Consider impact of change on roles, teams and people

What do we mean by considering the impact of change on roles, teams and people?

The ability to practically implement structural change while adhering to employment regulations, considering such factors as employment contracts, discrimination and equality law, dismissal and termination requirements including fair practice and notice periods, data protection and consultation requirements.

Knowledge

• Knowledge of employment law and the wider legal framework as it applies to organisational change management.
• Knowledge of HR policies and processes.
• Knowledge of organisation development methodologies and models.
• Understanding of change management methodologies.
• Understanding of project management methodologies and tools.

Skills

Able to:

• Analyse organisational HR changes: To assess and document the impact on roles and people.
• Apply the law and relevant policies: Ensuring that policies and procedures are documented, reflect legal requirements, and are applied consistently and that compliance with employment law and wider legal requirements is maintained throughout including consultation obligations, notice periods etc.
• Ensure effective consultation: Designing consultation that is meaningful and timely with all affected employees, ensuring information about the reason for restructuring is clear, factual, and objective, and includes any alternatives that have been considered. Maintain any collective consultation commitments (e.g. union engagement) required.
• Define fair selection criteria: Working within the law and any local policies, establish fair and objective criteria for employee selection in the case of redundancies.
• Seek to mitigate adverse impacts wherever possible: Through offers of support, retraining, and assistance in finding alternative employment.
• Maintain accurate records: Ensuring that all communication is documented accurately and able to be understood of it needs to be referred to later.
• Manage risk: Involve stakeholders in mapping key risks associated with restructuring and seek to mitigate these through effective HR practice.
• Conduct a post restructuring review: To carry forward learning from all restructure initiatives into similar future initiatives.

Behaviours

Behaviours associated with organisational HR change require team members to be:

• Fair / objective
• Collaborative
• Empathetic
• Respectful
• Inclusive
• Solution focused
• Resilient
• Adaptable and pragmatic
• Able to act with integrity

A related HR maturity index has been created to enable councils to understand their current maturity and to set, and work towards, a target state. This can be downloaded below.