CHANGE MANAGEMENT

 

 

 

 

 

Change Management

Student’s Name:

Instructor’s Name:

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CHANGE MANAGEMENT

Section 1

With the current business changes, change management has become a useful business model for organizational success. The most recent is the changes brought about by COVID-19.  In this section, I will consider the Royal Bank of Canada as my corporation of interest. According to (8 Ways COVID Will Transform the economics and Disrupt Every Business, 2020), the Royal Bank of Canada transferred its office-based model to a home-based model to accommodate and retain employees’ talent and promote productivity a result of Covid-19.

1. That type of change can be classified as a physical move. The natural force of Covid-19 influenced the difference that the bank’s management could not avoid. The main drive here was that the bank took its efforts to ensure its employees acquire tools and technologies to help them work efficiently from home.
2. The positive effect this change might bring to the office is to foster the bank’s technological advancement. For instance, employers may develop webinar meetings with their employees to cut costs on face-to-face meetings. Also, the use of the internet by the employees may promote instant messaging, that takes over, for the employees working from home the act of stretching over desks to ask their colleague quick questions (The Workplace Revolution – a picture of flexible working – Magazine Canada, 2020)
3. The change might trigger the resistance of technical shortcomings. For example, the need for instant communications between the employers and the employees might be limited due to weak and slow internet.
4. Organizational readiness is like change agility with the following levels(Change Readiness, 2020):
5. Cultural readiness- this is the extent of orderliness between organizational norms and the expected change.
6. Commitment readiness is the extent to which an organization can resolve its leadership and focus the leaders into attaining the business’s success through a sustainable objective.

• Capacity readiness is the extent to which an organization can mobilize supportive and adequate resources, knowledge, skills, and employee ability to lead to a successful implementation of a proposed change.

Section 2

1. The Alberta Human Rights Act protects any individual at the workplace from discrimination in all employment process views. The major employment processes covered by the Alberta Human Rights Act include assignments, recruitment, promotions, and termination of employment contracts. Under these employment processes, the following are the protected grounds according to the provisions of the Alberta Human Rights Act; place of origin, religion, gender, color, race, age, physical disability, mental disability, source of income, family status, marital status, ancestry, sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression(Rights and Responsibilities, 2020).

However, it is the primary role of organizational employers to take charge of the Alberta Human Rights Act on the protected grounds of workplace discrimination. That includes creating a free environment for the employees to work without cases of discrimination. The employees are also obliged to safeguard all the employee needs by ensuring open cooperation between employees and employers and themselves.

For example, the act requires the employees to keep discriminatory data by recording all harassment complaints or discrimination in the workplace. They are also obliged to forwarding the records of witnesses upon complaint proceedings at the Alberta Human Rights Commission.

1. There are several advantages that a Human Resource practitioner can meet by implementing a non-discrimination perspective. That may cut across productivity, workplace trust, employee turnover, and employee availability/flexibility at work. Here are two such advantages:
2. Employees will feel motivated at the workplace as they will be stress-free to focus on developing their professional reputations to satisfy the organization and its clients.
3. Employees will increase their capacity to collaborate and cooperate due to the harmonious working environment since they are assured of respectful relationships (Benefits, 2020).

Section 3

The need for executional excellence drove the royal bank of Canada during this Covid-19 pandemic.

1. (Four-step formula towards Strategy Execution success, 2020) gives us the four-step recipe to help integrate the change.
2. Research- RBC should conduct immense research to identify itself with the potential risks of working from home. That will help it reduce the gaps in the challenges that may limit the success of the business. For instance, it should know the potential risks exposed to its employees, such as trips, slips, and falls, or ensuring strong and faster internet.
3. Planning- RBC should translate the change into an effective working plan to meet the business objectives. Accordingly, the bank will frequently train and assign employees clear roles and responsibilities across working from home by considering the identified risks. Lastly, the business should appoint its auditors to give reports on business progress consequently.

