How “Re-hiring” team members during organizational changes can drive engagent and prevent resignations
INTRODUCING MIKE AND KATE
Mike is a Sr Engineer in a large multinational company he’s been with for almost twenty years. He’s a strong and appreciated contributor and a key member of several high profile projects.
The company is going through yet another organizational change, multiple teams are re-defined and people are realigned to a new reporting structure.
Not the first time (or the last), but this time, for some reason, Mike is particularly annoyed by the change and is seriously considered to quit. He’s had enough. His underlying logic was that every organizational or internal job had a lot in common with a full company change.
In Mike’s mind, a comparable degree of uncertainty and confusion were part of the experience every time. All the tension, none of the excitement of a true change.
Also involved in the transition, Kate his new supervisor. Recently promoted to her first managerial role, in need of coaching support to understand how to retain and motivate Mike.
This case allowed us to reflect upon one extremely common “use case” for employees, especially in large organization: The re-org.
We have all been Mike at some point in our career, shifted from one team to another, with no immediate gain as a raise or a promotion. Many of us have also been Kate in our professional experience, somehow assigned a new team, perhaps along with a promotion but not necessarily, as decisions were made in committees we were not part of.
Kind of sucks, doesn’t it? But, does it HAVE to suck or is there a better way?
There is a better way. It’s amazing how neglected these super common situations are and yet how companies are fully equipped to solve this issue. Trust us, FULLY equipped.
RE-HIRING
Building on Mike’s analogy of being mobilized “Almost as if I was moved to a new company”, we started to talk with Kate about the idea of “Re-hiring” Mike.
The concept is that companies should put in place the same onboarding logic which is adopted when hiring a brilliant new candidate, each time there is an internal re organization. They need to “Re-Hire” the employees being redeployed.
Do you know the “flirty” feeling between you and your company as they trying to attract you and you are trying to be attractive?
In the hiring process, hopefully, both companies and candidates are giving their best to show their capabilities and their fit into the agreement. And when hiring is finalized…HONEYMOON BEGINS!
The onboarding process starts and usually the newcomers can expect to find these in the first couple of weeks.
- Logistics, everything that’s needed to perform your job
- Job description and expectations are fully explained
- Element of company strategy are usually shared for clarification purpose
- An on-boarding buddy, someone with more context information and show you around
- Free, unlimited access to the hiring manager
- A round of introduction conversations with al key stakeholders is organized
Onboarding has become a true dynamic capability of the best enterprises, it’s the topic of countless articles, a second nature, an undisputed must-do practice. Yet, the “Mikes” of the world, the loyal strong well-respected contributors, the foundational part of all departments, rarely meet this welcoming standards when moved laterally inside the structure.
Through a coaching process, equipped with this new perspective, Kate decided to organize a full onboarding experience for all new team members, with full support of the company’s more senior leaders as part of kick off event for the new organization.
Every team member in transition was effectively re-hired, following the same process as if they just joined the company including introductions, Q&A sessions, all of it.
Frameworks were available and ready to be used , but it took a different view angle to see their new potential. As team members felt progressively more comfortable with their new roles, they decided to enroll themselves as Re-hiring buddies to welcome the newcomers and, within a few weeks, the squad was up and running while feeling focused and connected at the same time.
THE LEARNING
The lesson to be learned here for us was that as new managers or as managers of a newly assembled team, it’s our core responsibility to “Re-hire” all members to provide the best possible experience, to start with the highest possible energy. We are the ones accountable to revamp those honeymoon vibes, with some coaching mindset and leveraging what’s already available in our tool-box!
More generically, constantly moving our point of view on problems often allows to see an untapped new use for tools and capabilities we, or the organization, have developed for different purposes giving them a new life with minimum incremental investments.
