Air Botswana

The issue

Air Botswana, the national airline which operates both domestically and throughout the Southern African region, is currently being transformed from a state-owned enterprise into a privately owned company. One of their first tasks was to accurately assess employees' readiness and capacity for change.

As the pioneer for the privatisation process in Botswana, there is intense pressure for the project to succeed. If the privatisation is successful, the government will gain credibility and will be able to privatise further state entities.

Air Botswana's objectives were to:

• find out employee attitudes towards change
• identify a model of change management and issues which need to be addressed
• understand early actions required to manage potential change or privatisation risk
• develop approaches to manage risk and to build commitment.

Our approach

PricewaterhouseCoopers Human Resource Services was appointed following a competitive tender. Air Botswana was impressed by our combination of local and African expertise, reinforced by a scientific approach and practical ideas for a model of change management.

We started the project by conducting a review of relevant Air Botswana data, such as financial information and business objectives, to set the change readiness assessment in context. We then conducted interviews with executive management to identify the issues and determine their approach to the change, as well as their commitment and contribution to the transformation process.

PwC has a tried and tested change readiness questionnaire. We sent this to all 304 Air Botswana employees to gather feedback on how the organisation had dealt with change in the past. We backed up these results with qualitative feedback obtained through focus groups, which we conducted with a sample of staff across all levels. This provided us with an opportunity to listen to employees' concerns and ideas of how management could ensure a successful transformation process.

We collated all this information in a report where we identified priority issues to address and recommended how Air Botswana could ensure the privatisation process was successful. Our independent position meant that employees were more willing to provide honest feedback which lent a crucial degree of transparency to the process.

The outcome

At the end of the project, Air Botswana had a much clearer idea of their ability to become a privately owned company. We had provided them with a model for change management and recommended issues that they should address to ensure a smooth and successful privatisation process, based on quantitative and qualitative information from their employees.

By using our established change readiness questionnaire, we saved Air Botswana both time and money that would otherwise have been needed to develop a new method of assessment.

Through the focus groups and consultation process, Air Botswana has involved their staff in the change process early on, and by listening to their concerns and ideas, they have gained employee buy-in and commitment to the privatisation.

For further information about this case study, please contact Sally Turvey at sally.turvey@za.pwc.com or on +27 11 797 5081