Change management approaches

As I mentioned over the last few weeks I have been through some training in PRINCE2 project management and change management, provided by a local vendor Project Laneways (a bit of plug they are highly recommended and say I sent you), the end result I am a PRINCE2 Practitioner and certified in the Principles of Change Management through the APMG.

As part of the change management course we covered several different approaches to managing change, predominantly based around the book Making Sense of Change Management. The approaches ranged from general ideas, to more detailed frameworks but none really provided a full change management methodology. Which is both good and bad. Good as it allows students to pick and choose the best method of managing change, but bad as there is no detailed process for managing change as with PRINCE2.

Some of the approaches we covered were:

  • Lewin; Three step model
  • Bullock and Batten; Planned change
  • Kotter; Eight steps
  • Cameron and Green; based on Kotter
  • Beckhard and Harris; Change formula
  • McKinsey; Seven S model
  • William Bridges; Managing the transition
  • Senge; Systemic model
  • Stacey and Shaw; Complex responsive processes

The best in my mind are really a combination of Lewin, Bridges, Kotter and McKinsey.

Need to learn about web 2.0, come to university

If you are in Australia, and interested in learning about Web 2.0 then you should get yourself to Sydney on September 23 and attend the Web 2.0 University being run as a extra session at Web Direction South. The Web 2.0 Executive Bootcamp session is being co-hosted by Jeff Kelly & Stephen Collins and is priced at an amazing AUD$450 conference attendees / AUD$550 standalone compared to the regular US$895.

What will you learn?

  • Exploration of the latest ideas, business models, trends, and techniques behind Web 2.0
  • Review of proven, actionable methods for creating new online products and service
  • Step-by-step strategies for using Web 2.0 techniques
  • Review of the 7 major patterns of Web 2.0 applications
  • The structure and business models of Web 2.0

All in all a great offering.

Change management and technology implementation

For many years I have felt that change management has been one of the most underrated and overlooked component during technology implementation. (For the IT folks out there I am NOT talking about change control I am taking about the people and organisation aspects.) I have been involved in change management from several perspectives and as part of my consulting now offer services are change management. Given this I felt I should probably get some formal training, over the last few days I have been completing the APMG’s course in Change Management.

As a bit of background there is significant research out there to back up the position that if you don’t have change management your technology project will more than likely fail. Some of the more recent studies are:

  • A 2002 McKinsey study found that ROI of projects was 143% when change management was used and only 35% when it was not.
  • “Projects with excellent change management programs met or exceeded objectives 88% of the time, while projects with poor change management met or exceeded objectives only 17% of the time,” stated Tim Creasey, Prosci’s Director of Research and Development and co-editor of the 2007 report “Best Practices in Change Management”
  • Kotter found that only 15% of organisations making transformation succeed.

Watch for more posts in the coming weeks on change management.

Good the bad and the ugly or is it a storm in a tea cup?

About 2 hours ago Twitter announced they were stopping their SMS notification service outside of the US, Canada, UK and India as it was costing them too much money. Now I completely understand a business needs to make money and the a free service cannot last forever but the way this change has been implemented is poor customer service. (See GetSatisfaction for a feeling on the change from their users.)

The announcement is effective immediately, not tomorrow, next week or next month, NOW! A bit like when they limited SMS notifications to 250/week with no notice. I guess we could say at least they told us this time.

Twitter had a perfect opportunity to provide premium services to customers willing to pay! For a company with no business model so far this might have been a good starting point for revenue generation.

I guess time will tell if the decision impact usage of the tool.

Is the IT Sector softening?

I have been interested over the last few weeks to see the varying discussions that Australia is or is not in a recession at the moment. While the jobless figures overall are not too bad at 4.3% for July 2008 (according to the ABS), there are reports of the RBA easing interest rates due to concerns on the health of the economy. The Seek Employment Index has a 27% drop in job ads in the last 12 months.

So it was with some amusement I saw the following three articles on the Australian IT site.

Firstly from 23rd July about increases in skilled migrants entering Australia to help with our “deeping skills crisis”.

The second has NAB offshoring about 2,600 jobs over the next few months as part of a $1 billion technology restructuring program.

Finally yesterday we have an article announcing more falls in the job vacancy rates, with a fall of over 17% in the last six months.

So I have to wonder what is going on? I think I know. Yes vacancies are falling, yes people are cutting jobs and yes there is a skills crisis. The issue seems to be that many of our corporate IT workers just don’t have the right skills for the new work required.

