The Fundamentals of Organisational Design
Redesign Needs Analysis (RNA)
Do you really need to Restructure your business or department? Will this solve your current issues? Where do I start?
A while ago you might have seen that I wrote about Learning Needs Analysis (LNA) for professional trainers. Having been a teacher/ trainer for 20 years and made the move to add Organisational Design & Development to my portfolio I started to make connections between the types of analysis I had performed in the past, what I thought Organisational Design needed and with the added bonus of a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt for inspiration.
Very often Organisational Design professionals are approached by Companies and/or managers and department heads to perform a restructure. Almost as often a restructure is not what is required to help them solve the issues they are facing, but it is all too tempting for them to restructure, make redundancies and feel like they’ve created their dream teams. Unfortunately this doesn’t solve their problems and can actually lead to organizational chaos and ruination.
This led me to create what I call a Redesign Needs Analysis document which follows a Lean Six Sigma Methodology i.e DMAIC: Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve & Control. It is furthermore loosely based on the Learning Needs Analysis.
So what is a Learning Needs Analysis?
Learning Needs Analysis = Analyse, Design, Deliver, Evaluate
Recently lots of people have been asking for templates of Learning Needs Analyses (LNA) and wondering how they fit into the greater scheme of things. Learning Needs Analysis, also knows as Training Needs Analysis (TNA) is the very first step in the Learning Cycle.
There is more and more business emphasis being placed on thorough evaluation of learning requirements and ensuring that training is actually fit for purpose. This is going to become increasingly important as we navigate this sea of Covid 19 as training departments are being scaled back and e-learning is suddenly more prevalent. If companies are to spend money on training and development, it is essential that a robust framework is in place from the outset.
The entire Learning & Development function of a business should focus upon a specific framework which is fully embedded into the Human Capital management function. Generally speaking, this framework is based upon a Competency matrix (skills, qualifications, experience, behaviours etc.) which ties together Job Descriptions, Promotion strategies, Salary/ Grading Structures, Personal Development Planning and the activity of the Training team amongst many other things.
So, what happens when one department is demanding lots of extra courses from the training team? How do you prioritise your workload? How do you decide whether or not there is a real benefit from provided this course? This is where your LNA comes into play. I’ve written loads of these over the years - Learning Needs Analysis, Training Needs Analysis or even Redesign Needs Analysis for the purpose of Organisational Design. It is a formal, professional, data driven approach to your decision making.
What should you include in your LNA Document?
1. Business Prioritisation – in relation to Business Strategy, Mission, Vision & Values; There are 3 main levels to consider a. Organisational/ Strategic b. Departmental / Operational c. Individual
2. Gap Analysis - What gap do we hope to fill by implementing new Training and Development? This will normally link back, at least partially, to your HCM framework. This may include undertaking a PESTLE analysis, KPI investigation and using other such strategic tools;
3. Job, Role, Skills, Competency and/ or Content Analysis;
4. Confirmation of Issues being experienced: i.e. Client Meeting; Customer Feedback; Employee Questionnaires; Personal Development Plans/ Annual Appraisals etc.
5. Process Analysis – What information can you find on SOPs, Process Maps, Quality Assurance documentation?
6. Cost Benefit Analysis
7. Final SMART Recommendations
8. Revisitation Section – after training has been developed and rolled out – make sure that measurements are in place for evaluation.
Once you have spent this much time analysing the requirement for a training intervention it should be clear what is required by the business and it is not necessarily what the department are asking for. Very often the intervention requirement is for more focused management attention, for quality assurance interventions or remapping of processes. Training does not solve every problem and by using a professional LNA document you can evidence the requirements and present them in a formal manner using clear data-driven instruction.
This is perhaps, unfortunately, the most overlooked and under-rated step in the Learning Cycle. Learning facilitators must hone their analytical skills and work on the first step in the process. If this is not a priority of your department you might find that you spend a lot of time and money designing and delivering courses which bring no real value to the business. How can you continue to justify this?
Therefore what is a Redesign Needs Analysis?
It is designed to be a tool to aid the identification and /or review of structural organizational design or redesign needs, taking a wide range of factors into consideration. Why would we start this process in the first place? You may be approached as a professional for the following reasons ie.
1. Not enough or too many FTE;
2. Top heavy structure in existence;
3. Lack of responsibility being taken across the business;
4. KPIs are less than 75%;
5. Gaps in the hierarchy;
6. Succession Plan issues;
7. Critical Positions not being filled.
As part of the initial Measurement phase you may undertake a series of different analyses such as an FTE analysis, a RACI Matrix, Span of Control calculator etc. You will want to look carefully at the organizational charts, performance management and the ability of the company/ department to adhere to the Mission, Vision & Values.
From here you can determine whether or not you really need to continue with the full redesign process or in fact there are better solutions. For example, you might see that there is a need for only minor team adjustments, in which case these can be redirected to Human Resources. You might see that there is an issue with poor processes, in which case these can be redirected to the Project Management office or Transformation team if in existence. If the result is based upon lack of understanding of processes and systems, they can be redirected to Quality Assurance and so on and so forth, incorporating Training & Development, Health & Safety etc. This can often be an excellent way of liaising more effectively with the other support services.
If, however, you find that there is a requirement for redesign, it gets a whole lot more complicated from here! In order to design a business that works well, meets stakeholder requirements and earns profit you have to undertake a lot more analysis. This will include measuring how to Enable Strategy, Leverage People, Contain Costs, Operate Within Constraints, Cultural Constraints, Business Criticality, Hierarchy, Strengthening Accountability and much more.
Some of my favourite tools to compliment this section include a Risk Analysis, The Burke-Litwin Model for Internal & External Scanning, Fayol’s Wheel and Blake & Mouton’s Managerial Grid and so many more! I use a lot of Design Principles derived from Michael Goold and Andrew Campbell’s ‘Designing Effective Organisations’ (2002).
I wholeheartedly recommend creating your own RNA tool to help you with your Organisational Design requirements. It’s an excellent way of pulling together all of the tools you have in your toolkit and demonstrating your ideas to the business. Quite often, Organisational Design can be viewed as a Soft Service and without a tool like this, your thoughts may not be taken seriously.
If you would like to chat about restructuring your business or creating an organizational development function please do not hesitate to get in touch for more information.