A human resources (HR) expert talked about policy changes.
Businesses face changes on a daily basis, and these can be anything from “small policy changes” to the bigger change “like having new CEOs” reported HRD Singapore. Eugene Lam, regional HR director at Kimberly-Clark, and former employee at HP Inc, said that “at the end of the day, it’s honest, not positive, messaging that drives trust”.
Lam stated that there are “three major steps that companies need to [take]” to make effective changes within the company, and he listed these as; “strategy creation, implementation and planning and communication”. He added that in order for the message to influence, it has to get to “the right people at the right time in the right way”, and to realise that balance the CEOs need to be approached first.
At this stage of the strategy, the employees do not have to be involved, said Lam, adding that “in my experience, you need to get the frontline managers because they can be your ‘mouthpiece’, your influencers”. By generating an “open decision framework” with CEOs when discussing the need for change, expectations can be managed, and those who are against the changes can be engaged, Lam also suggesting that it was good policy to “invite diverse perspectives and ideas”.
When talking about the changes, Lam commented that the type of audience and the time allowed for the discussion should be assessed, so that the message can be put across clearly, and that to make a case for change a picture should be painted of the future. You need to “be really clear on what your message is and be prepared to answer the hot questions”, Lam said, and “cited his time at HP where the company needed to merge the PC and printer businesses in order to cut costs.
“We were very clear about why we needed to do the integration. We were very open about how the process was going to happen and the criteria for selection. I don’t think there was anybody up in arms, and another thing we learned is to never assume that when two people are competing for the same position [it] doesn’t mean they both want it. One of them might actually prefer taking the package”.