The art of managing change

With a constantly shif ting business environment, HQ asks ‘just how good are you at managing change’?

Whether that’s dealing with changes in procedures thanks to new legislation, or shifting work practises due to an unhappy team, keeping up with – and ahead of – this incessant flux is essential to ensure a healthy future for the club

10 point checklis t for facing the change process.

1. What change is required?

First make sure there is a need to change what you are doing Then establish whether this will be a small improvement to your operational or other procedures, or whether a more radical programme of activity is needed Think about all aspects – customers, the team, the company, yourself, your colleagues, competitors and others

2. Planning

Spend time on this stage Once you know what needs to be done, think through how you will achieve it, consult with others as appropriate This is a time for detail Think about what, how, who, where and when

3 Overall objective

Make this clear and easy for everyone to understand and remember – for example, introduce new menu by October 14; review staff rotas by November 27.

4. Goal setting

Having decided the main objectives, set short-term goals so everyone can measure progress If these smaller goals aren’t met, find out why and focus on improving things rather than placing blame

5. Deal with resistance

Many people will naturally resist change, so have plans in place to respond to any resistance and sell ideas Find out what’s in it for them – what can they gain by doing it, or lose by not doing it?

6 Prepare your team(s)

Make sure you deal with any training and development needs so your people have the ability, motivation and confidence to deal with what will now be required of them. Work hard to get them on board –people achieve much better results if they have helped create something

7. Deal with knock-on effects

Remember that changing some things will have a knock on effect on others, so be sure to take a holistic approach to the planning process and monitor all areas throughout

8. Communication

Make sure you put two-way communication mechanisms in place and remember you have two ears and only one mouth, so get the proportion of listening to talking right! You could use feedback meetings or suggestion slips, for example.

9. Make them hungry to succeed

Make your people challenge the status quo drive urgency and momentum and a thirst to see the change process succeed

10. Monitor, review, plan

Throughout the journey, make sure you monitor and reassess your progress very frequently; a common mistake is to engage in an elaborate planning process and then fail to execute it because people pushed on with the wrong strategy

This can happen when plans are incomplete or contained errors which might not have been possible to anticipate at the outset. The objectives will be constant but how they are achieved may change several times

Latest MealTrak* results show that the number of out-of-home eating occasions were 12% higher than the comparable period in 2021 on a 52 week/MAT basis

In the latest 12-weeks, there were 807 million eating out of home occasions in the 12 weeks ending 11 July 2022, and the ‘eating out’ channel was in strong growth at +42% versus the previous year

Value sales are also up, 24% on a 52 week/MAT basis and +19% on a 12 week ending basis, versus 2021.

Tom Fender, Development Director at TWC, said: “Encouragingly, for the moment at least, value growth remains ahead of occasions, indicating that spends are holding up and consumers are continuing to seek rewarding experiences rather than trying down on prices and functionality ”

Interestingly (and unusually) growth is currently being driven by older consumers, especially 45 – 64 year olds, where growth is much stronger than for the younger age groups across both Eating Out and Food on the Go Eating Out has been recovering well in this

65+ age group, although, says Fender, this has dropped away over the latest 12-weeks, perhaps because this age group is more vulnerable to the impact of rising costs

“Similarly, over the last 12-months growth in all channels has been driven more by women than men, but this has reversed over the last 12-weeks, with women too perhaps changing their behaviour more rapidly in response to current economic pressures, ” he said

*MealTrak is a continuous tracking programme for food-to-go and out-of-home consumption, surveying 36,500 consumers a year