HOW TO HANDLE CHANGE

Lessons learnt from the successful career change program for Holden workers. Story by Amalia Chilianis

Any significant change and especially the closure or reduction of a business can feel daunting and signal significant loss for employees and the brand. However, the success of the transition program that supported General Motors Holden workers from 2014 to 2017 provides valuable lessons for any business embarking on change. The program resulted in thousands of workers successfully securing gainful employment and the closure of manufacturing was ultimately a celebration of what was achieved rather than what was lost. Here’s some of the reasons why.

No surprises

There was a 3-year lead time between the announcement of closure and the last car rolling off the line. It was a significant change in approach informing employees well in advance of the impending closure. And while not the future that employees had hoped for, knowing the truth about closure gave people some form of control rather than languishing between speculation and rumination.

Communication

Senior leaders held communication sessions providing updates to their department and followed through with consistent open dialogue, using multiple communication channels for sharing information and providing services. Leaders were very focused on contributing positively to finishing the chapter of manufacturing in Australia and tried to make sure people were engaged as best as possible.  The CFO at the time, shared with me “It was very much a focus on lots of communication and making sure that everyone was clear as to what was happening. Regular honest and upfront communication and not shying away from answering tough questions around individuals’ work, futures and timing.”

Shared goals

As it was a rolling program with a number of reductions over time, every employee discussed their preference for timing for their departure with their leader. When it was time to leave, they received their financial redundancy payment, as well as career management support, funding toward retraining and wellbeing offerings that extended to supporting their family. In any form of business change, people need to understand their part to play and what goal they are working towards. In this case it was making a career change to finding new employment and closing manufacturing and reducing engineering in a way they could all be proud of. These shared and transparent goals between both employees and leaders certainly contributed toward success for many people.

Increasing participation

Most redundancy programs offer career management support and access to counselling. Take up rates for both can be typically low. However, in this case the take up rate of career management was well above industry average. Bringing in access to these programs before people left, helped them better prepare and reduced the time between leaving and securing a new job. Another critical element significantly contributing to people’s success was funding toward retraining and receiving career advice when selecting the most suitable training to pursue. From small investments of time and money for tickets and licenses to complete profession changes like from engineering to nursing or project management.

Losses and Gains

While many mourned the loss of products they personally contributed to producing and a passion for a brand that they have not been able to replicate in other organisations, those same people have realised that with this loss also came unexpected gains. They realised the value of their time and the forced change provided an opportunity to give more of their time to their personal lives and the people they care about the most. The act of changing jobs and organisations often brought about an unexpected benefit when their new organisation was closer to home, or less demanding on their personal time and an achievement in proving to themselves that they could successfully make a change and will be able to do that again in the future.

The Holden brand will always be unique and this closure program certainly had a lot of support, including financial from General Motors, to Government support and collaboration with their competitor Toyota who was also closing manufacturing at the time. However, providing people with an environment that supported them during this change, showed genuine concern for their wellbeing and with shared goals resulted in not only individual success with thousands securing employment, but also business results like quality, production and attendance at an all-time high followed by a closure people were proud of. 

Amalia Chilianis, author of Work-a-holistic: A practical guide to changing your career (Publish Central $29.95),  is a career and capability development expert. She is a coach, consultant, speaker and facilitator working internationally. Amalia is passionate about helping people develop and change their career to realise a better future.  

Published in The Weekend Australian 21 August 2021