Leading Change

Organisations must understand not only the barriers to successful workplace change but also different approaches to leadership & employee engagement.

When approaching change we quickly define where we are now and where we want to go, but sometimes forget what it might be like in between.

Begin creating a new vision for the future.

By listening to people throughout is critical to understand whether we’re all still heading in the same direction.

I find developing a regular listening routine that helps employees feel involved and valued, whilst also allowing the organisation to demonstrate what’s important and gather actionable insight, works best.

By making listening to a regular habit it’s more likely people will feel listened to and valued, and part of the change. So as we navigate transformational cultural change across the industry, people who feel they have a voice are more likely to be ready to come with us than get left behind.

The right leadership, role models, and clear expectations around beliefs and behaviours help create a far more positive culture where people feel confident enough to bring their whole selves to work and produce their very best work.

There has been the rapid technological change which has directly impacted the financial services industry. Voice biometrics, artificial intelligence, and more have all entered the mainstream. Harnessing technology allows machines and algorithms to do the ordinary and our people to do.

This is extremely powerful from both a colleague and customer proposition perspective and that changes are closely connected to the wider societal shifts impacting all organisations.

Culture change is not achieved through a single action or project – it is the culmination of all the different actions you take in an organisation and in my experience, positive culture change is something which happens over time.

The digital world is leading to different client expectations and different employee expectations so we are constantly looking for ways to enhance our client services and our employee experience.

A lot has happened to transform culture in the workplace?

Culture change is not achieved through a single action or project – it is the culmination of all the different actions you take in an organisation and in my experience, positive culture change is something which happens over time. a prescribed and fixed career path up the management chain was the norm, people are increasingly looking for more varied career development; ways to gain different skills and experience and future-proof their careers by being able to adapt to different opportunities which arise.

This means having a culture where people look ahead, think about what the future of work might look like for them, what they need to develop and how they can prepare themselves to be ready for it.

Change impacts on people that impacts culture whether intended or not.

Communication is always a key part of successful change in an organisation and I think we all take it for granted that there should be clear messaging from the top down.

What is our actual culture compared to our ‘desired’ culture?

Your actual culture as experienced by employees may be quite different from what leaders have intended and to understand what the culture is really like, deploy a blend of techniques in a comprehensive listening strategy.

Not only will you understand what’s really going on, but by providing employees voice and input they’ll start to feel ownership for the culture you are trying to create.

Examples

• Map each of the 5 employee lifecycle stages (candidacy, on-boarding, performing, growth, exit)
• Identify the current state of the employee experience at each stage, via a persona-based ‘walk through’, assessing how well each stage reflects your desired culture and employer brand from various perspectives
• Agree where touchpoints, processes and moments of truth can be re-designed to better match your desired culture
• Identify future state employee experience metrics and tools to close any gaps

How do employees to experience our culture at each stage of employee lifecycle?

What is our actual culture compared to our ‘desired’ culture?

Help employees to experience the desired culture by taking a design-led approach: You want your employees to experience your culture at each stage of the lifecycle and know that you care about their wellbeing?