Innovation & Change Management: Transformation needs good communication

The first step on the path to change is usually to recognize a current problem and create awareness of its urgency. Heike Streubel is the integration officer at Gegenbauer and the driving force behind the development of suitable language training for foreign employees. Not an easy task! After all, the facility management provider employs around 20,000 people from over 100 nations at more than 40 locations throughout Germany. Traditional classroom training is not practicable due to different working hours (including shift work), changing work locations and heterogeneous prior knowledge. So a new solution had to be found.

2. Develop and communicate a vision for the solution

To ensure that the new language training course is a success, Heike is in regular contact with all stakeholders directly or indirectly involved in the project. This includes meetings with decision-makers as well as discussions with experienced employees, trainees and e-learning experts. What goals should be achieved? How much working time should be available for training? What expectations, but also fears, are there about the new e-learning program? The answers to these and similar questions are slightly different for each of her interviewees. In the end, she will not be able to fulfil everyone's wishes. But the discussions help to develop an acceptable compromise and thus a common vision for a solution.

3. Implement the practical solution

Once the vision is in place, it's time for the technical implementation. The concept for the new training solution includes blended learning with a language learning app and individual learning support (mobile coaching), as well as lessons in a virtual classroom for trainees with little knowledge of German. But the conversations are not decreasing. Now that it's all about the practical content of the training, Heike is in close contact with the various learner groups within the company, as well as with the eLearning editors from the language course provider LinguaTV. What content is needed in the area of professional cleaning? Which in the area of order management? And how can these best be integrated into the new language training? In close cooperation and on the basis of the many years of experience of individual employees, a multimedia vocabulary trainer is created, for example, which covers the most relevant and company-specific content in the area of professional cleaning.

The vision has become a practical solution. However, before the new training is rolled out across Germany, it will first be tested with a small pilot group. The individual test candidates were specifically selected by Heike Streubel and their composition reflects the great diversity within the workforce. The aim is to answer some important questions. For example, how do older and less tech-savvy participants cope with the language app? How can learning support be further optimized? What technical and everyday hurdles hinder learning success? And what other content or functions would the test candidates like to see? The feedback from the pilot group ultimately makes an important contribution to the development of an optimal training solution.

The publication and final rollout are accompanied by particularly intensive communication and should be supported by coaching or special onboarding processes. Heike Streubel also seeks regular exchanges with all those involved in the project long after the rollout. On the one hand, the efforts of the learners should be rewarded with sufficient recognition. On the other hand, surveying employees can lead to further optimization of the training solutions. In the case of Gegenbauer, for example, the participants' feedback resulted in the need for a special telephone training course with a technical focus on order management, which was offered to the respective employees a short time later.

Successful change management ensures that innovative solutions are not only made available, but that they are also supported by the employees. Good communication with all stakeholders and the development of a shared vision play a key role here and can contribute significantly to the acceptance and success of the new solution.