HRD Environment from HeadHunter Ukraine in Cooperation with PwC Academy: expert approaches to change management in businesses
24/05/17
The world in which we live experiences fast and constant change. Accelerated transition is a distinction of our times. Technology development, changes in the competitive environment and turbulence contribute to the state of the world that is often referred to as VUCA - volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. New challenges and developments arise from influences well beyond the control of any specific organisation. However, each organisation can win on more effective change management process.
"According to PwC survey, CEOs and leadership teams of international companies see rapid growth, cost control relevance, new technology implementation and competitive expansion in domestic markets among main change implementation drivers. Irrespective of a direction or scope of changes in any organisation, an industry or a size of a business, the eternal focus on people remains unchanged. As such, a key success factor of change implementation is an appropriate selection of change leaders"
On 26 April 2017, a HRD Wednesday business breakfast "Change Management as an Organisation's Competitive Advantage" was held for HR leaders. The event provider is HeadHunter Ukraine in cooperation with PwC Academy.
Over 70 HR leaders and experts met to discuss ever more relevant topic of change management in organisations. As part of HRD Wednesday, a master class "Change Management as an Organisation's Competitive Advantage" was led by Jan Uriga, Senior Manager at PwC Slovakia. Jan Uriga, an expert from the HC and Strategic Change Management Group in the Central and Eastern Europe region, shared his experience in implementing change management and behavioural transformation projects, delivered clear informative presentations, and summarised applicable business cases and case studies based on experience of European companies. In addition, HRD Wednesday participants were able to know Jan Uriga's opinion about an analysis of whether an organisation is ready for change, an effectiveness assessment methodology applied to change management projects and approaches to development of change leaders in organisations.
A key idea of the event was articulated at the beginning of the presentation: "Change management role is a must for modern HR". Jan Uriga drew audience's attention that changes were developing into a persistent feature of operations of numerous organisations in a highly competitive environment. However, over 70% of change implementation projects fail. Nine of ten main reasons of failure are associated with the human factor. A change implementation process is multidimensional and complex and has an impact on people.
According to Jan Uriga, different categories of personnel are distinguished in terms of their readiness and agility to change. Therefore, relevant HR tools can be applied in line with the classification: provision of information/facts, selling the idea of change and advantage, coaching, training, delegation of responsibilities, involvement in a decision-making process, psychological support, dealing with fear, etc. Leaders certainly play a key role in effective implementation of changes by using comprehensive HR management tools including generation of common ideas and delegation of a decision-making authority and responsibility to their team members. These approaches will help overcome staff reluctance and improve performance of employees. According to Jan Uriga, Senior Manager at PwC Slovakia, an influencing leader in the crisis environment is a leader-coach who cares about his staff, creates feeling of safety and connects and engages employees through shared values to deliver on results.
Following the master class, discussion of change management continued during the talk "Change management: a project or a cultural environment?" delivered by HR leaders of major companies: Natalia Lukash, head of HR Directorate, OTP Bank; Sofia Belenkova, head of Organisational Development Department, Lifecell; Ivan Syniakov, Director of Human Resources and Social Sphere Department, NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine; and Kateryna Hubareva, Global HR Director, Luxoft.
HR experts shared their experience implementing change within their companies, their views on the role of HR at the time of change and their life hacks for finding support and inspiration at the time of volatility and ongoing change.
The first speaker of the panel discussion was Natalia Lukash, head of HR Directorate, OTP Bank, who shared the challenges encountered by the bank over the recent years. Regulatory developments and various financial market factors changed the situation within the company, resulting in the need for business process transformation, headcount optimisation and implementation of cultural change. "Making life easier for each other" is the corporate success formula for OTP Bank that represents simplification of procedures to make life easier for staff and customers alike. Natalia Lukash shared her experience implementing the initiative "Say thank you!" that had received positive feedback from OTP Bank staff and improved interaction between business units and general climate and staff morale within the organisation. Natalia Lukash reiterated that when change is unavoidable and sometimes painful, it requires clear leadership from management, engagement of staff across all levels of organisation, flexibility and extensive use of communication tools. Moreover, during the period of active change, it is important to remember the role of human relationships and family values.
Sofia Belenkova, Head of Organisational Development Department, Lifecell, shared her experience of rapid change and transformation. Back in 2008, Lifecell established an organisational change management function. The focal point of the change process became the role of the leader, identifying and implementing agile, innovative approaches. The change within the company was driven by in-house experts and change management consultants. Telecom business is very dynamic in nature. Therefore, change management is Lifecell's organisational and cultural environment. Sofia Belenkova also shared how Lifecell measures readiness for change and implementation performance.
Ivan Syniakov, Director of Human Resources and Social Sphere Department, NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine, told us about the challenging reform journey of the state-owned company, implementation of the new staff recruitment and hiring approach, business process improvement, development of an efficient cross-functional interaction system, and transformation of the corporate culture . According to Ivan Syniakov, people within the organisation are the obvious key change owners. Success of the change programme relies on leadership and management engagement and effort. In recent years, the key change agents within Naftogaz of Ukraine were the professionals and experts that had joined the company driven by patriotism and the desire to bring on positive changes within both the country and the company. They have proactively initiated change, although the transformation process has been challenging, requiring continuous careful effort, implementing change one step at a time.
Kateryna Hubareva, Global HR Director, Luxoft, who leads the HR function across the company's 39 offices in 19 countries worldwide, shared her views on implementing change within a company operating globally. Kateryna Hubareva highlighted that the ability to adapt to the VUCA environment and the internal agility are the key characteristics of today's world. Operating in many countries worldwide, Luxoft needs to connect people across diverse cultures, traditions and approaches and to this end, actively focuses on training its employees in cross-cultural interaction. The company's leadership emphasise the critical role of shared values as a way to connect employees from various parts of the world and effective communications between various management layers and staff.
Larissa Onypko, head of HR Brand Award Ukraine, said, "Today we have discussed change management success stories. Effective implementation of changes within the organisation requires a change strategy focussing on leadership engagement, alignment of change with the organisational vision, transparent and open communication and developing key success factors. Successful implementation of change is often constricted by people rather than technology or methodologies. When people resist change, it is often about having to change themselves rather than about changes within the company. Each organisation can win on more effective change management process. Leading corporations are adopting change management as an organisational competency, viewing it as their competitive advantage.”
The meeting was thought-provoking, informative, practical and inspirational.
We thank our speakers for their expert speeches, professionalism and willingness to share their experience, for their love and commitment to the HR profession.
We would like to thank everybody who attended the event!
