Persuading Employees

What key groups of people/individuals will be impacted by the change?

The group that will be impacted most is comprised of six technical support people in the OIT-Jefferson office. The second group that will be impacted is comprised of two technicians who work for Pomroy and cover the seven county area serviced by OIT Jefferson.

How will they be impacted? What will they be losing (or perceive they are losing)?

Added responsibilities will be placed on the OIT-Jefferson technical support personnel that work out of Louisville. Instead of taking it for granted that Pomroy technicians are satisfactorily completing work orders, the technician who places the request to IBM will be held responsible to insure that maintenance has been performed satisfactorily. It will be critical for the OIT-Jefferson personnel to enter the service request correctly, to thoroughly check out the printer for symptoms of the problem, to list all additional problems, and to follow up with each printer-user to insure that the printer is properly repaired. Employees will be required to submit reports on printer maintenance activities. There will be additional scrutiny of corrective actions performed on printers by Pomroy technicians, including the time it takes to complete maintenance activities on each printer.

What are some strategies for helping these groups/individuals deal with their actual or perceived losses?

An evaluation will be done on the salaries of all personnel mentioned above to insure that they conform to industry standards. Training will be provided to insure that OIT-Jefferson personnel know how to accomplish procedures that are required to implement the change initiatives. It will be critical that network support personnel diagnose printers for unreported problems, as well as reported problems. Network support personnel will be required to utilize the Access database to track printer problems. The OIT-Jefferson supervisor should insure good working relationships between the six OIT-Jefferson employees and the two Pomroy technicians who service the printers. She should insist that the Pomroy technicians contact the person who requested the printer service. Inviting the Pomroy technicians to join OIT-Jefferson personnel to monthly department dinners will help to cement a friendly atmosphere between these two groups.

What are your strategies for communicating effectively during this phase?

The supervisor should show continuous attention to printer service requests by using written and verbal communication methods. She should request a weekly report from one of the six network support people in this area, listing all calls for the past three months to insure that there have been no repeat malfunctions with printers.

How can you involve employees in the implementation process?

Responsibility for submitting the weekly report should be alternated to each of the six employees on a weekly basis. This will insure that all six employees understand exactly what the change initiative involves and how critical having meaningful data is to this program. It will insure familiarity with the database report that will be generated. Technicians should praise printer users who give detailed reports to help isolate printer problems

What are some specific ways that you can show concern for your employees during the change?

Employees should be informed that if there are any problems with implementation of this project that they should go to the supervisor. The supervisor should insure that all problems are resolved during implementation of the change initiative. This will insure that the supervisor is aware of the roadblocks that may be placed in the employees’ path. It will also insure that employees realize the supervisor is committed to the change initiative. It will reduce the employee’s frustration level when they confront impediments to the change initiative.

What are some specific ways you can show commitment to the change through consistency in your words and actions? (For example, what actions are you asking of your staff that you should model for them?)

Employees will be positively motivated when they see the supervisor working very hard to insure that they can accomplish the tasks that are assigned to them. By constantly receiving assurances that the supervisor is there to assist them with any difficulties with the change initiative, the employees will put all necessary effort into the change initiative.

Worksheet Nineteen

(Clarifying)

Topics to Cover with Each Employee

Once all of the planning is completed it is time to talk to all of the employees. Following is a listing of topics which should be covered.

· Money saved

· Standard operating procedures developed to insure continuity in addressing printer problems

· Reduce the number of printer problems we experience

THE PURPOSE

What is really driving the change? What is the problem for which the change is the solution? What would happen if the organization didn't change?

The real issue in this change initiative is guardianship of taxpayers’ dollars and breaking the cultural environment of government offices that stand in the way of this guardianship. If there is waste involved in typical functions of daily operations, any group that can measure or identify the problem should be applauded for trying to do something about it. Employees should have the support of all government offices in clearing the path of restrictions that could help to eliminate waste. The problem for which the change is offered is to insure printers are fixed and charges are not duplicated. If the organization does not change, double billing will continue and taxpayer’s money will continue to be wasted. Any future attempts to eliminate wastefulness in government spending by this Cabinet could be jeopardized by failing to suitably address this problem.

