Business reorganization: what about hidden costs?

In every business reorganization, the impacts on the teams that remain are often underestimated. However, it is the central issue if the company wants to benefit as quickly as possible from the expected fruits of the reorganization.

Why don't business reorganizations achieve all the expected benefits?

Why, according to CEB, 22% of the unrealized benefits of transformations are linked to HR issues? Why, again according to CEB, only 28% of top performers will remain so after a year of transformation? Yes, teams are not agile enough, yes they have to adapt more quickly, but I suggest that we look at the mechanics that are at play in a transformation.In times of transformation, managerial decisions are dictated by organizational constraints and not by the qualities and skills of employees.The particularity of a company reorganization is that it corresponds to a period of singular management. Indeed, decisions in periods of reorganization are dictated mainly by organizational constraints and decided by central management bodies. Conversely, in a period of stable management, decisions are taken by local management based on the qualities and achievements of each employee.

What does research in Quality of Life at Work tell us about recognition?

Research on mental health in the workplace has shown that recognition is the most powerful lever for:

• Stress resistance,
• The increase in engagement,
• The increase in innovation and agility.

But what exactly is recognition? Recognition corresponds to acts of valorization of one or more actions of an employee. In the world of work, these actions range from good morning to compensation. How is recognition structured?

• Recognition of the individual: recognition of their qualities, skills and identity.
• Recognition of work: recognition of the actions of his work (his personal investment and the work done).
• Recognition of performance: recognition of the performance achieved.

Why is Recognition absolutely key when it comes to business reorganization?

Reading the axes of recognition, it is easy to understand that all are negatively impacted:

• Recognition of the individual: an arbitrary decision that has no real connection with each employee is a strong act of non-recognition.
• Recognition of work: the change of organization will generate a major difficulty in carrying out satisfactory and controlled work, that is why there is the change management training.
• Recognition of performance: setting goals is necessarily approximate in view of the lack of perspective on the new context.

It is therefore essential to recreate commitment quickly so that employees develop agility and innovation in order to adapt as quickly as possible to the new organization and reduce the impacts of reorganization. However, the links between managers and teams are relaxed and even need to be created in some cases. It is therefore imperative that managers rebuild team spirit and employee loyalty as quickly as possible. The most effective and simple way is to get them to focus on the issue of recognition without questioning their managerial practices in a period where the workload is, by definition, very high.

How to help managers take advantage of it without structurally changing their management?

QualiSocial provides a personalized service for the well-being and mental health at work of each employee. With its services, QualiSocial provides its client companies with accurate and up-to-date analyses for the management of their human capital and their performance, especially in transition periods. When we identify teams in difficulty, we can suggest that managers set up ZestMeUp and develop recognition practices within the team.ZestMeUp is a tool that allows the deployment of recognition practices in a simple way and without investment by the manager on the subject. Indeed, the manager of the target team communicates the registration link to his team. Its collaborators download the application and can express (anonymously or not):

• Their mood during the week (recognition of the individual)
• Feedback to colleagues or managers (recognition of work)
• Propose ideas for adapting to the new context (agility and innovation)

The manager can thus simply use the dashboards to link his actions with the status and feedback of his teams. In this way, he can simply recreate a team spirit more quickly and makes sure to take into account the experiences of each employee (assisted by HR teams). Without making it the main subject, ZestMeUp is a concrete application of “employee experience” strategies that refocuses the HR organization and processes on the employee's situation to ensure maximum involvement and therefore contribute to company performance.