FEATURE change management
St.George to being employees of Westpac. Some of the details were really important to employees – such as the enterprise agreement they work under, or the super fund they make contributions into. We would immediately assess those implications and share that information with our employees.” Miller was also careful to avoid information overload. Rather than swamp everybody with the same messages, address lists were created so that specific messages could be sent to specific groups. “We could be very careful and almost personal in communication about change,” he says. Miller maintains that a strong attribute of the St.George culture is the two-way communication. Rather than merely being ‘missives from the leader’ with no scope for feedback, employees are encouraged to voice their concerns. “I love it when people respond to e-mails that either the CEO or I have sent. They start a conversation. That’s been a crucial part of my role – speaking to people constantly. Our change process didn’t stop at implementation. Whenever we’ve implemented a massive HR change generally myself or the team have been in the field the week afterwards asking people how the change has gone, asking how it’s impacted them, and how we can do things differently,” Miller adds.
Keeping St.George as St.George While both brands will continue to leverage off each other to maximise employee offerings, Miller says a decision was made early in the merger process to map out the key components that would enable St.George to retain its culture. A decision was made that the St.George enterprise agreement should be a fundamental part of the company’s employment offering, and would therefore be an important asset in maintaining the company’s culture. “Earlier this year a number of senior people weren’t covered by that St.George agreement. We went to those people and put together an interim agreement which 95% of people voted in favour of. Later this year all people who work for St.George will go into negotiations for a new St.George agreement – one that has components that are very similar to Westpac but different enough to be St.George,” Miller explains.
Feedback from employees and customers painted a clear picture about how important St.George employees are to the St.George brand. As such, there are minor differences in some of the employee benefits offered by St.George and Westpac. For example, with a third of St.George employees over the government-defined mature age, the company will continue to implement innovative policies around attracting and retaining mature age workers. The company’s ‘purchase leave’ policy is also subtly different to that of Westpac’s. “We have the opportunity to leverage ‘big enough but small enough’ even more as we move forward,” says Miller. “There are some initiatives that a smaller company can do, and to a large extent we can act as an incubator for the bigger group,” says Miller. Any change program will have its doubters, and in hindsight Miller recognises that things only went astray when the company didn’t remember the things that are important to people – and this provides his top tip for other companies undertaking significant change: sometimes the small things matter. “If we think back to the beginning of the merger, a lot of people sat on the sideline and said ‘yeah sure’ when [Westpac CEO] Gail Kelly told Australia that this truly was a multi-brand merger, and that the St.George brand would be retained. But we’ve done that, and in fact we’ve opened more St.George branches. However, when we didn’t realise the importance of enforcing the right message with the right symbols – and thinking about our employees’ resilience and fear of the unknown – that’s where we struggled.” Miller cites several examples of small things making a world of difference: ensuring the same e-mail logos were kept; celebrating St.George making bank of the year; keeping some leader forums separate; keeping faces in the frontline that people knew and relied on; and celebrating the St.George initiatives that were picked up and used across the Westpac group. “Do not underestimate how important it is that those symbols bolster people’s resilience and reinforce the components that will take away the fear of the unknown. It’s so important,” he concludes. hc
“We had to reassure people that the things they loved about St.George weren’t going to change” – Ross Miller
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