HR in times of change

Citation

Nolan, S. (2008), "HR in times of change", Strategic HR Review, Vol. 7 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/shr.2008.37207faa.001

HR in times of change

Article Type: Editorial From: Strategic HR Review, Volume 7, Issue 6

Change is an inevitable part of business life and is received in different ways depending on the people involved and the situation. HR is more often than not the face of the change process for employees and this can prove to be a challenging role that demands a clear strategy and bold approach. This is the theme of this issue of Strategic HR Review, which provides a mix of case study features about, and best practice guides to, HR in times of change.

In “Motivation and retention of key people in mergers and acquisitions”, Dr Christopher Kummer addresses the people-related aspect of mergers and acquisitions that is so vital to the successful completion of deals, yet remains one of the hardest to handle. He identifies five key challenges that need to be addressed in order to keep people motivated and committed during times of change and beyond. He puts forward practical solutions, such as early preparation, detailed integration plans, identification of key people, design of retention programs and careful communication, and demonstrates how one organization in the financial services sector successfully applied some of these solutions during a merger process.

In “Innovapost executes on high-speed merger and acquisition activities”, Brent Charland describes how 85 technical staff were successfully transferred from their dissolving companies into the Innovapost organization despite a schedule of just five weeks to complete the process. A basic philosophy of protecting pay and benefits packages provided the foundation for a successful transfer, and was backed up by the co-operation of the executive teams of the dissolving companies, clear communication to the transferring employees, availability of the Innovapost HR team and tackling of the challenges involved head on. Great attention was paid to detail and the HR team continually looked at the process from the transferring employees’ point of view, a compassionate approach that paid dividends as the follow up survey showed how positively those employees viewed HR’s handling of the transition.

Jo Hennessy and Claire McCartney explore the perceptions and requirements of HR in dealing with the changing nature of organizational life in their article, “The value of HR in times of change”. They combine original research from Roffey Park with case study material to put forward practical implications for HR professionals and organizations in times of change. From the research the authors identify a gap in the perception of HR held by HR professionals and non-HR professionals, with the former more likely to see the function as adding value, being proactive and customer focused and producing relevant and timely initiatives. HR must therefore focus on building its own capability and internal reputation, as well as building the skills of the organization. Research highlights talent management as a key business issue and HR is the natural home for talent management initiatives and strategy to create organizational sustainability.

In “Surviving change”, by authors Lynn Leahy and Neal Chamberlain, the emphasis moves away from process and elements of change to look at the impact of change on the individual. It provides a useful insight into the psychology of how individuals deal with change and offers practical solutions that HR professionals can put into practice – for example, asking people to identify where they are on the “phases of change” cycle so that they can acknowledge the path they are on and accept that everyone reacts at a different pace to change, in this way fostering understanding and patience among those reacting at different levels. The case study material shows the theory in practice and how it helped Unilever Europe IT’s people through a major change scenario of restructuring and outsourcing.

Andy Neal provides an organizational view of change in this article, “Preparing the organization for change”. He looks at the bold steps that HR must take in order to ensure the necessary people policies are in place to support change and gain maximum value from the process. This can mean asking probing questions into areas previously not addressed, encouraging the CEO and top team to provide the support that employees need to buy in to the new vision, taking an independent and critical view of current leadership capabilities in the light of the business transformation taking place, and being open and honest about any job losses a change might incur. HR needs to be involved on a strategic level early on in the process and to have the courage and authority to seriously address people issues. Neal provides three case studies of different change environments to demonstrate the value that HR can add in times of change.

Sara Nolan

E-mail: shr@emeraldinsight.com