Top 3 Tools For HR Managers In An Organisational Restructure

Having the right people, to do the right things, at the right time, has never been more important (or more challenging). Even under normal circumstances finding the right balance requires careful planning and execution, but what happens when the future is so uncertain that by the time you put one set of changes in place, you need to change things again? The speed and agility with which your business navigates any organisational restructure now, will have a direct impact on your ability to survive and thrive going forward. Which tools does your organisation need to ensure that your business is agile enough to restructure effectively (no matter how many times you have to do so)? In this week's HR Blog we explore how you can find efficiencies through HR automation to make every structural change within your organisation a success.

HR Professionals everywhere are being called on to champion the ongoing transformation of business and work. To do this well, requires the kind of real time decision making and on the fly changes rarely seen before. Organisational change used to be a process with a beginning, a midpoint and the end was reached when the goals have been achieved. Under current (and future) circumstances, this approach will have to be replaced by a continuous organisational restructure and (re)development approach built on the following foundations:

1. Communication with stakeholders.

2. Managing employee productivity.

3. Retaining critical employees.

4. Managing costs including payroll, employee records and compliance obligations.

Let's face it, change is difficult. Even in the best environment the propensity for failure tends towards the high end of the equation. In a survey of nearly 3,000 executives about the success of their enterprise transformation efforts, McKinsey found the failure rate to be higher than 60%. Current circumstances make organisational change even more complex and the margin for error potentially even higher. The reality is that most businesses have no choice right now but to review both their short-term and long-term strategies. That potentially means a short-term restructure to ride out current circumstances, followed by a a longer term restructure as the dust clears and you get a clearer picture of the best way forward.

In some ways, deciding which changes to make is the easy part. Implementing those changes is much harder. Doing so in a manner that is fast, efficient and as non-disruptive as possible raises the stakes yet again. Before we dive into how #HRtech can help you manage an organisational restructure, here are 6 tips to help make the journey easier:

1. Communicate ‘why’ as well as ‘what’.

2. Give your leadership and management teams the support and skills they need to succeed.

3. Shape your future culture.

4. Prepare your people for difficult decisions.

5. Keep the right people.

6. Celebrate your success and say goodbye in a way that builds instead of burning bridges.

So, which #HRtech tools are going to provide HR Professionals (and business overall) the best bang for your organisational restructure buck? Is your leadership team is calling on you to make tough decisions about which employees will give you the leanest mix of the right people, to do the right things, at the right time? There are certain tools that can provide the data that leadership needs to need to make informed decisions about the best way forward.

Based on what we've seen and heard from our customers, here are the top three #HRtech tools you can use to manage your organisational restructure if that's what you need to do.

Remuneration Modelling For A Right Fit Workforce

When things get tough, money counts. Which is not to say that money doesn't always count, because it does. However, managing costs and retaining the talent you need to get the job done right now can feel like a little bit like walking a tightrope. It isn't as simple as reducing the size of your workforce, because doing so requires the payout of entitlements, which can be extremely costly when cashflow is tight. It is essential to find the best way to preserve as much working capital as possible, whilst at the same time, retaining the right people to be able to do the right thing at the right time.

So how do you figure out the best mix of employees for your business? Looking at it through a purely fiscal lens, you need a tool than enables you to assess your organisation's obligations in each of the following contexts:

• Leave liability.

• Long service leave.

• Salary benchmarking.

• Salary restructuring.

• Recent salary & bonus increases (or decreases).

If you've been asked to model different remuneration options to find the best one for your organisation, Subscribe-HR's remuneration modelling tool has everything you need. We've included a range of functionality that makes it easier and faster for you to test different remuneration scenarios to create the best fit. Today, tomorrow and beyond.

Subscribe-HR’s Remuneration Modelling tool makes it easy for you to:

• View current salaries and provide reduced rates of pay based on downsizing.

• View long service leave and leave liability.

• General increases in salary: one off or % increase.

• Performance increase for salary and bonus.

• Reduce salary cost.

• Apply salary and bonus increases based on filters for departments, locations, performance scores.

• View information relating to when the people last had a salary increase or bonus.

• Manage performance increase pool amount and salary increase pool amount.

