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Performance management during periods of organizational change

By Bruce Mayhew

 

What should a leader do when an employee continues to not accept the change happening within the company? Has the employee chosen to quit? This is an uncomfortable subject – but one all leaders face at some point – so here is an examination of these questions from legal, leader/company and employee points of view.

 

Legal

HR lawyers and consultants warn there are subtleties with every employee/workspace situation. The following few base factors are relevant:

  • Every employer should expect employees to follow the company vision and strategy.
  • A change of strategy and/or technology should be expected for every business to stay relevant. Therefore, change should also be a natural part of an individual’s work and career.
  • An individual who is being resistant to change is akin to insubordination, likely leading to dismissal with “just cause” plus the appropriate severance.

 

While the preceding statements are true, it’s important to note that all of the responsibility does not fall on the employee; businesses are also required to support and empower their employees. There are also a few more legal perspectives that will be examined in the leader and employee points of view.

 

The leader/company

To begin, here is a quick look at the key responsibilities of a leader and company as Bruce Mayhew Consulting shared at HRPA’s 2019 Annual Conference & Trade Show:

  1. Sets strategy.
  2. Consistently shares and repeats the company mission, vision, values and appropriate messaging.
  3. Is very clear about performance management expectations, measurement criteria and consequences.
  4. Inspires and motivates others.
  5. Offers growth opportunities, training, mentoring/coaching and recognition.
  6. Is trustworthy, fair, firm and open to new ideas.

 

In concert with the above six points, leaders should not only expect change, they should be at the forefront of leading and adopting change.

Surely there are a hundred reasons why great strategies go wrong. Two far too common reasons strategies fail are from a lack of communication and a lack of performance management. This is disappointing because these are often two of the easiest components of a change management strategy to predict, plan and implement. Unfortunately, what happens all too often is the leadership team focuses great effort on designing a brilliant business strategy, and then steps back from communication and performance management – the soft-skills part of every successful strategy. The result is the core elements quickly begin to erode and/or are misinterpreted because a clear vision has not been consistently shared with the people who will operationalize it. If change is being implemented, communication and expectations have to remain current.

When individuals begin missing expectations, it’s usually too late to begin looking at communication and performance management – especially at an individual or department level. Too often if a company waits this long, they have already created an “us versus them” situation where the “no adopters” or “slow adopters” may feel bullied, not valued and/or ostracized. If this happens it can become more expensive for the company in many ways including:

  • Mistakenly let valued employees go who were adapting but may have needed more help and/or more time.
  • Experience a hit to the morale and loyalty of employees who are left behind.
  • Acquire an industry reputation as an unfair employer – avoided by high-potential candidates for future positions.
  • The cost (time, money and opportunity lost) associated to hiring, training and paying severance to people who were with you.

 

What’s the solution? Make communication and performance management serious parts of every strategy.

 

When it comes to communication

Map out a plan on how to share expectations frequently and clearly to all employees. As the organizational strategy and/or technology evolves, organizations should consistently and frequently share how change supports the future vision and goals. It’s also important to recap the organization values, core competencies and key messages – the soft-skills part of the work-life equation.

 

When it comes to performance management

One best practice is to provide appropriate skills upgrade training and measure everyone’s performance as soon as change is being planned and introduced. This way it’s easily caught if someone looks like they are struggling and may need a bit more time, training or coaching/mentoring. In addition, people who are resistant to change also get identified early and can be managed appropriately. This is a clear example of where equal doesn’t necessarily mean equitable.

 

The employee

It’s worth repeating that change should be always be expected, by everyone. Employees should especially expect to pivot when a new leader is brought in or new technology is adopted. Change also happens when the company or a division is tackling a new opportunity or new challenge in their sector – like a competitor.

As HR Lawyer Laurie Jessome, partner at Cassels Brock said, “Employees should always be thinking, ‘If I was applying for this job today, would I be a top contender? Is it likely they would want to hire me?’ If the answer is no, it’s not the company that’s the problem.”

Change provides a challenge for anyone who enjoys the comfort of routine and/or the reputation of “expert” or “top performer.” The thing is, an expert or top performer who isn’t willing to stay current will soon lose their crown. Alternatively, change provides a great opportunity for anyone looking to develop new skills. The only chance an expert or top performer has to keep their status is to accept change and grow/innovate with the company, which are strong motivators for the millennial and Gen Z cohorts. Change also provides experienced employees an even greater opportunity to increase their status or reputation by becoming a mentor or coach. Also, change can provide an equal opportunity to younger employees to become reverse mentors on things like current trends, technology and social media.

Employees who show an unwillingness to change have in effect, chosen to quit; as long as the company has been clear with expectations and provided the time and resources to adapt. Jessome goes on to suggest the best approach is often to, “let them go and pay the appropriate severance. As long as a company’s change in direction is lawful and reasonable, employees are required to follow that new direction.” Staying and not doing their job as it evolves should never be a choice – even for top sales people, for example. If companies and/or leaders make an exception for one employee or one team, it will create morale problems and make it difficult to standardize other practices. Exceptions should only exist when finding solutions to accommodate the needs of people with disabilities.

 

Conclusion

In today’s economy, company strategies are adjusting at a faster pace than ever. The first obligation is on the company or leader to be clear about what the expectations are and what happens if employees don’t meet them. As Stuart Rudner, employment lawyer and mediator at Rudner Law said, “In many cases leaders fail to clearly communicate concerns with employees. This allows employees to subsequently deny they understood the seriousness of the situation. If the employee is able to say, ‘The company [the leader], did share some information, but I didn’t see it seriously because they let it slide often and I didn’t know it was going to cost me my job,’ then this will likely be an expensive dismissal.” In this case, it’s likely judges will come down hard on the company.

Nobody enjoys having difficult conversations and very few professionals are trained on how to give or receive constructive criticism. If leaders avoid difficult conversations, they are not supporting the success of the company, themselves or the employee. Also, not having these conversations may mean an employer will not be able to dismiss the employee for “just cause” and instead have to pay a hefty severance package only because the employee was never given a fair chance to understand the expectations and work toward them.

Lawyers also recommend leaders keep detailed and current documentation that shows what communication and opportunities have been discussed through good times and bad. Rudner said, “Too often I see cases where there has not been clear, documented communication with feedback being shared with the employee.”

Many of the HR lawyers interviewed for this article also agree a good employment contract can save employers lots of grief and expense. They recommend that on day one of any new job, someone at the company should meet with the new employee to have a documented performance management conversation about key performance indicators and how employees are expected to “adapt with the company.” They also advise to be careful of times when there has been no history of performance management challenges or performance management correction. If leaders decide it’s inefficient or not appropriate to offer retraining – for example – then the recommendation is to be generous with severance.

 

Bruce Mayhew is a corporate trainer, conference speaker and executive coach.

 

 

 

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