Project Plan - Improving Communication

Context

The company I work for is part of a group of companies that produce consumer goods.

• I work for EC which has 205 employees in various locations including a production facility and warehouse, three retail stores, offices, and employees working remotely.

• MFA has three production locations with 175 employees

• BC has one production location with 22 employees

• PL has one production location with 80 employees

• The four companies recently moved from having individual Human Resources and Finance teams for each company to a shared services model where the finance and HR teams are consolidated and work on projects and tasks for all companies

• This is a recent change and wasn’t communicated as effectively as it could have been communicated.

Plan

A problem that has not been addressed since moving to the shared services model is that each company has a different communication platform for messaging. EC uses Slack while the other companies use Teams and Yammer (within Teams).  This means that employees on the shared services teams have two messaging platforms PLUS email, which is used by all companies.

To address this problem, I would move all companies onto the Teams platform for a streamlined communication process.

Stakeholders

• Owner of all the companies - usually stays out of decisions like this, unless it costs money.  Also, they don't use these direct messaging platforms, only phone, text, and email.

• Board member - Personally prefers Slack and email, admin of the communication platforms. Has influence with the owner.

• Group CEO - oversees all companies. Prefers Slack. Has influence with the owner and stakeholders in all companies.

• IT Team - would have to oversee the technical aspects of the change. They prefer a streamlined approach to communication.  

• All employees in the companies.  The EC team would have the toughest transition as they currently use Slack.  Some employees have influence on the Group CEO.

• Training team would be responsible for training on the new platform.  Head of the team has some influence with the Group CEO.

Participation

The employees most impacted by the change would be EC employees that move to Teams, the IT Team handling the implementation, and the training team responsible for preparing the team to use the new platform.  These teams could be involved before the implementation with interviews to learn about concerns so they can be addressed, along with training needs. There could also be employees from different job functions or departments that could test utilizing the new platform before full implementation.

Act & Observe

Implementation

The change would start with communication.  In an all-hands call, the proposed change would be communicated along with the benefits to the employees and to the company. This communication would also be put in all current communication channels asking for volunteers to test Teams messaging. Anyone that volunteers would attend a meeting to cover the basics of the platform, training resources, and the length of the test. Before testing the new platform, each volunteer would complete a survey about Slack to gather satisfaction with the platform and its features. The companies currently using Teams would also complete a satisfaction survey that also asked questions to gather feedback and training needs.  The volunteers will test the Teams platform for one month, and will fill out a weekly survey on their use and feedback. While the volunteers are testing the platform, the implementation team would review the survey from the companies already using Teams to create an outline for the full implementation and training. They would also review weekly surveys from the EC volunteers so they can address feedback and concerns in the implementation plan. At the end of the month, the implementation team would pull the volunteer testers together for a debrief of the test. In addition, the implementation plan would be shared with the volunteers for additional feedback.  Once the full implementation plan is built, it will be first communicated to the leadership team for feedback and approval, then communicated to the EC team.

Data collection

The EC team of testing volunteers, along with the companies already using Teams will be surveyed.  A group debrief of the test will be held at the end of the testing month.  Throughout the implementation process, the people using the platform, the team testing the platform, and the implementation team’s feedback will be taken into account to develop a finalized implementation and training plan.

Reflect

Data analysis

The surveys would be analyzed for both quantitative and qualitative data. Satisfaction scores and long form feedback from the surveys would be analyzed. Feedback during all meetings would be cataloged and compared to survey data to look for consistencies or inconsistencies in ratings.

Report

Findings would be communicated at in-person meetings and through current communication platforms.  As discussed above, the findings of the test and final implementation plan would be presented to the leadership team for feedback and approval. If any feedback or changes to the plan needed to be made after this meeting, or the leadership team wanted more data, that would happen before moving on. Once approved, the implementation plan and findings of the test would be communicated to all companies in an all-hands meeting.

Reflect

Reflect, revise, and next steps

An actionable step that I could take would be to do research on the impact of streamlined communication platforms in a company. In addition, I could gather some informal feedback on the impacts of having several communication platforms along with a real example from the HR or Finance team to start having a conversation with the Group CEO about consolidating to Teams. Having research and user stories is a good way to catch the attention of the leadership team and gain buy-in for the change.