• Implementation- While implementing the change, RBC should ensure that it clearly defines business progress, smoothly simulates the business objectives, and compares those simulations with the original business plans.

1. Evaluation- The business should establish a working environment that promotes its own working culture through open and transparent execution of the change. That may include straightforward suggestions, constant communications on business success and failures, and embracing accountability among the employees regarding trust, including wining together culture and losing together culture.
2. Alberta Human Rights Act’s section on “Discrimination and Covid-19” states, “employers and housing and service providers should ensure any actions they are taking concerning Covid-19 are consistent with the most recent advice from medical and public health officials, and are justified for health and safety reasons.” (COVID-19 and Human Rights, 2020).
3. To maintain employee working standards, I will observe the following positive behaviors;
4. Employees sharing personal and professional ideas in the virtual office.
5. Employees engaging in online multiplayer games/quizzes over the bank’s virtual office.

• Employees recognizing their fellows for given business success.

 

1. The significant resistance here is on the management of workers from their home places. I will minimize this resistance by enabling communication technology through a webinar to keep employees in touch through instant messages and webinar meetings.
2. I will use the following two metrics to support the implementation of the virtual office:
3. Technological metric- I will interact with the employees through video conferencing to boost the team spirit and morale. I will also create a team collaboration platform where the employees share their ideas on business progress. That will facilitate business project management.
4. Employee recognition- I will take employees out for lunch whenever possible or award them on the virtual platforms when all the stakeholders are together, send them gifts during birthday parties.

Section 4

Virtual employee performance management is a very challenging task, more so, for the fresh virtual offices. The virtual workplace’s difficulty is that those who are decongested in various locations have different cultures and backgrounds. Royal Bank of Canada, with its case scenario, is not left out. It has taken a step to transfer its physical office to the virtual workplace to help contain Covid-19. Hence, I will establish a performance appraisal system for the bank’s virtual teams.

For instance, during May, after the emergence of Covid-19, RBC launched a three-phase appraisal to help manage the London interns (Horton, E, 2020). The phases included;

1. Immense kick-off and introductions among the interns.
2. Technical training schemes

• Virtual office experience.

Therefore, I would borrow the same appraisal management strategies for the interns to help the bank incorporate the virtual workplace. I will apply the three phases accordingly to help employees catch up with the virtual workplace. In my first phase, I will introduce employees to the virtual workplace. During that time, I will ensure that the office culture kicks off in line with the bank’s objective. For instance, I plan to introduce all team members to each other and give them a chance to know each person and leadership their assigned roles.

In the second phase, I will subject team members to technical training schemes that will involve employees’ required to use platforms such as a webinar. Here, team members will link their credentials to the office database for individual employee work tracking. Also, employees will be trained on how to conduct research, how to submit reports, how to raise concerns, and how to attend video conferences.

The third phase shall partake observation of the employee virtual office experience regarding the training given. For instance, how safe and healthy are the employees while using the virtual office platforms as per the Alberta Human Rights Act.

Section 5

Royal Bank of Canada has ever been using digital communication to foster its communication channels to both the customers and the employees themselves (How RBC Is Using Video and Digital Advisory Tools to Bring Back Face-to-Face Interactions, 2020). In this case scenario, it will be of no sense to let employees get laid off because of its inability to facilitate adequate virtual communication with its employees. According to the Alberta Human Rights Act, the business must go on as usual, and communication must be transferred to the digital platform to help all employees meet their objectives.  The bank collaborated with Vidyo, a market leader in integrated digital video deals, to make digital communication a success. Hence, I plan to extend the Vidyo communication plan’s technical management to implement and apply to our employees’ expected communication flow.

Relatively, I plan to establish and train our employees on how to link their credentials to the Vidyo platform using the MyAdvisor platform. The advisor tool will help the employees to meet among themselves on various occasions to share ideas. Nevertheless, the tool will enable faster communication transmission of the virtual office in report submission, group meetings, and general staff meetings (How RBC Is Using Video and Digital Advisory Tools to Bring Back Face-to-Face Interactions, 2020).

