Adopting a codesign approach to change allowed this organisation to smoothly navigate a major cultural shift and achieve its highest-ever engagement levels.

Over the past few years, overcoming resistance to change has become one of HR’s most important strategic priorities.

Faced with rapid advancements in technology, the transformation of our ways of working and a turbulent economic environment, research from Gartner suggests employees are experiencing increased levels of ‘change fatigue’.

This reluctance to embrace change can stifle organisational and cultural growth, leaving employees disengaged and disconnected from the business and the transformation process. 

To avoid resistance to change slowing your business down, it’s imperative to find ways to bring employees along on the journey. The risk of change fatigue in employees falls by 29 percentage points when employers adopt ‘open-source’ transformation strategies and codesign the change with their employees, finds Gartner’s research.

In other words, employers need to ensure people feel that change is happening with them, rather than to them. 

Get employees on board with codesign

Over the past three years, this principle has guided the transformation process at Great Southern Bank during the realignment of the company’s culture and values – part of a major rebrand.

By involving employees from ideation to implementation, the organisation was able to cultivate a sense of belonging and commitment, ensuring a smooth transition and sustainable outcomes.

The success of their engagement efforts resulted in Great Southern Bank being awarded the Best Organisational Development and Change Strategy Award at last year’s AHRI Awards.

“It was the biggest change we had seen in 75 years as an organisation,” says Lisa Behrendt, Head of Culture, People and Leadership at Great Southern Bank. 

“It was incredibly important to us that our people came along on the journey. Our surveys and qualitative feedback showed that they found it really exciting.”

The transformation was catalysed by the customer-owned bank’s decision to rebrand from Credit Union Australia to Great Southern Bank, a move aimed at reinforcing its customer-first ethos and commitment to its new purpose of helping all Australians own their own home. 

“Leaders need to be aligned and committed, and they also need to be open to involving employees and hearing what they have to say.” – Lisa Behrendt, Head of Culture, People and Leadership at Great Southern Bank

The aim of the transformation was not just to alter the company’s external image, but to fundamentally evolve its internal culture and values.

To ensure employees felt aligned with the bank’s new purpose and brand, Chief People Officer Tracey Lake and the people and culture team worked closely with the marketing and corporate affairs teams to take a codesign approach to every aspect of the transformation. Employees were surveyed and consulted on the rebrand itself and the cultural changes that came with it.

The process involved crowdsourcing ideas, voting on new company names and visual designs, and extensive communication to keep the workforce informed and engaged.

Leaders were key to creating the change.

“Leaders need to be aligned and committed, and they also need to be open to involving employees and hearing what they have to say,” says Behrendt.

“That takes a lot of courage, trust and transparency, and that starts at the top – it’s vital to ensuring the transition is going to work.”

Codesign through storytelling

A key element of the company’s rebranding strategy was to align employees with the new purpose to foster a stronger sense of belonging and understanding of the strategic direction of the company.

“We were transforming our culture with new values and behaviours,” says Behrendt. “And part of that was about lining up individual stories and experiences with the broader story of the organisation.”

To facilitate the sharing of these stories, the bank enlisted help from speaker and author Gabrielle Dolan, who spoke alongside Behrendt at AHRI’s recent webinar on transformative strategies for organisational change.

“We asked Gabrielle to run a few big storytelling sessions virtually. They were about establishing how people’s personal stories resonate with stories of the business.

“For example, if we want to influence a customer or a stakeholder to create supporters and advocates for the changes, we can use a personal experience and relate it back to the business context.

“Take my personal experience of moving interstate as an example. This significant change was confronting and at times overwhelming – but also very exciting! Team members experience similar reactions to change as part of a culture transformation. By highlighting a personal experience, we can help our team to embrace the change with excitement, empathy, authenticity and support.”

“You have to be consistent. If you promise people that they’re going to be involved in creating something, you have to follow through on your promise.” – Lisa Behrendt, Head of Culture, People and Leadership at Great Southern Bank

Keeping the process lighthearted and injecting some fun into the workshops helped maintain engagement and ensure employees felt comfortable to share their experiences authentically, she says.

“We take banking seriously, but not ourselves. And they could see themselves in those stories. And [later on], when they would pick up the phone and speak to a customer, they had that passion and desire, they could see themselves as part of something really big, and they knew their part in it.”

Engagement powered by codesign

Feedback from Great Southern Bank’s employees on its codesign approach has been overwhelmingly positive. Sentiment surveys showed employees felt more aligned with the brand and the organisation’s values and purpose. Employee engagement scores also increased from 4.22 out of five in 2021 to 4.47 out of five in 2023, the company’s highest-ever score.  

The success of the rebrand and commitment to the new purpose has also delivered benefits to the bank’s customers. For example, the average amount of time taken for a home loan application to be approved has decreased by more than half since 2021.

“Engagement has been exceptionally high all throughout the change process. In [our surveys], we look at the effect of highly engaged team members on customer calls and customer experience. And what we see is that those who are really engaged, which is most of the organisation, have better customer experience outcomes as rated by the customer.”

Having these achievements recognised with an AHRI Award last year was all the more rewarding for Great Southern Bank because the entire workforce contributed to the outcomes, she says.

For HR professionals looking to adopt a codesign approach like this, she stresses the importance of commitment and authenticity.

“You have to be persistent, and you have to be consistent. If you promise people that they’re going to be involved in creating something, you have to follow through on your promise, and you’ve got to keep going. 

“We’ve been on a journey over three to four years where we’ve been very consistent and very intentional about what we’ve done as an organisation, and we’ve continually listened to our people. They know we’re genuine when we say we want to hear them and we want them to know that we value what they say. That’s been one of our biggest learnings.”

AHRI members can log into their member dashboard to view a free on-demand webinar with Lisa Behrendt and a range of other experts on transformative strategies for organisational change.