British Red Cross
The Client
The British Red Cross is a large UK charity with a substantial overseas One of the top UK charities international Non-Governmental Organisation.
The Challenge
The organisation, which had 3,500 UK based staff and more precisely 120 staff within their international division, with 30 staff based overseas.
The change that needed to come about was around in their international division:
SCOPE OF WORK: Defining and agree our scope and how to work flexibly with other related part of the organisation, mostly based overseas as well as through advisors whether thematically or geographically focussed.
WAYS OF WORKING: Reviewing and developing clear ways of working given our significant growth (including funding and field-based roles).
STAFF PLANNING: Improving and introducing better and more flexible workforce planning to improve our surge capacity and scalability (both up and down) and to promote opportunities for staff learning and development.
COMMUNICATION & DECISION-MAKING: Gaining greater clarity about how and where decisions are taken and communication.
RESPONSIBILITY, ACCOUNTABILITY AND AUTHORITY: Clarifying the levels of responsibility, accountability and authority across the international division.
The Solution
Hafton Consultancy worked as part of the project team to bring particular expertise in managing change and in engaging staff with the change. This including developing a comprehensive staff engagement plan.
Hafton Consultancy worked with the International Director and the Head of International HR together with a small project team.
The initiative included:
- A baseline survey (as a means of measuring the impact)
- Setting up focus groups to input and solve specific aspects of the change process
- Fortnightly updates (working with the communications team)
- Creating a confidential email address for feedback
- One-on-one and group interviews with key staff
Hafton helped plan the change through facilitiated discussions with the leadership, focus groups with the staff and managing the internal communications with the Head of HR.
The Outcome
- A better understanding of the rationale behind the change
- All staff engaged in at least one focus group
- Clarity about for all teams and staff about their key deliverables linking to the other UK based teams as well as the wider Federation.
- Move to a matrix model of working and new structure which supported a collaborative and less siloed way of working
Anna provided extremely valuable external consultancy support to the British Red Cross International Division Review in 2014, involving a comprehensive “fit for purpose” review of our international organisational structures and ways of working. Anna played a key role on the project team, providing independent advice and expertise on change management and, in particular, staff engagement. Anna facilitated the work stream on staff engagement which proved a critical part of the review process. The project benefited greatly from Anna’s excellent facilitation skills and, in particular, her insights on how to ensure effective engagement of staff during organisational change.