Organizational Engagement Assessment

“People are normally productive for about 5-7 hours in an eight-hour day. But anytime a change of control takes place, their productivity falls to less than an hour.” – Dennis Kozlowski

As the saying goes, you can only manage that which you measure. If you therefore intend to manage the level of support and engagement of your stakeholders during a divestment, then measurement of the level of engagement and support is central to this activity. Assessing engagement can be done in a number of ways, and usually requires a combination of approaches reflecting the situation and group being assessed. These methods include:

• Survey
• Focus groups
• Town Hall Q&A
• Remote/Virtual Q&A (i.e via a dedicated confidential email address or physical question/suggestion box)

Participants of the survey, when the assessment should be conducted and specific questions to ask will all depend on the stakeholder group and the findings of the Impact Analysis. In general however, an assessment should be run a few weeks following announcement of the divestment, approximately half way through the process, and a few weeks before conclusion of the program and return to business as usual.

Questions/topics to be explored are likely to include:

• The degree to which individuals understand and accept the need and benefits of the divestment, and specific changes related to it (purpose);
• Whether individuals understand and agree with the future shape/operating model of the business following completion of the divestment/change (picture);
• How much individuals are aware of and believe the plans to complete the divestment/changes defined (plan);
• The degree to which individuals are aware of how the divestment/changes will impact them personally, and how they feel about this (part);
• Any particular issues, concerns or questions individuals may have about the process or what happens next.

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