When Pieter Elbers became CEO of KLM at the end of 2014, he faced a major challenge and needed to reduce costs drastically. For many KLM workers, this was nothing new because the airline had implemented many cost-cutting initiatives over the years. While employees fiercely resisted change in previous programs, Elbers managed to get the employees excited and actively involved.
A new strategy
When Pieter Elbers was appointed CEO of KLM, he faced an enormous task. The company had gone through a turbulent period of one and a half years under the leadership of Camiel Eurlings, who had to leave in October 2014.
Elbers needed to calm the tempers while implementing some major changes. The company was outdated and needed to become more modern. Things needed to be simpler, cheaper and faster, which became the key message of his new strategy. He used the slogan ‘Change, Participate, Win’ to strengthen his message, but did not know how to make this practical for the employees.
An employee suggested a so-called SWAT team to help him translate the strategy into practice. Not long after, Elbers appointed two people as full-time SWAT-ers, and what started as something small became a huge success.
The SWAT-team
During one of the first Elbers’ live webinars for the staff (more than 33,000 employees), he introduced an email address and asked people to send him questions. He was overwhelmed with messages, and besides questions, the emails also contained suggestions for improvement. The SWAT team took action and visited every employee who had submitted a suggestion to listen to their idea.
Just do it
Together with the idea submitters, they quickly picked up the first suggestions and implemented them in a short time. Many of the ideas were ‘just do it’ things, and so there was no need for a long and bureaucratic review process.
For example, a flight attendant suggested removing an unused panel from one of the kitchens of all widebody planes. That panel weighed a few kilos, and taking it out saved around 50,000 euros per year.
Another employee showed that an SMS service had become redundant but was still in use, and passengers received unnecessary notifications. Stopping the service meant 250,000 euros less costs per year. Yet another coworker came up with the idea to adjust the baggage label so that it became smaller. Given the enormous amount of labels used annually, the savings amounted to about 100,000 euros yearly.
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All over the place
Meanwhile, Elbers kept calling for ideas, and the list grew and grew. The SWAT team visited many different teams and departments of the company. From Engineering & Maintenance to IT, from the ramps at Schiphol to the aircraft cabin and the cargo terminals. No place remained unvisited, and the SWAT team’s network expanded rapidly. That was very useful, allowing them to quickly turn to the right experts to evaluate ideas and make them happen.
Acceleration through SWAT-sessions
More complex topics, where different departments or divisions were involved, were tackled with so-called SWAT sessions. With a multidisciplinary team, the two SWAT-ers worked through several steps towards concrete action plans, which were presented to management at the end of the session. The duration of these sessions depended on the complexity of the topic and varied from half a day to three days.
With this approach, endless and frequent meetings about the subject were not needed, and there was no need for steering groups, which typically slowed things down even more. Since all perspectives were put on the table and people discussed the possible consequences for all parties involved, the quality of the outcome was also better.
Some examples of processes that were simplified or accelerated with the SWAT approach are eliminating waiting times in the certification process of pilots, resulting in 1000 extra production days, digitising personnel files (from 33 to 90 per day with a smaller team), and standardising the recruitment process (varying from 7.5 to 52 weeks to a standard of 6.5 weeks).
Additionally, there were SWAT sessions to collect fresh perspectives on a particular subject, such as with pilots who had previously worked for another airline and shared their knowledge of how things were done more effectively there than at KLM.
Transparent and honest
The internal communications department released an infographic every week that monitored the savings’ progress in order to keep every employee informed of the latest developments. This overview also included a detailed list of the ideas that had been adopted, newly received, rejected, or were still in development. The communications team created portraits of employees whose suggestions were adopted, inspiring others to participate.
Workshops in Lean
By simplifying processes and stopping activities that did not add value, many savings were realised. With workshops in Lean, the SWAT team taught people to improve their workplace themselves. The practical tools and ‘can-do’ mindset made them independent of the SWAT team to move forward, giving a boost to the ‘let’s do it’-movement.
