Change is personal

The project: "The moves"

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The summary: The organization wanted to fundamentally change "who they were" to a technology-forward, urban versus suburban company in order to compete for talent and modernize the culture. Part of that culture-overhaul entailed moving thousands of employees to new, urban-centric, technology-first offices around the country. 

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The challenge: These moves brought a lot of positive change for employees, but came with some unavoidable, challenging ones as well. Moving from suburban to urban locations brought the end of free parking, introduction of public transportation, the closing of the company-funded daycare for a national childcare contract, amongst other changes.  

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In communicating these changes, we constructed a multi-pronged approach which included a dedicated website, FAQs, emails, videos, and blogs. Via these mediums, we gave all the facts, figures, reasoning, and rationale for the moves, the changes, and the journey. ​

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But, sometimes the emotions that come with change are not swayed by "facts and figures." For some, the loss of the onsite daycare struck a personal chord for many reasons - it was a place their children were fond of, the daycare employees had been with the company for 20+ years, it set the organization apart from other companies that do not offer this in-house service. It didn't matter that a daycare was not the business the company was in (not practical); it didn't matter that in the new building, the cost per square foot didn't make sense to also house a daycare (not cost effective); it didn't matter that this was a service given to employees at headquarters, but was not accessible for any other office around the country (not equitable). So, the communications around this part of the change needed to be different. 

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With empathy for taking away something that was so emotional, the communications had to be different. We put together a committee of employees to help "re-house" the daycare furniture to under-served schools in the area. We also put together a digital "daycare over the years" to honor the childcare services as a part of the company's history. 

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Conclusion: Was this more work for the organization as we managed a large change initiative - yes! But did it show that we HEARD the employees, understood the emotional side of this change, and took the time to respond with facts, figures, and emotion - absolutely!