• Manage budget for departments based on budget total V spend.

• Send Remuneration Models for authorisation prior to creating new bonus amounts and salary increases.

• Apply new increases to all employee salaries automatically following authorisation of the Model.

• Ability to not update any salary or bonus records, just using the models for information analysis purposes.

• Manage compliance through auditing of remuneration model management and sign-off authorisation.

You can explore Subscribe-HR's remuneration modelling tool here.

The Performance Factor - Maintaining Engagement During Down, Up or Re-Sizing

If you're being called on to engineer a leaner workforce for your organisation how do you ensure that you keep the top performers - the ones who can drive your business transformation? Without accurate current and historical data at your fingertips, it can be difficult to get a clear read on which employees provide you with the best opportunity to navigate change with success.

The right performance management tool gives you the capacity to figure out quickly and easily which members of your team have the right skills, values and behaviours to get you over the hurdles you face, now and into the future.

But that isn't the only reason your business needs a performance management solution that meets your unique needs. When times are tough and everyone is under pressure, you need to make sure that you can communicate, recognise and reward your employees for their valuable work.

Letting people know they are valued in times when they might be asked to do a more varied role is critical to ongoing success. 77% of employees say that they would work harder if they were recognised for their work. Therefore, this approach can be a great motivation to inspire a leaner team to get on board and implement the changes faster. If your employees don’t feel empowered, the engagement level will drop and result in resistance to change.

Your performance management solution should enable you to make fast, intelligent decisions about which employees make the biggest contribution to your business and can help you execute the right strategy for right now. It should also provide functionality to communicate and manage the change you choose to implement. Finally, as already mentioned, it should also give you the capacity to provide feedback and recognition to your employees in the flow work.

A word of caution about implementing changes, especially in times of upheaval. In order to transition successfully, employers should be honest and transparent. Given that most people aren't comfortable with change, being transparent at every step of your organisational restructure helps build trust and connection with employees. This will translate into the type of engagement and commitment that enhances your culture and provides a solid foundation for continued success.

You can explore Subscribe-HR's performance management solution here.

Workforce Management In Uncharted Territory

If HR, Finance and leadership are working together remotely, how do you manage the implementation of your workforce reshaping exercise during an organisational restructure? It is critical to ensure that all decisions are translated into action as well as being recorded for compliance purposes (and to ensure a paper trail of all changes made). But don't forget - you don't just need to record changes in your HR system, you also need to ensure those changes are translated across your entire organisation, flowing seamlessly to all the other business systems you use. You don't want to have to update data in multiple systems. That's a waste of time, energy and money. Intelligent integration capabilities make it possible for data to flow seamlessly between your HR system, your finance systems and all the other associated solutions and applications in the digital ecosystem you use to 'make things work where you work.'

If you've been asked to reshape your workforce in times of change, we've created a range of functionality in our Workforce Management tool that makes it easier and faster for you to transform your workforce as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Subscribe-HR’s Workforce Planning and Restructure tool makes it easy for you to do all of the following from one easy to use central point:

• Create, update or change Jobs, Salary, Working Hours and Manager Status.

• Manage and process timesheets for salaried employees.

• View Timesheet information and standard hours information.

• Bulk assign new jobs or managers.

• Create new managers.

• Assign working hours etc.

• Enter absences.

• Quick search and filter for easy change management.

You can explore Subscribe-HR's workforce planning and restructure tool here.

The Added Bonus of Configuration Tools

More than anything, the technology you use should have the flexibility to bend to your will when your circumstances change (even if circumstances require your business to change often). Your HR software should enable you and your employees to configure the software to benefit all users easily and cost-effectively. Configurable software results in a simplification of the change management process for all parties. It also removes complexity and confusion from the implementation, integration and ongoing use of your business solutions. That's win-win-win.

We're continuously developing Widgets, Wizards, Permissions and APPS that make our Cloud HR software highly configurable for end-users.

You can explore Subscribe-HR's configuration tools here.

Now that we've covered the top 3 tools that can help HR managers successfully a navigate organisational restructure, let's turn our attention a more philosophical topic. If your organisation is undergoing an organisational restructure right now and you're looking for inspiration, we've got a White Paper that will help.