Organisational change might make sense from a business perspective, but it can often feel very unsettling for its workforce. It’s therefore vital that it’s effectively managed, so here are five areas by Caroline Hawkesley, Chief Operations Officer at Progeny that businesses should focus on to help successfully accomplish this type of change and ensure it achieves its objectives.
People first
The goals and objectives of an organisational change within businesses are traditionally revenue, cost and client driven, and its people are too often overlooked. However, people are vitally important in any piece of change management because they fuel and maintain its momentum. The human brain inherently likes certainty and so change can often cause anxiety and stress to the employees involved, as they experience concerns around job security, process changes and shifts in culture
Change models, such as the Kubler-Ross Change Curve, can be effectively used by business leaders to help their workforce adapt to and prepare for the stages of change. Initially known as the five stages of grief, this model of emotions was recognised to extend to the corporate world and the majority of situations relating to change.
The change curve and other models help business leaders to recognise that employees need time to adjust and make sense of proposed changes. It’s therefore important not to set restrictive timelines for embedding any kind of major organisational change.
The importance of leadership
In order to support change in an organisation, employees have to first understand its rationale and what it means for them. This is where positive leadership is vital, to support and champion change visibly, not only throughout the launch and rollout, but for an extended period afterwards.
The ability to do this authentically however relies heavily on those at the top being genuinely engaged throughout the change management activity, so they understand what it will mean for their teams at each stage, how roles may evolve and the plans for future hierarchy, systems and controls and processes.
Plan to succeed
The impact on resource during a major organisational change cannot be underestimated and change management tends to involve a huge spike in work, especially during the launch and rollout period.
It’s vitally important to understand exactly what the change process looks like and do as much preparation as possible, so having a project plan is essential if a major organisational change is going to achieve its objectives. This provides the business with both a means to track performance and drive progress, as well as being a critical communication tool.Businesses need to focus as much on people as on tasks, so the plan needs to encompass preparing teams for change, including things such as new roles, systems and processes.
Clear change communication
No news is not good news when it comes to organisational change. Regular communication, however limited in detail, is critical in creating awareness and understanding of the processes and timetable, as well as building buy-in and helping to reduce anxiety.
The key is to be transparent and communicate frequently and authentically about what’s happening at every stage of the process. Celebrate critical milestones and be honest when things aren’t going to plan. There may be hard questions that require candid answers and this requires strong leadership, from senior team members who have confidence in the end-result and clear parameters in terms of what they can and can’t share.
Consider client outcomes and service
One of the most important factors to consider when planning organisational change is enhanced client outcomes and service.
Hopefully all organisational change will have this at its core, so it needs to be a key part of all initial messaging, helping clients to understand the ‘why’ behind the change. Sometimes there may be unavoidable short-term impacts on servicing or experience, in which case these should be communicated, but if undertaken successfully, clients should have very limited exposure to any change curve. Essentially, the focus should be, how will clients be better served when this change is complete? If this is kept central at all times, then the potential risks are likely to be low.
In summary, an organisational change creates a new vision of the future for all of a company's stakeholders. How change is delivered is the key to its success and change initiatives will undoubtedly fail to achieve their objectives if they don’t capture the hearts and minds of their workforce.