I plan to use the Vidyo platform and the MyAdvisor tool to promote cost efficiency. Planning to launch a new communication pathway might lead the company to extra digital costs that I consider unnecessary. Hence, the bank will call for an extension of its communication line with the designers at Vidyo Company to link the platform with the MyAdvisor tool to benefit the virtual office.  On the other hand, accommodating every employee in the Vidyo communication plan will ensure that transferring information is open and transparent to avoid discrimination of the protected areas.

Section 6

Gantt Chart Representing Timeline for Implementation

 

 

Implementing the workplace area change from office-based to home-based shall follow the Gantt chart’s timeline above. The implementation timeline will kick off from 1^st November this year to 27^th February Next year. During the course, various processes shall be performed in given time limits to allow enough time for subsequent process-process assessment. The following is the layout of how the procedures will be conducted within the implementation period:

1^st November 2020 – 29^TH November 2020 (Research)

RBC shall conduct immense research using a designated research team to identify itself with the potential risks of working from home. That will help it reduce the gaps in the challenges that may limit the success of the business. For instance, it should know the potential risks exposed to its employees, such as trips, slips, and falls, or ensuring robust and faster internet.

2^nd December 2020 – 3^rd January 2021 (Planning)

RBC shall translate the change into an effective working plan to meet the business objectives with authority in charge. Accordingly, the bank will frequently train and assign employees clear roles and responsibilities across working from home by considering the identified risks. Lastly, the business should appoint its auditors to give reports on business progress consequently.

7^th January 2021 – 13^th January 2021 (Implementation)

During this period, RBC shall commission stakeholders to ensure that it has a clearly defined business progress, smoothly simulating the business objectives and ability to compare those simulations with the original business plans.

 

14^th January 2021 – 27^th January 2021 (Evaluation)

The business shall establish a follow-up team to oversee the bank’s working culture through open and transparent execution of the change. That may include straightforward suggestions, constant communications on business success and failures, and embracing accountability among the employees regarding trust, including wining together culture and losing together culture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reference

8 Ways COVID Will Transform the Economy and Disrupt Every Business. (2020). Retrieved 23

October 2020, from https://www.rbccm.com/en/insights/story.page?dcr=templatedata/article/insights/data/2020/05/8_ways_covid_will_transform_the_economy

The Workplace Revolution – a picture of flexible working – Magazine Canada. (2020). Retrieved

23 October 2020, from https://www.regus.ca/work-canada/en-ca/the-workplace-revolution/

Change Readiness. (2020). Retrieved 23 October 2020, from

https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/change-readiness-11126

Rights and Responsibilities. (2020). Retrieved 23 October 2020, from

https://www.albertahumanrights.ab.ca/employment/employee_info/Pages/employee_rights_and_responsibilities.aspx#:~:text=The%20Alberta%20Human%20Rights%20Act,source%20of%20income%2C%20and%20sexual

Benefits. (2020). Retrieved 23 October 2020, from

https://www.albertahumanrights.ab.ca/employment/employer_info/benefits_of_discrimination-free_workplace/Pages/benefits_of_discrimination-free_workplace.aspx

Four-step formula towards Strategy Execution success. (2020). Retrieved 24 October 2020, from

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/four-step-formula-towards-strategy-execution-success-al-abbadi

COVID-19 and Human Rights. (2020). Retrieved 24 October 2020, from

https://www.albertahumanrights.ab.ca/employment/Pages/covid19.aspx

Horton, E. (2020). Royal Bank of Canada shifts London internships online. Retrieved 24 October

2020, from https://www.fnlondon.com/articles/royal-bank-of-canada-shifts-london-internships-online-20200512

How RBC Is Using Video and Digital Advisory Tools to Bring Back Face-to-Face Interactions.

(2020). Retrieved 24 October 2020, from https://netfinance.wbresearch.com/rbc-video-digital-advisory-tools-face-to-face-interactions-ty-u