LANXESS Deutschland GmbH- Involving the employees in the change process
- Project acceptance
- Greater employee satisfaction and motivation
- The end users can readily use the new solution
- Freeing up internal resources
Professional change process support
Windows 7 and Office 2010 were implemented for several thousand employees at LANXESS Deutschland GmbH. To successfully support the technical conversion, the chemical company counted on the change management experts at SYCOR GmbH. The employees were involved in the process from the outset with comprehensive communication measures and familiarized with the changes in the course of training.
LANXESS is a leading specialty chemical company with sales in excess of EUR 8.3 billion in 2013 and currently around 16,600 employees in 31 countries. The company has 52 production sites around the world today. Developing, producing and selling plastics, rubber, intermediate products and specialty chemicals is the core business of LANXESS. LANXESS is a member of the leading sustainability indexes, the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI World and DJSI Europe) and FTSE4Good as well as the Climate Disclosure Leadership Index (CDLI) of the CDP. 14 business units aligned with market requirements assume responsibility for the business operations of LANXESS.
Optimum employee involvement
LANXESS wanted to switch from Windows XP and Office 2003 to Windows 7 and Office 2010 worldwide in order to meet rising functional requirements for the applications in the workplace and also because of the lack of integration possibilities with other Microsoft products. The operating system and Office applications had to be updated to a current version for several thousand LANXESS employees overall. For optimum support of the technical conversion, LANXESS chose change management by Sycor. SYCOR GmbH supported the global rollout with communication and training measures focusing on Germany as well as support services for other countries. „We wanted to involve our employees in the process from the outset and make the change as easy as possible for them. Therefore it was very important for us to inform them of the technical conversion in a timely manner, and to make them aware of the need for the change,“ explains Sonja Geuer, Head of Communication, Development and Training at LANXESS. „Employees are not always enthusiastic about changes in the company. The more motivated employees are for the change process, the higher the success rate in the company will be. The basis of change management is that everyone involved understands where we are going and what the goals are. Providing information in a timely manner, but also knowing the existing corporate culture, what makes the employees tick and how to reach them, are key factors for the success of a change management project,“ says Alexandra Binder, Head of Change Management at Sycor.
Shaping the future step by step
At the start of the project, Sycor prepared a communication concept for the complex change project. Then the accompanying communication media were planned. The key responsible persons and managers were involved as multipliers for the project communication. Welcome e-mails at the start of the project informed employees about the approach, the training opportunities and the duration of the project. All important information about the project and supplementary information material were available on intranet pages set up especially for the project. News were also published on the intranet according to the respective project phase.
Comprehensive training
Training the employees to use the new, changed functions in the operating system and Office applications was another focal point. In addition to web-based training provided through a learning management system, quick reference guides in a print format explained how to use the system. Sycor also looked after all training administration, from planning and registration to settlement of the training services to evaluation. „Since several thousand participants in the project were involved, one of the key challenges was to identify and to meet the various needs of the target groups. Training planning across sites and the coordination of participants, facilities and trainers was another challenge for the project.
Successful conversion
„Sycor proved a competent and reliable partner for us in this major project. In addition to technical knowledge, the Sycor employees integrated extremely well with our corporate culture. We have worked well with Sycor on other IT projects in the past, and once again we were not disappointed,“ Sonja Geuer says, drawing a positive conclusion.
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