THE PICTURE

What will the organization become through the change?

By setting a precedent for a new attitude and meaningful changes to the present cultural environment in the CHFS-OIT office, future changes will be easier to implement. If emphasis is placed on changes that make the organization more efficient, helps promote a higher quality product, or is less wasteful, then changes in attitude will become easier to bring about. The organization will become more responsive to all employees who work towards quality and efficiency. It will be every employee’s responsibility to eliminate waste.

THE PLAN

How will the change be implemented? How will individuals or groups be affected by the change? What kind of support or assistance will be provided to help people deal with change? What are some strategies for two-way communication during the change?

The plan will be implemented immediately by following the guidelines on previous pages. Until the meeting with IBM and Pomroy has taken place, OIT-Jefferson will implement and utilize the Access database. A list of printers that have repeat malfunctions in this area will be reported to CHFS-OIT on a monthly basis until they are convinced of the importance of the program, and take over the duties of updating the database. The key person in implementing the change initiative, the OIT-Jefferson supervisor, will insure that local efforts continue until CHFS-OIT personnel implement the plan on a statewide basis. The OIT-Jefferson group will be acting as a pilot project. By implementing something new, the group will gain prestige. Since this is new, however, the supervisor and technicians will need to have regular meetings to review progress and insure everyone is working together. These short team meetings will insure procedures are implemented without wasting technicians’ time and will give the team assurance that their job is progressing and is worthwhile. Just by focusing on a problem, there is somewhat of a Hawthorne effect in that all the team and department staff will try to work together to set up the process. This will be good teambuilding.

THEIR PART

What roles will be different after the change?

The roles will be no different after the change. Attitudes will change, as will some practices associated in requesting and tracking printer service requests.

Identify some communication methods or media you can utilize-initially and ongoing-to meet the communications needs of your employees.

As mentioned earlier, reports will be generated weekly by one of the network support personnel. The supervisor can use reports that have errors or are not of sufficient quality to educate and train all six employees to insure all efforts to accomplish the change management will be coordinated.

What are some additional temporary structures and systems that will need to be established to meet transition needs?

The database can be kept locally until CHFS-OIT is fully onboard with the change initiative. It is important to get their support as soon as possible to insure the best opportunity for success. However, the Access database will have to be initiated and updated locally by OIT-Jefferson until CHFS-OIT is on board.

Jot down a few strategies you can use with your work unit to encourage an environment of creativity and risk taking.

Innovation takes place when people apply creativity to situations that involve risk taking. We all make mistakes and meet with failure from time to time. We should not fear failure as much as desire improvement in the quality and efficiency of our wok efforts. At times our innovations could create more work for us. We will attack any problems that pose difficulties for us, or reduce our ability to do the best possible job. If we do the best we can, this group will continue to earn the respect and recognition it deserves. The key to success is persistence, but we should be careful about expecting immediate rewards for our efforts. I am reluctant to promise things I may not be able to deliver, but you can be assured that I will work hard for the advancement of your careers. You can also be assured that I fully respect and appreciate your hard work. Here are a few comments to inspire us to step up and take risks involved in making this change initiative:

· It is better for us to choose the risks we wish to take to effect change, or take a calculated risk.

· Failures in the risks we take should be thought of as learning opportunities.

· If we fail in this endeavor, who will blame us for trying to save money for CHFS. If we succeed, we should get credit for our hard work.

Concluding Remarks:

Even if this entire project was implemented and the printer repair system was successful, the bigger, underlying problem of “attitude” in general would not have been addressed. The overall attitude of keeping the status quo, resistance to change, and only doing what is absolutely necessary is pervasive in government workers. It would take a monumental change project to address all of those attitudes and make effective changes.

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