Implementing a Communication Plan at Fast Track Couriers

This report presents a communication plan designed for Fast Track Couriers, a courier service provider facing challenges related to employee communication and change management during a fleet expansion. The report begins with a review of the company's situation, highlighting the issues arising from disparate communication methods and employee resistance to changes. It then outlines the development of a survey to gather employee feedback, followed by a discussion of a meeting with a union representative to address employee concerns. The core of the report focuses on drafting a comprehensive communication plan and overall project plan, including a meeting with the general manager to discuss stakeholder needs and creative techniques to gain acceptance. The report anticipates potential resistance and proposes strategies to mitigate it, including forming a social media group and providing incentives. Finally, the report details a plan for a 15-20 minute session for truckers, outlining activities such as meetings with the general manager, mentoring, and technological training. The report emphasizes the importance of a unified communication strategy to ensure the successful implementation of business expansion plans and stakeholder alignment.

Running head: COMMUNICATION PLAN
Communication plan in Fast Track Couriers
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author Note:

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Table of Contents
Part 1. Review of simulated workplace- Fast Track Couriers:........................................................1
Part 2. Development of a survey to gather feedback from employees:...........................................2
Part 3. Meeting with a union representative:...................................................................................3
Part 4. Drafting of communication plan and overall project plan:..................................................5
Part 5. Meeting with the general manager:......................................................................................6
Discuss the needs of the shareholders:........................................................................................6
Discuss creative technique, activity or tactic to be used to gain and acceptance:.......................6
Anticipated possible resistance by this stakeholder and promotion plans for acceptance:.........6
Part 6. Development of plan for a 15-20 minute session for truckers:............................................7
References:......................................................................................................................................9

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Part 1. Review of simulated workplace- Fast Track Couriers:
A review of the case study pertaining to Fast Track Couriers revealed several facts about
the company. Fast Track Courier was a courier services provider delivering medium and large
sized containers based in New South Wales. The main business of the company was centred on
Sydney and operated under the leadership of the general manager who also functioned as the
CFO. The firm used trucks which were operated by two drivers. A review of the case study
revealed that the management of the company aimed to expand its fleet by 8 trucks in order to
expand its serviced area into other places in New South Wales and in order to enjoy an increase
its profits by $200000 the following. The case study analysis revealed that in order to achieve
these two business aims, the company aimed to deploy one driver per truck in order to able to
operate the 8 new trucks which it would acquire without having to acquire any new driver. The
trucks would be provided with automatic lifting systems to lift containers which would enable
one driver to operate them. A review of the case study also revealed that these future business
strategies met with resistance from the drivers due to the faulty communication strategies which
the management of the company practiced. The management of the company communicated
with the in-house employees using emails whereas it used newsletters to communicate with the
drivers on monthly basis. This disparity in the very communication methods used to
communicate with the back office employees and the employees made the later less related to the
company. The drivers considered their own team as the only team and did not feel related to the
company. They as a result resented and resisted the changes regarding management of the fleet
of trucks. In fact, they were ready to obtain support of the union in order to prevent the
management of the company from bringing about the changes. The outcome of the review led to
uncovering of two required strategies which the management of Fast Track Courier needed to

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materialise in order to bring about the changes pertaining to expansion of the fleet and
deployment of drivers. The management should first of all, change its existing faulty
communication plan and form as well as implement a uniform communication plan which would
run through the length and breadth of the hierarchy including the drivers who were lowest in the
rung. The second strategy which the management should achieve would be obtaining support of
the stakeholders including the drivers and leaders of the union. Successful implementation of the
communication plan would pave way for successful implementation of the business expansion
plan.
Part 2. Development of a survey to gather feedback from employees:
The following are the survey questions which would be put before the employees to gain
their feedbacks on the present and future strategies of Fast Track Couriers, especially the
communication plan:
Questio
n nos.
Questions
Y
es
No
Ma
y be
Declined
to answer
1
Do you think it is important for business
organisations to undergo changes?
2
Are are you satisfied with the leadership style in
practice in Fast Track Couriers?
3
Do you think the business objectives of expanding
the existing fleet of truck and deployment of one
driver per truck would result in increase in profits?

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4
Do you think the present communication needs to be
changed?
5
Do you think that the drivers should be included in
the new standard communication plan?
Part 3. Meeting with a union representative:
The external change management consultant, on behalf of the company should hold
meetings with a representative of the union to receive and discuss the findings from the survey.
The case study mentioned that the truck drivers had already once gained support of the union in
order to resist a change implementation strategies of the company in the past. Thus, it could be
assumed that the union representative would be aware of the interests of the drivers and would
expectedly support them by presenting resistance to the new business expansion strategies of
Fast Track Courier. Thus external change management consultant should promote the future
business strategies of Fast Track Courier of expanding its fleet of truck and deploying one driver
per truck in order to serve more customers and generate more revenue. For example, the
consultant could put forward that fleet expansion by deploying one driver per truck would lead to
generation of more revenue. This would enable the company to give higher salaries to its
employees including the drivers which would benefit the later. The change management
consultant would be able to gain support from the union representatives by pointing out to the
benefits which the business expansion would attribute to the interests (increase in salary) of the
truck drivers (internal stakeholders). He should also request the union representative to put

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forward additional inputs in the forms of suggestions and recommendations which would enable
revision of the present communication strategy to make it better.

