When you start a change management project, knowing what people feel and think about the new normal is important to help address the relevant concerns. In Step 2 you introduced electric vehicles to your business to give them a taste. Now you can uncover the challenges you’ll face when it’s time to switch over.
Step 3 – Conduct internal surveys to find willing early adopters and identify operational challenges.
If you’ve been involved in fleet management for more than a few days, you’ll know how emotional people get about their cars. And with a tight employment market, good staff have been changing jobs for lesser reasons.
In the old days, changing your fleet vehicles from Holden to Ford, or vice versa, was the biggest thing you could do. You really found out who your friends were as a Fleet Manager making this decision. Changing from internal combustion engines to electric vehicles is BIGGER!
Fleet Managers that have introduced a small number of electric vehicles as trials have told us their inboxes were flooded with well-meaning advice.
One that presented their case study to a fleet industry forum and the sheer scope of the project almost brought the audience to tears. At the end of the presentation, one brave soul asked, how many EVs do you now have on your fleet? The presenter answered with a sigh, only 5. The total fleet was 350 vehicles so he had a long way to go.
You’ll need to take on this project with your eyes open so finding out what employees think today is a good place to start. Go beyond the fleet drivers and ask everyone because this is a national issue that impacts your employees, your customers and the communities you work in.
It’s not just swapping from the Blue Oval to a Red Lion; or, changing from a large sedan to an SUV. It’s a global issue that is attracting a lot of negative attention from the anti-EV crowd. Your organisation’s decision to go to an electric fleet is a signal that climate change is real and reduce emissions is an important initiative. And everyone will have a view.
The good news is, you’ll find plenty of positive voices willing to be advocates. And the issues you’ll need to address in the change management plan will be highlighted with a staff survey.
Some of the weird and wonderful things that came out of this process for other organisations were:
- Will I get electrocuted if I touch the charging cable?
- Can I drive in the rain?
- I don’t fit into an EV
- There’s no spare tyre so it’s unsafe to drive
- I’m not plugging it into my power point at home because of privacy reasons
- My home insurance doesn’t cover EV fires
- They create more emissions because of the battery materials
The five steps are:
- Review how many kilometres each vehicle travels during the month and where they go.
- Introduce your staff to electric vehicles via information sessions and experience days.
- Conduct internal surveys to find willing early adopters and identify operational challenges.
- Perform an audit of buildings to determine suitability for EV charging infrastructure.
- Evaluate the available EVs in the market to determine a suitable vehicle.
