COMMUNICATING CHANGE

Email Attachment TechWare Department of Human Resources Background TechWare recently secured a government contract for $10 million to develop state-of-the-art internet security software. As an integral part of this new contract, the company has plans to obtain ProTech. The acquisition will take place over the next nine months, which provides our department with sufficient time to inform and prepare stakeholders of the changes at the following levels of the organization:

• Level I: Leadership including the President, Vice President, and Executive Directors • Level II: Managers and Supervisors • Level III: Department Staff, Customers, Vendors

Communication and change starts from the top. Leadership needs to walk the walk to get people to follow and buy in to change. Leadership has tasked the human resources (HR) department with creating a communication plan that it can roll out while the acquisition takes place over the next few months. Once the communication plan is approved, HR will present changes to department managers and supervisors and will train Level II leaders to be effective in sharing changes with Level III members of the organization, including employees, customers, and vendors. You will be responsible for preparing managers to effectively communicate changes and get buy-in from Level III. Consider your role as an HR project manager to ensure consistent messaging and managing change initiatives. Level III employees—particularly staff in the marketing, sales, and customer service departments—require a good understanding of changes and transparency. Lack of transparency and understanding leads to uncertainty, and fear of the unknown can create a toxic work environment. Uncertainty can reduce employee morale and productivity. In addition, it is essential that external parties at Level III, including vendors and customers, are aware of the changes. ProTech: Company Profile ProTech is a small information technology (IT) company that specializes in firewall and internet security software. ProTech was founded in 2012 and is a privately owned business in Manhattan, Kansas, that typically contracts out its 18 remote employees to small businesses across the central United States. Organizational Structure and Hiring TechWare will hire additional tech support and customer service department staff to maintain customer satisfaction during the acquisition and thereafter while developments occur for the

new government contract. No deviation in terms of tech support or customer service is anticipated. Moving forward, TechWare and ProTech will maintain a consistent organizational structure. Since new employees from ProTech specialize in a certain area, they will be additions to the existing departments. Minimal layoffs and terminations are anticipated. TechWare will change its name and logo to TechWare Pro. As the logo and company name appears on the website, email address domain names, and all documentation and products, TechWare will begin to update its name slowly over the nine-month acquisition period. Onboarding and Training To ensure a successful transition from a smaller business to our large corporate environment, a comprehensive onboarding process is planned for all ProTech employees. During the onboarding process, ProTech employees will be paired up with members of TechWare to shadow members in various departments. Departmental training for existing TechWare employees will occur once the acquisition is finalized. To be successful with the new government contract, current TechWare employees will be required to take a training from ProTech’s current leadership team to learn about strategies and tools used to specialize in firewall and internet security software. Organizational Culture TechWare has been in business since 2000. TechWare is established and somewhat older in terms of workforce than the acquired company, ProTech. Consider how the culture of each company has been ingrained in each company.