NOTÍCIAS

Rúben Sousa, Director of People and Wellbeing at Group Centrocar in Portugal, Spain, Angola and Mozambique, has participated, throughout his life, in several change processes within organizations. Of all the organizational transformation processes in which he was involved, the most challenging took place in 2020, when in the middle of the pandemic, it was necessary to replace the Market Director of the company CENTROCAR in Mozambique. During this period, it was necessary to face the need to replace the company’s leadership remotely and it was not possible to meet the candidates selected by the recruitment company. At the same time, there was a need to remotely manage the emotions, concerns and normal anxiety of employees throughout the process, so as not to lose human capital, which in the sector is especially difficult to generate, as it is a niche business and there are not many qualified professionals.

After making a decision that did not prove to be the best, the group chose to internally promote the company’s then Financial Director who became a key player in Change Management. With the new leadership, they changed some principles of the Human Resources Management Policy, privileging the “household silver” and identifying national staff with potential, who are now assuming responsibility roles in the company.

Rúben Sousa believes that due to the pandemic scenario, the impossibility of traveling, the scarcity of qualified human resources typical of the sector, the risk of turnover and consequent loss of human capital, this process was the most challenging, but also the most interesting, allowing a lot of learning.

Ensure Change Management with different stakeholders

In a Change Management process, Rúben Sousa considers that to guarantee the buy-in of everyone involved, no matter how diverse they may be, the solution lies in communicating regularly with people and reporting the strategy to them. It is also important to ensure that everyone is united and aligned. For success in change processes, it is essential that:

• Communication is clear and regular between everyone
• There is alignment between everyone regarding the strategy to be followed
• There is team spirit
• Everyone is committed

Another essential solution to ensure effective communication in change processes is fluid communication, which is recurring and which considers all quadrants of the organization. Everyone must know what their contribution is to achieve the defined objectives.

Metrics to evaluate the success of Change

Rúben Sousa considers that there are two groups of metrics to evaluate the success of these processes:

1. Metrics that allow us to measure business performance:

• • Speed ​​of execution of defined actions
  • ROI, ROE
  • Sales volume, net profit
  • Other KPIs for management control

2. Metrics that allow measuring the level of employee engagement in the face of new leadership:

• • Level of employee satisfaction (through Organizational Climate surveys)
  • Turnover rate
  • Employee feedback

Recommendations for organizations that have not yet seen Change Management as a priority

Rúben Sousa, Director of People and Wellbeing at Group Centrocar considers that “Change Management is something that should be seen as the new normal for organizations, especially after the paradigm shift that the pandemic brought. With this new normal, only the most agile organizations will be able to anticipate new trends and develop new models for the challenges that arise.” Rúben Sousa also says that for companies that want to start seriously addressing this issue of Change Management, they should resort to:

• Brainstorming sessions (with a specific committee created)
• Study benchmarking of other companies that have already gone through similar processes
• Use specialized strategic consultancy

For Rúben Sousa, “the wheel has already been invented and today we have access to a set of unlimited resources that can help us shorten the learning curve and, therefore, save a lot of time and money”.