In his presentation, Tony began by observing that dealing with change in difficult times involves addressing both hearts and minds. A rational commitment to the company will cause people to put forth discretionary effort and be willing to make improvements, which are essential to turn a business around. However, it is also necessary to build an emotional commitment to the organisation so that people are motivated to stay in their post.

Tony identified seven key topics based on his experiences at BAE systems, Royal Mail and BA that need to be addressed to make this happen:-

1. Clarify your Vision for the business. Focus on core activities and make sure the reason why change is necessary is made clear.

2. Establish your Values and get buy in from the CEO down as part of a cascade process. Keep it simple and use 'new' or 'different' language to describe the values as a way of enhancing the psychological impact of the need for change. For example, BA now has five key values namely, I am proud to give more; I think customer; We win together; I make it happen; and I set standards that others aspire to.

3. Manage performance. Make sure that everyone has clear targets and use forced rankings to demand that managers rate their people honestly. This should focus people on the priorities but also be sure that any programme shares success with all those who get good results e.g. with appropriate bonus schemes. This means that all rewards are clearly linked to goal achievement and demonstrate the values.

4. Decide on a philosophy for running the business operations (e.g. Lean, EFQM) that makes it easier for people to do their jobs and involve people on the front line in its implementation.

5. Get some quick wins and celebrate those wins to get the momentum moving in the right direction. One important aspect of this is to change something that people in the business say will never be changed as this helps to dispel doubt and cynicism e.g by scraping an arcane job grading structure.

6. Consistently communicate what is going on in the business and make sure that leaders are visible to the workforce so that the leaders understand what it is like to be on the shop floor and employees feel connected to the executive team. For example, in Royal Mail, all managers have to work for two weeks each year in a Sorting Office.

7. Keep your promises as your credibility depends on the management team being willing to say and do the 'right thing' and actually being seen to deliver what it says it will deliver. For example, in Royal Mail one issue for employees was that maintenance spend was controlled centrally causing minor repairs (e.g. unblocking a toilet) to take many months to be processed so the leadership team promised and delivered local budget for repairs.

Tony McCarthy joined British Airways in December 2007 from Royal Mail, one of the UK’s biggest employers and where, as Group Director, People & Organisational Development, he was a key member of the senior management team leading the company’s successful turnaround. Prior to joining the Royal Mail, Tony spent almost 25 years with BAE Systems and held a range of top level HR roles, including the post of Group HR Director. Tony has a track record built on success and experience. He is chair of the Centre for Performance Led HR, a group of HR academics and top practitioners, and recently became vice president of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

The HR Transformation Network (HRTN) Community
The HR Transformation Network (HRTN) Community represents an open thought-leadership knowledge sharing and networking group that's based in the UK. The group meets on a quarterly basis with guest speakers, forum-themed discussion and provides a networking opportunity for those involved. The network comprises 315 members, of leading industry HR Directors. The network provides a regular meeting space for these practitioners to meet and discuss current HR issues.

For those outside of the UK though, there is the opportunity to keep abreast of these HR developments by joining the online community via the HRTN group on LinkedIn. Online contacts and themes as well as presentations are shared online.

The next proposed session will be on 30 November and will feature Ann Almeida, Group Head of Human Resoureces at HSBC Holdings UK who will discuss principle-based decision-making and commerciality.

If you are interested in joining the HRTN online community, please contact James Ballard, Director of Annapurna HR Limited at james@annapurnahr.com or join the group directly at LinkedIn.