Supporting a Closing Site
When AstraZeneca made the decision to close one of its manufacturing sites, the senior management team (SMT) identified that it would need support during the period of change and also help in ensuring that employee performance levels were maintained.
Aware that in times of change like this there are risks that morale can be low, absenteeism and accidents at work increase and employees lose focus, site HR and Training Partner for AstraZeneca – Nick Fletcher – looked to The Oakridge Centre for support.
The Oakridge Centre was asked to design a programme that would help to ensure the site remained high performing until its closure and also support its leaders, who would undoubtedly experience many challenges through this time of change. It was importance to identify each teams’ needs in order to inspire positive behaviour change, increase focus and improve individual and team performance
Our Approach
The Oakridge Centre’s senior consultant, Andy Fleet, developed a bespoke, flexible and evolving Team Effectiveness programme to meet the specific needs of the SMT and their colleagues. The programme was based on proven research and used the concept of focussed performance improvement (commitment to clear goals, monitored performance, and team engagement to drive performance).
The work started as a pilot with the SMT which, if the product was well received, would evolve according to feedback and be offered to other teams on site; teams varied in size from three to 17 staff.
The Oakridge Centre began by carrying out a diagnostic, using a 14 indicators Individual and Team self-assessment questionnaire for the SMTs to identify specific team strengths and development requirements. From this a report was produced that gave scores, involving the 14 team excellence indicators, about what constituted a high performing team.
We then created a bespoke Team Effectiveness programme, using two key pieces of theory from Professor J.R. Hackman and Katzenbach and Smith, with tools such as an online team performance assessment, and emotional intelligence instruments and feedback, to identify areas of specific team and individual focus. With well researched and proven theories that drive team performance, the programme is at the same time organisationally consistent but individually team specific, with a common set of team tools to monitor and measure team progress.
The SMT attended a workshop, during which they were asked to identify the three most important things they could do to drive value and also commit to delivering these three ‘must wins’ as a concept to further improve team and individual performance.
Six months later, Andy visited the site again to see if the three must wins were achieved, review a second batch of scores to see if performance was maintained and identify three more must wins. Such was the success of the work – team performance was not only maintained but it had improved – that the Works Manager offered all 20 team leaders and their teams the opportunity to work with Andy. 10 teams benefitted from working with The Oakridge Centre. Andy worked with each team to ascertain where he could help them – whether that was in areas such as communication, stakeholder management or vision and strategy - and then gave them the tools to keep the momentum going and the focus on performance.
The Results
Due to circumstances, a fall in team effectiveness measures would be the norm, but expectations were surpassed when instead of simply maintaining team effectiveness, all teams improved, with team performance indicators increasing by up to 29%.
In addition, feedback from the teams was ‘overwhelmingly positive’ with one employee stating it was ‘the most practical team session I’ve ever attended’. Others said the course was ‘well run’, with ‘a good style of approach and content’ while Andy was an ‘excellent facilitator’.
AstraZeneca was so pleased with the results that it has commissioned further change work off the back the Team Effectiveness Programme
AstraZeneca Feedback
“Because we make pharmaceuticals, it is essential that the last batch is as good as the first batch and we knew Oakridge could help us reach that goal, despite the prospect of closure. Andy has experience in closing businesses and was very quickly able to understand our requirements. He had an excellent rapport with staff on all levels and created a fantastic atmosphere to work in. The results surpassed all expectations and we were delighted. We would use Oakridge whatever the stage in any lifecycle of the business – growth, maturity or closure.”
Nick Fletcher, AstraZeneca site HR and training partner