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Part 4. Drafting of communication plan and overall project plan:
Strategy to acquire 8 new
trucks and deploy one
driver/truck-referred to
hereby as the overall
project
Management of Fast
Track Courier holds
meeting the
departmental heads to
discuss the overall
project strategy and
idetifies that the
priority plan should be
a revised
communication plan.
Communication plan
(new)
The management
holds meeting with
the departmental
heads and the
external change
management
consultant about the
need of forming a
new communication
plan with similar
policies for in-house
employees and
drivers
The external change
management
consultant carries out
survey on employee
expectations about
the new business
strategies and
communication plan
The consultant
presents the findings
of the survey before
the departmental
heads and the
management.
Formation of a
uniform
communication plan
The technological
department creates
official email ids for
drivers for official
communication and
newsletter is stopped
Training of all
employees on the
newly formed
communication
strategy including
drivers
The management holds
meeting with the
departmental heads and
the external change
management consultant
about the need of acquire
new trucks
Suppliers of trucks
identified and
requests sent for
quotations
Quotations received
from suppliers
Management of Fast
Track Courier holds
meeting the
departmental heads to
discuss the
quotations and
decides on the most
appropriate supplier
Order placed with
the truck supplier
for 8 trucks
Trucks acquired
Employees including
Drivers trained and
mentored(Part 6)
The entire fleet
including the new
trucks start
operations
Monitoring of the
business outcomes
by the management
based on minimum
increase in profit by
$200000 (KPI).
Further actions

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Part 5. Meeting with the general manager:
Discuss the needs of the shareholders:
The external change management consultant should meet the general manager of Fast
Track Couriers to discuss the needs and expectations of the different groups of the stakeholders.
For example, the management of the company, one of the internal stakeholder groups, aimed to
boost its profit generation by $2000000. Similarly, the investors of the company would also have
vested interests in the business expansion and consequent increase in profit generation since they
would be able to earn higher ROI owing to increase in the net profits.
Discuss creative technique, activity or tactic to be used to gain and acceptance:
The external change management consultant should discuss creative techniques which
could be applied to gain support and acceptance from the resenting truck drivers towards
participation in the business strategies which the management of Fast Track Couriers aimed to
implement. For example, the management could form a social media group on Facebook which
would enable the employees including the drivers to interact in a semi-formal environment. The
management could also adopt policies like giving incentives to drivers on the number of trips
they make to deliver the containers. These tactics would create a sense of relatedness to the
organisation among the drivers which would encourage them to accept and participate in the
strategy of deploying a driver on a truck.
Anticipated possible resistance by this stakeholder and promotion plans for acceptance:
The external change management consultant could anticipate resistance of from the
stakeholder under discussion namely, the general manager. However, the consultant should put
forward arguments to counteract the resistance which the general manager put forward. For
example, the general might opine that the drivers owing to their prevalent disassociation with the

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company may not participate on the social media group which would be formed to gain their
support. The consultant should counteract this resistance from the GM to the social media group
strategy by pointing out that if not all, at least some of the drivers may also join the group. This
joining of some of the drivers to the social media group may encourage more drivers to join in
the future. This would gradually increase the feeling of belongingness among the truck drivers,
gradually decreasing their resistance to the change management strategies of Fast Track Courier.
The general manager may resist the tactic of providing incentives to drivers citing that it may not
lead to increase in substantial revenue growth compared to the increased salary expenditure
which the incentive would attract. Similarly, the change management consultant could counteract
this resistance of the general manager by pointing out that incentives motivate employees in
general to participate in the organisational operations more proactively (Fleischman et al. 2017).
Thus, the drivers may agree to support the strategy of one driver per truck in order to earn the
incentives. These counterargument would enable the consultant to persuade the consultant deal
with the resistances which the general may present to resist implementation of strategies to gain
participation of the driver in the business expansion strategy.
Part 6. Development of plan for a 15-20 minute session for truckers:
The change management consultant should develop a plan and present it before the
employees of Fast Track Courier especially the drivers to gain their acceptance to the
organisational changes. The outline of the activities which would be used to gain participation of
employees are as follows:
1. The employees including the drivers would attend meetings in which the GM would address
them. The GM would discuss the necessities of embracing the changes and the benefits which
they would derive from the changes.

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2. Mentoring and counselling of the drivers in order to enable them to deal with their fears and
insecurities which they experience about organisational changes.
3. Technological training of the driver.
The aforementioned plan would last for a month (30 days). The consultant should also
anticipate to face possible resistances from the employees and deal with them strategically.

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References:
Fleischman, G.M., Johnson, E.N., Walker, K.B. and Valentine, S.R., 2017. Ethics versus
outcomes: Managerial responses to incentive-driven and goal-induced employee
behavior. Journal of Business Ethics, pp.1-17.