Municipality with a High Change Burden

"We now know where the pressure comes from – and we manage it actively."

Multiple changes in rapid succession can demand a great deal from an organisation. This municipality experienced this firsthand, having undergone three reorganisations within two years.

The workload among policy officers increased, and absenteeism began to surface. At the same time, daily operations had to continue, and new changes followed one after another in quick succession.

The situation

The pressure did not stem from a single reorganisation. It was primarily the accumulation that made it difficult.

Employees were constantly required to adapt to changing circumstances while existing tasks and responsibilities continued uninterrupted. Consequently, maintaining an overview and setting clear priorities became increasingly difficult.

The approach

Centrum voor Stressmanagement was brought in to gain deeper insight into the change pressure and its impact on employees and the organisation.

The chosen path focused on Change Support: first identifying where the greatest burden arose, and subsequently establishing greater clarity regarding priorities and the way changes were handled.

What changed?

By making the change burden more visible, the municipality was able to determine more specifically where attention was needed.

• greater insight was gained into where the greatest pressure was experienced;
• priorities could be established more clearly;
• the organisation gained better control over tension surrounding changes;
• escalations decreased.

The most important outcome was not that change disappeared, but that the organisation became better equipped to handle it.

Greater control during change

Organisations cannot always prevent or slow down change. However, it is possible to avoid piling each new change on top of existing workloads without considering the impact on employees and teams.

By identifying change pressure in a timely manner and organising choices more clearly, more room is created to implement changes in a healthy and manageable way.

“We now know where the pressure comes from – and we manage it actively.”

Is your organisation undergoing significant change?

When reorganisations, new working methods, or other changes accumulate, it can be helpful to first gain insight into where the greatest burden arises.

Centrum voor Stressmanagement helps organisations recognise work-related stress during change at an earlier stage and select an approach that suits employees, teams, and managers.