In case you missed it, Suffolk County Council has announced radical plans to transfer most of its services to external suppliers and it's not alone. While this might have the outsourcing organisations rubbing their hands with glee, the much maligned public sector workers are now waiting to see just what this will mean for them.
It is human nature to have a knee jerk reaction against change, especially during the initial phases as confusion, fear and uncertainty reign paramount. From an employee's point of view, any outsourcing activity will be difficult to comprehend. How managers handle its introduction can make a critical difference to the working environment.
We know that in the current economic climate, budgets will be slashed and cost savings will be prioritised, but before turning to outsourcing local authorities have a responsibility to commit to a period of what might formally be called diagnosis. In reality this is a series of structured conversations with all the key stakeholders designed to identify what the issue really is. Rather than seeing outsourcing of services as an instant cure-all, they need to consider whether outsourcing will deliver the right level of cost savings. What will be the impact on those essential services? Is there another way?
The key here is to involve as many people as possible - empowering them to map out the problem, think through the solution and plan the implementation is always going to be more successful than handing down a directive from on high. These conversations also allow for concerns to be aired and, hopefully, dealt with.
A key point to be aware of is that the culture of an organisation is often most prized by its employees - particularly for those in the public sector who've often chosen it over the private sector for that very reason. In committing to outsourcing, organisations are trying to forge a new relationship between two different parties with potentially different sets of values and cultures. Ignored this will lead to clashes and misunderstandings but by addressing it from the beginning the organisations stand a better chance of keeping everyone on side.
Outsourcing has a reputation for being an amputation of a series of services; painful and generally unwanted. To avoid this, those involved will need to do things differently. This may not be easy for the public sector where change often gets weighed down by red-tape bureaucracy and politics. While getting the buy-in from your board is vital, don't forget your middle managers - those at the coal face who are charged with implementing change. These are the people who'll have to explain what's happening to the majority of your staff and who'll be handling questions and fears directly, they need to buy into what you're doing in order to convince others and if they don't, there's probably a good reason for that.
Finally it is an old adage, but the success of any project is communication. Communicate widely and deal with the rumour mill at an early stage. The more information that can be communicated the more successful you will be in retaining employee loyalty. For this to work, perceptions and conversations will need to be radically changed. It can be done but it's not going to be quick or easy, and nor should it be.
Sue Belgrave is programme director of The Organisational Development Practitioner's Programme at Roffey Park Institute
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