Hire agents of change
Sure, you communicate to everyone and try to get all of your employees on board but not everyone will respond the same way. When you’re driving big changes through an organization, not all employees will survive the shift.
“No. 1, not everybody’s going to make it through that change,” Bish says. “There’s going to be some people that simply aren’t capable of it and don’t have the strength or the experience or the talent to function in the new culture. They’re either going to be terminated or they’re going to quit.
“In addition to that, there are going to be people that certainly could adapt and contribute, but, for whatever reason, they don’t really want to. They’re also probably going to leave you, and usually that’s because they feel more comfortable in a different kind of culture.”
Identify the feet-draggers as soon as you can. Usually, it’s apparent early on who’s adjusting to the change and who’s bucking it.
“Either they’re adapting to it and buying in to it and enthusiastically dealing with the change and modifying their behavior in their day-to-day work or they’re not,” Bish says. “Either they’re doing it in a productive manner or they’re slow to adapt, they’re voicing negativity, they’re coming in late, leaving early and all that.”
When you acknowledge not everyone can make it — or should — you’ll be better prepared to manage the shifting work force.
“You have to recognize that you’re probably going to experience a higher than normal level of turnover in the employee base as you go through this change,” Bish says. “Certainly, you don’t want the wheels to fall off the car as you drive forward and make these changes, and you’ve got to be sensitive to that. But at the same time, you have to be realistic and recognize that … not everybody is capable or wants to make that kind of a change.”
The sooner you accept that, the more quickly you can focus on hiring change-savvy staff to replace those who leave.
When adding several experienced senior executives to the Kofax team, Bish learned the difference between staffing a static company and a changing one. Instead of plugging candidates into an existing strategy, he needed people who would help reinvent the company.
First, he looked for backgrounds that involved organizational change.
“You have to look at their resume or their career, their experience grid and what they’ve been through at previous jobs,” Bish says. “Does that give them the kind of experience that will be valuable in them relying upon as they come into the company and help you effect all this change or not? And secondly, and probably even more important, is: Are they comfortable with effecting significant change in a company?”
Of course, you can ask those questions in the interview. But for an even more accurate picture, conduct heavy reference checks. Because Bish had contacts in the marketplace before he came on board, he used his network to find extra resources.
“Attempt to talk to not only references that they provide but also some people that they haven’t referred you to,” he says. “You can — maybe through networks and other people that you know — find your way to a more open, honest and candid opinion of their abilities and their experience.”
If you want candidates to be honest with you, be honest with them. There’s probably uncertainty in a changing company, and there are certainly challenges. Be up front about those during the interview.
“You need to be completely honest with them about the state of the company, the challenges it’s facing, some of the strengths that it has and also the changes that need to be implemented,” Bish says. “Go through that in detail so that they know what they’re coming into. They know where they’re going to have to focus their efforts. They know where some of the challenges are going to be, so they come into the company very well-positioned to hit the ground running.”
