.

Involvement of Internal Communication

Also the Internal Communication unit in the DG should be involved as early as possible. Timing of communication and key messages should be integral part of the strategy prepared for a reorganisation. Also the channels of communication need to be considered (strategic aspects - top management; implementation aspects with details on how the reorganisation will be done – human resources; specific job-related communication - middle management, using the fact that Head of Units are closest to staff and often the most known and therefore most trusted sources of specific information).

Care should be taken to craft a change message which addresses staff ́s emotions and fears, underlying any change process and the uncertainty linked to it. It is useful to have a clear message why change is necessary, to demonstrate the full support of hierarchy to it, to address staff ́s emotions and provide a message of support, especially to those who are most affected by the reorganisation.

(positions being reduced, management jobs cancelled, completely new fields emerging).

Key aspects:

• Close coordination between Human Resource units and Communication units is critically important;
• Communication should combine one-way information and two-way exchanges;
• Information on process and timing should happen as soon as possible. Communication on substance depends on progress in the decision-making process;
• Communication messages and contents:
  • Strategic reasons for the reorganisation
  • Vision for the future: how should the Directorate General look like? what type of services should it provide?
  • What is the role of staff during the reorganisation? What values and what culture should prevail? What is the level of involvement and participation wanted?
  • Emotional messages:
    • How to deal with uncertainty during the reorganisation?
    • Concepts of confidence and trust
  • What is going to happen? (moving between sites, people to be moved to new jobs, suppressing management/advisory jobs)
  • What is the new structure going to look like? (layers, span of control, geographic/thematic, coordination, location/site)