Thoughts?

Recruiting or Branding failure?

I read a article (thanks Plugger) about how the Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment need to recruit over 500 firefighters for the coming season. So I clicked on the link to read to full story and read a good story about their recruiting needs.

Mr Rash said the love of the bush and the opportunity to develop skills which people could take back to the community were key benefits for PFF recruits.

“PFFs gain valuable experience and development which they can use later, whether this be on farms, in helping their neighbours and community, or with the CFA,” he said.

Successful applicants must hold a current manual driver licence and pass a fitness and medical test to ensure they can cope with the physically demanding work.

“Successful applicants will be well trained and skilled to be able to work as part of a team, which is critical for working at fires,” Mr Rash said.

Most PFFs work from November and December until the end of March.

Close to the end of the article I got really excited:

DSE’s web-based, e-recruitment system, which helped to streamline the application process last year, will be used again this season.

Interested applicants can access information, find answers to the most commonly asked questions and submit their applications in one place by visiting http://www.dse.vic.gov.au/fires.

Access to the online recruitment system will be available when applications open this Saturday.

Applications close on Sunday 7 September.

So I went to www.dse.vic.gov.au/fires to check it out, I was disappointed very quickly.

Some ideas on what should they have done:

  • Revise the year old employment page to prepare for the mass recruitment drive to engage with a potential candidate.
  • DSE knows who they are targeting, David Rash the Gippsland Assistant Manager detailed it in the article, so make sure the page appeals to the right audience and states up front the type of person they are looking for.
  • There was no respect for the candidate’s time. If someone bothers to check your page out at least provide them with the necessary information so they can make an informed decision on if they want to work for you. While applications have not opened they could of at least told visitors when they open, on Saturday 16th, in 4 days, what about providing an email reminder facility so I know when to come back.
  • The video a good touch, if it worked. But why not put it on YouTube, then just embed in the page. Now before you scoff this the CFA has their own YouTube Channel! This also doesn’t forcing users to go download QuickTime, and probably never come back.
  • The page provides very little information on what is expected of applicants, how often will them have to work, the article tells us November to March, so why doesn’t the web page?
  • Given they need 500 firefighters in 2 months this is also a great opportunity to engage other methods, such as social networks and social media, for attraction. This is suitable as they are looking for young fit people to participate during the Christmas period so targeting university students is a perfect approach. By the way the CFA already has a FaceBook group with lots of members.

A case of a poorly executed recruiting campaign.

Jobs on the go

Over the last couple of weeks I have been pondering the impact of the mobile web on recruitment. As such I have been thinking through several possible use cases but at this stage I have not found the killer app.

We have already seen several companies trying to use SMS notifications for job adverts and shift notifications but let’s take it a step further.

Using your mobile phone to search the average job board for a new offering is probably not going to be the killer app in this area. Other areas:

  • Branding, branding, branding
  • Mobile friendly pages
  • SMS notifications of new jobs posted that match your requirements, this would allow you to be first to view the job
  • SMS notifications from your ATS reminding candidates of job interview times and maps, might even include links to transport sites etc anything to help the candidate get to the interview on time
  • SMS notifications from your ATS reminding recruiters and/or managers of interviews or if a hard to fill position has an application (doubtful application but you never know)
  • Using QR Codes to provide additional content at job fairs
  • Placing QR Code stickers around job fairs or University campus’s to generate a buzz for your brand, of course you will have a mobile friendly landing page, maybe even use a .mobi domain

In case you don’t know what a QR Code is, from Wikipeidia:

QR Codes storing addresses and URLs may appear in magazines, on signs, buses, business cards or just about any object that a user might need information about. A user having a camera phone equipped with the correct reader software can scan the image of the QR Code causing the phone’s browser to launch and redirect to the programmed URL. This act of linking from physical world objects is known as a hardlink or physical world hyperlinks.

Here is one that directs you to Inspecht:

qrcode

Update: There has been a bit of a further uptake in Australia on QR Codes with an article in the IT Australian today.

Job referral survey

At the beginning of last month I ran a short survey to find out how job referrals where being used within Australia. The results are now available for download.

So what did the survey say?

Well in summary it confirmed several facts. First, referrals are big business with 87% of respondents being referred a job and over 85% having referred a job. But not all referrals result in a job placement with 40% of respondents finding their current jobs via a non-recruiter referral. The final interesting piece of the survey was that the biggest barrier to referring someone a job was the risk to their reputation if the person did not work out.