With orders to change
When Coor takes over responsibility for a customer’s service activities, there’s plenty to be done. In order to ensure that streamlining and development work gets off to a flying start, there is a special unit within Coor that has considerable experience of change work – the Change group. In simple terms, the Change group’s main objective is to support the contract organisation in streamlining its existing service activities and inspiring new employees.
“At Coor, it is primarily the managers who are expected to get involved in improvement work, although this also concerns employees. The change managers support the line organisation in taking the first step in the continuous development work that forms part of the contract,” says Karin Back, manager for Coor’s change management team, the Change group.
Karin’s background is as a management consultant and she has worked on work processes and organisational development. Karin has worked at Coor for two years now.
The Change group supports the contract organisation by formulating and implementing change programmes. New contracts are all about achieving sustainable results quickly. The main aim of change work is to bring about cost savings, while in more mature contracts the focus is on continuous development of work methods and processes – for example, improved feedback for the customer, shorter lead times or the coordination of services and functions.
Improvement work also includes an analysis of services procured from subcontractors. With a new contract, there is an analysis of the supplier agreements, which can result in Coor changing suppliers or improved agreements. In this, the Change group has excellent support from Coor’s own experts who work on service development and strategic purchasing.
The employees – an important cog in change work
There is often both expectation and uneasiness among personnel in connection with Coor commencing its change work. Employees who were previously employed by the customer are likely to experience the greatest change. The service activities they are involved in have been taken over by another company and their previous employer has now become an external customer. Understanding and being able to deal with employees’ feelings during the change process is an important part of successful change work.
“We work proactively by listening to employees and encouraging them to become involved in change work. Employees have the opportunity to have their say about their roles and work methods,” says Karin Back.
One of the most important phases of any project is the preparation, when the aim and objectives of the project are defined and established within the organisation.
“Before the project itself starts, we spend time with the contract managers preparing and establishing the change work within the actual organisation. Only when this is complete, do we go ahead and implement the project.”
