Transforming the way UK public services are delivered is a key priority for this Government, in order to meet ambitious saving targets, support reforms and streamline services.
Yet, despite so much riding on the success of transformation and change programmes, research from the Harvard Business Review found that seven out of every 10 projects fail, representing a significant amount of wastage for both local authorities and outsourcing providers alike.
For any transformation programme to be effective, alongside technology and infrastructure modernisations, outsourcing partnerships need to foster a cultural shift which places people at its core. Even the most meticulously-planned project is likely to fail without the support of the people expected to deliver it, so getting everyone’s buy-in is crucial to success.
The first step is to appoint a team of motivated, capable leaders who not only have the traditional, managerial skills to lead complex reforms, but possess the softer skills, too. Human qualities such as empathy, understanding and patience are just as important, as bringing about change requires modifying the behaviour of people, as well as systems and processes.
Once the management team is in place, the next step is about effective engagement. Employees need to understand why the change is happening to get behind it, so the reasons should be communicated in simple language and across different channels. Get people involved in the success, by celebrating milestones and achievements.
Engaging and empowering employees from the start brings other benefits, too. When arvato TUPE-transferred 170 employees in our public-private partnership with Chesterfield Borough Council, we ran a ‘Have Your Say’ initiative. This helped to create a culture of goodwill and generated over 200 improvement ideas, allowing us to streamline our proposition, flag any potential issues upfront and more generally create a smoother transition.
Transformation is most successful when it’s involving employees and helping their personal development. Lean Six Sigma [LSS] training, which targets waste elimination and variability reduction, is one tried and tested methodology that focuses on the citizen and gives staff the tools they need to improve processes themselves. In our partnership with Slough Borough Council, arvato trained all 100 employees to White Belt standard, enabling 85 per cent of participants to make a positive change to the way they worked by removing inefficiencies.
It is only through true partnership – in which managers skilfully guide the change programme and employees consider themselves an active contributor to its success – that we’ll see the odds of failure flipped in reverse.