Guidance on Restructuring a Unit

First of all very interesting task Mike!
"o Is this the best way to go about this type of change?"
First of all it's always tempting to put in to much fill/fat or what people call it, when trying to set up a new structure, as you have done try focus on the core tasks and start out with what people will see as two few people.
If there's two few people some tasks will not be done, see how it go with these and in the longer term of to much value add is being missed consider hiring.
It's likewise a good idea to keep the hiring low before the re-structuring, as you might find the qualifications that is needed will be different.
"o How can we ensure buyin?"
Different people, different "problems" - First of all communication is key for everyone. Get your high C & S's very involved! 
"o when do we talk to staff to make sure that we are not missing important tasks?" 
As in the first, it's important to get as much covered as possible, but as long as everyone is staying in the company, you can follow up missed tasks later on.
Just a bit of input to the different questions, know it doesnt answer them all in as much details, but at least something to consider.
Kind Regards
Mads Sorensen
Disc 4536

Thanks for your input.  This is a work in progress and if there is any interesting or complex issues, I will probably come back to this post.
Regards,
Mike

I run a BPO / Shared Services organisation and have been involved in a number of these events.
We've found that honesty is key, its a business decision and those involved in it need to be frank and honest (act with integrity) when dealing with impacted staff. Every manager (even those in the interested groups) must be aligned to the message.
when we announce presentations are customised to the different groups (e.g. impacted parties, interested parties). The Impacted presentation goes as follows and takes around 10-15minutes.

• Why the organisation is doing
• Why the organisation is doing it
• What is the impact on you (if people are being let go have their payout figures ready to hand out at the end of the meeting)
• Introduce outplacement / counselling services
• Allow everyone if they wish to, to go home.

On the day you announce (it never really gets easier) be prepared for everyone to be DEAD quiet once you finish, consultants always forget to tell you this and it can be a really unsettling thing.
Happy to provide more input if you need it.
 
cheers
Stephen

... for me to give specific guidance here.
A couple of things I consider to be HUGELY important in these discussions.
- CANDOR FIRST.  Tell people what you are doing, what the parameters are, and what the outcomes might be.  Tell them early, tell them often, and repeat everything over and over and over again.  I recommend you relisten to two casts that may not at first be obvious: managerial communications (you need a plan like that to tell folks what's going on, even at this small a scale) and Compassionate layoffs (because we talk about openness and candor).
- PEOPLE MATTER.  Do not build a structure that does not consider the strengths of the people you have.  Too many structures are built "abstractly" without thinking about WHO is going to be in what role.  Think about the structure, then once you put people in it, ask where there will be problems.  Do NOT think you can work around the people problems.  Structures never break organizations - PEOPLE do.
Mark

Thanks for your comments.  Mark, I will listen to the casts tomorrow.  I wold also like to add some additional clarification.
1.  Though posts MAY eventually be abolished, no one will lose their job.  I just was informed that the HR and Travel Unit re-centralization has been put on hold again, so know one knows what will happen.  This is the worst of all possible situations, i think.  While, this is not my unit, it is still very disheartening to the staff in those units because they do not know what job they may be doing in a year or even a few months (in my organization, NO ONE will be laid off).
2.  I have been discussing this situation during O3s with the effort of improving the structure and responding more effectively to the needs of the office.  Our objective is to have an efficient and effective administrative unit (I try to drill this in by frequently reminding people that we are here to provide services).
3.  I have vacant posts in my unit which are being covered, bit by bit by different people, like a criss cross of bandaids to stop the bleeding.  People are burning out and I am sure some work that is required (i.e. tracking use of vehicle milage and gas) is not currently being done.
4.  In conversations with staff, we are working on trying to MEASURE where the problems are.  Our unit works to resolve issues as favors and people frequently have to perform processes three times (because the first two times the work is incomplete, doesn't include correct information, etc.)  Initiators of transactions are lazy because they know that my unit will get it done.  (Travel is requested Friday afternoon for a Sunday trip, etc.).  By measuring these errors, I hope that we will be able to stop accepting incomplete work, create service level agreements and improve our communciation with our "clients".
5.  As a high S, I think about the people, the posts and want to get it right but cannot continue to delay.  There are a group of people who are 150% effective and busy and another group that works at 70%.  I want to capture all the responsibilities and tasks, make sure we include important processes and new ideas (focusing on our customer focus) and eliminate processes that are no longer needed. 
BUT my boss wants a draft structure in two weeks.  Yikes! I think I will have to focus on the priority posts which are vacant and beginning to burn people out and then fine tune later.  Any other recommendations?
6.  The posts will have to be structured to consider the grades of the staff (the system will not allow a level 4 perform tasks of level 6).  As Mark mentions, considering the people is key.  I think DISC is very helpful in this respect because I have a general idea where my staff fit and who likes what (people person, numbers person, etc.).  Part of the challenge will be placing so many HR people in a unit which is heavy into accounting.
7.  My staff, especially the poeple who are working at 150% are also pushing for these changes to create more fairness in terms of workload and responsibilities.
Mads, this is a tremendouly interesting and I'm sure eventually rewarding task.  I am equally interested in the move towards process improvements and workflows.  My problem, as is everyone's,  is time.
Thanks for the feedback.  I'll let you know how my half day meeting going tomorrow with the consultant.  (maybe we can focus on each major process for 10 minutes then start fitting people in - recommendation from phone cast).
Saludos,
Mike
 

Mike,
It's always good to hear no one is going to lose their job, however uncertainty is the biggest killer, it really is death by a thousand cuts. You should try and focus the team on executing what they need to be effective and look at how you can use this period to continue to develop them and their careers.

Regarding the overload of work, look for things to drop, it's amazing what can be dropped and no one notices. I've recently taken over a group in India; a lot of their work is manual and hopelessly inefficient. Worst of all there are a lot of reports that nobody reads. I've started a process of slowly dropping reporting into the "do not do" pile to determine what they actually need to do. So far no one has noticed the lack of reports even though they were always considered "critical" by the team.

Best of luck