Short lines of communication
Through a WhatsApp group, the SWAT team informed the board of directors of the latest developments. When they were 16 meters underground in the baggage department and made some progress in solving a problem, they posted a message with the achieved results. When they visited a fuel operator on the ramp or team leaders between the containers at the freight division, they shared a photo or video about the subject. Elbers regularly used this information directly, for example, when he met the KLM Works Council.
Elbers was keen to learn all the employees’ ideas. Every week, he took home a stack of printed emails with new suggestions from that week. That kept him in touch with what was happening deep within the company.
Breakfast with the CEO
The SWAT team introduced breakfast sessions with the CEO, where about six to seven employees who had submitted an idea that had been realised were invited. The SWAT team deliberately chose a nice mix of participants from different departments in the company. That way, the breakfast was a token of appreciation, and they also learned from each other’s stories. Additionally, the relationships they formed over breakfast might come in handy later.
During the breakfast, Elbers wanted to hear all about the results but was also very interested in why people had submitted an idea. He learned a lot about how management dealt with these employees and their challenges. Elbers became so enthusiastic about these breakfasts that he ensured one was organised each month for his colleagues from the EXCOM (Executive Committee).
Overwhelming involvement
In about 18 months, around 15 million euros were saved by the employees with the help of the SWAT team. More than 2500 KLM employees sent a suggestion to the CEO’s mailbox, and many even shared an idea more than once. In addition, many employees participated in a SWAT session or helped implement a colleague’s idea. The involvement was enormous, and you could feel the energy buzzing throughout the entire company.
Eight most important lessons
#1: Make it possible for everyone to join in
Often, organisations spend a lot of time developing a new strategy and launch it with a big bang. The content of the plans is high level, and most changes are formulated too generic, while employees are mainly interested in concrete matters to which they can contribute themselves. The CEO mailbox and the SWAT team met that need.
#2: Low threshold ensures participation
Many companies introduce a complex idea system, which discourages people from participating, or they get bogged down in the system’s bureaucracy. Just being able to email a suggestion straight to the CEO proved to be brilliant. This made it possible for everyone to participate, particularly those who do not spend their entire day in front of a computer and are often overlooked or ignored.
#3: Not every idea is a good idea
Middle and senior management feared the quality of the ideas and were quite sceptical. Indeed, not every idea was a good idea. But by listening to the employee and putting their suggestion in a broader context, they quickly discovered that it was a good idea (and then they implemented it) or it wasn’t. In that latter case, after many years, employees could finally let go of it and their frustration.
#4: The independence of the SWAT team was crucial
Many ideas had been suggested before, but their management had not shown any interest. It was too much effort, the benefits were too little, it didn’t fit in with the annual plans, or they just thought it was an absurd idea. With their ‘can do’ attitude, the unbiased SWAT team took every suggestion seriously.
#5: Transparency results in trust and enthusiasm
The close collaboration between the SWAT team and the internal communications department ensured open, honest, and consistent reporting, increasing trust in the SWAT initiative and leading to a growing belief in the entire strategy.
#6: Visibly rewarding desired behaviour provides clarity
The breakfast sessions and the ‘bottom-up innovation awards’ were a good and visible way to reward desired behaviour. It made it clear to employees what was expected of them and worked contagiously.
#7: Connecting through collaborating
It was very uplifting to bring people together with the SWAT sessions. Rather than blaming one another, coworkers learnt to appreciate each other’s roles and developed solutions that solved the problem at its core and were workable for everyone.
#8: Many small initiatives have a big impact
By focusing on smaller ideas and not only on large projects, results can be achieved quickly. That created a buzz, and people proactively started looking for improvements in their workplace. Ultimately, all these smaller initiatives led to millions in savings and, perhaps even more importantly, to higher employee involvement and a larger continuous flow of bottom-up innovations.
This article was originally published in Dutch on ManagementSite.nl, a popular management platform in the Netherlands.
MT/Sprout
November 1, 2024
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