When going back to the basics can revolutionize a workplace - care, concern & compassion @ Work
About The
Company
| SECTOR | Luxury Automobiles |
|---|---|
| SCALE | 10000+ Employees |
| GEOGRAPHY | India |
| DURATION | 12-18 months |
The
Challenge
This client is a gold standard in the competitive Luxury cars segment of the Automobile Industry in India. We were already actively working with the General Managers – Top Leadership Minus-1-Tier on their Future Leaders program when COVID struck.
The COVID-19 times brought not only a lot of confusion and concerns to life, as to the Business world, and many were confused on the protocol, anxiety to get back to business/work and livelihoods.
This organization soon restarted manufacturing as it was permitted and slowly re-started the sales & other functions. In execution, it appears many felt compelled to return to office while putting their families at risk. If they got COVID, they received calls demanding the contact list chain to avoid bringing COVID back to work. In hindsight, many interactions could have been better managed
They had a Townhall where there were huge protests by employees across, much disgruntlement and dissatisfaction with unempathetic treatment and a final precipitation for a breakdown when the organization chose COVID times to announce an ill-timed re-organization of the Job levels and structure that removed key positions from the hierarchy to make the organization a 3-Tier flatter structure in line with Global Standards….
The
Approach
Diagnose
Design
Deploy
Sustain
The
Approach
Diagnose
The Capstone Team came in immediately to begin their proprietary Discovery process across levels to understand the context using proprietary Tools & framework.
We would use this phase to understand the Leadership intention, the Mid-management execution and the Junior management uproar & pushback, so we could enable a meaningful solution early so as to not lose morale & enable healing of Key Relationships.
The
Approach
Design
The design included
- Top Leadership Conversations one-on-one
- Top Leadership Joint Intervention on the type of Leadership most needed at this time & how we would build back morale for contribution.
- COVID times must involve Sympathy, Empathy, and Compassion from Leaders and how we were going to build back Relationships & Trust and not create Talent risks, accept mistakes and do some quick recoveries on various fronts.
The
Approach
Deploy
- Execution involved intense Top Leadership Workshop.
- Delivering Mid & Other Managers Workshop for ‘Managing Communication and Engagement in difficult times.’
- Employees were involved in many communication exercises to provide Senior Leadership an opportunity to speak/ explain/ offer the support needed
- The Restructuring and Job Evaluation agency needed to be brought back to revisit the recommendations and work on this exercise with due consideration & fairness besides creating a communication package for Department Heads rather than making an abrupt announcement
- The conversation on managing Change, demonstrating shifts from Brick & Mortar thinking and creating an important readiness to manage Employee Relationships of Respect, enabling a Culture of Contribution & Inclusion and managing morale and Culture of High Performance that are sustainable needed to constitute the next wave of preparedness for times of Change & Disruption
- Immediately, the Communication to win back Employee Trust was the new imperative
- Communication was key, and the Townhall was also repeated with much care and carefully crafted communication
- Lifting Morale back is a tough proposition, but we began building back slowly but with uprightness and Trust
- The repeat Townhall was a great success with key announcement to begin winning back Trust and morale to contribute.
The
Approach
Sustain
- This phase required keeping up with the Leadership Learning
- Supporting Immediate Managers to remain engaged and compassionate
- Coaching for Key Leaders continued
- Updating and changing some key processes, and communication was key in this phase to enable the Trust to build back through open communication and platforms.
- Support to Employees’ families helped further during this difficult time.
Faculty
Review
