AUGUST 2021HR TECH OUTLOOK8Change Management in Times of COVIDIn general, we are all creatures of habit. We take comfort in knowing what to expect. Change is always difficult. How then, in this whiplash year of 2020, should organizations support change, when habits could be dangerous to our well-being and the only thing to expect is the unexpected? According to Prosci (a research-based change management consultancy), the definition of change management is the process, tools, and techniques to manage the people side of change. And as Human Resource (HR) professionals we are keenly aware that our people are our most critical business asset. For our company, which makes and exports liquified natural gas (LNG), we discovered that in the face of such big challenges ­ pandemics, hurricanes, social unrest ­ that going small by engaging with employees on the individual level and managing change through a small, nimble support team, yielded vital results in a tumultuous time.For our organization, change was driven by that small group of individuals known as the Business Support Team (BST). This group is comprised of executive and SME representatives from HR, Communications, Facilities, Environmental, Legal, Operations, Meteorology, Supply Chain, Security, and IT and was responsible for scanning the COVID external landscape, understanding the internal business landscape, and then translating for the intent and purpose of engaging individual employees in the changes quickly and safely. Change is inherent in our day-to-day work, not only in human resources but in all aspects of the business. However, many of the adjustments employees would have to make were not easy. Some of them had far-reaching impacts across our company's processes, systems, structures, as well as individual roles and responsibilities. Pivoting quickly to make these adjustments is essential and is accomplished by helping individual employees make successful personal transitions, resulting in the awareness and ultimate adoption of the changes. And to be successful, achieve our business goals, and give agency back to employees during a dislocating time, we focused on empowering every employee at every step along the way of every change.Finally, we followed our values to ground our employees and drive decisions and behaviors on what we could count on as a company, namely our corporate TRAINS values (LNG production units are called "trains") of Teamwork, Respect, Accountability, Integrity, Nimble, and Safety. Along the way, there were a number of core strategies that we deliberately employed to help our employees manage these changes successfully.Robust Communications: We sought to provide the most accurate, consistent, transparent, timely, and purposeful communications possible. More specifically, for each change, we attempted to answer the questions: What is changing, why it is changing, how does it impact different areas of the business, and how does it affect individual employees. We employed a variety of vehicles to communicate and build awareness, ranging from direct emails, videos, townhalls with senior leadership, intranet articles, and key messages via managers and HR. Communications engaged our employees from their heads to their hearts. Some urgent communications required action by employees and provided explicit "why" information to engage a response. Alternatively, leaders were encouraged to be patient, to communicate via phone or virtually using video, and to seek to understand what each employee was experiencing. ByHilary Ware, Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer & Amber Rabo, Director of Organizational Effectiveness and Talent Acquisition, Cheniere EnergyHilary Ware
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