Help employees adjust to change

Whether it’s changing careers or changing your diet, making changes (and making sure they stick) can often take considerable effort. Change can be uncomfortable, especially if it means dealing with a lot of uncertainty. Making a change in your personal life is one thing, but when you’re making a change in your business that impacts your employees, you’re dealing with discomfort and uncertainty amplified. So how do you get employees to embrace change and feel more comfortable? Here are some ideas…

Consider the hard factors

If you’re a charismatic leader who wholeheartedly believes in making a change in your organisation, you can often get upfront buy-in from your employees. And if you have an equally dedicated and convincing management team, all the better. But it takes more than just ‘soft factors’ like leadership to implement lasting change according to The Boston Consulting Group. You also need to focus on hard factors, like how long change initiatives will take to complete and the overall financial implications (like what financial results you hope to achieve through successful implementation). These are just two examples of hard factors, but all hard factors share some key characteristics:

• They are directly and indirectly measurable.
• Their importance can be easily communicated.
• They can be influenced quickly.

The Hard Side of Change Management, Harvard Business Review, 2005

Think about a change you want to make in your business and ask yourself the ‘hard’ questions before you start putting up posters or sending email blasts. How many people will be impacted and what is required of them? Does it go way beyond what’s reasonable considering their current responsibilities? How long will this change take to implement? These are just some thought starters, but really consider these hard factors before giving a rousing speech that calls for change. While leadership support and C-suite buy-in is important, the more practical components of the planned change are too.

Create a culture of acceptance

According to author and differentiation strategist Andrea Belk Olson, some of the most successful change management initiatives have stemmed from creating a culture of change acceptance far in advance of introducing any changes. Change acceptance starts with your organisational culture and focusing on:

• Legitimising your change initiative by involving more than just the head honchos. Are there lower-level staff who are influential and can get your team excited? Can you appoint ‘change champions’ across departments who can share your vision?
• Ensuring your employees feel a sense of ownership when changes are implemented. Have their suggestions and concerns been heard, or simply glossed over? Have you fostered a collaborative environment?
• Missing Attainability. Nothing is more disheartening than a change process that drags on and on with no end in sight, or changes that feel totally unrealistic and unattainable. Make sure that the change you’re implementing can be broken up into achievable chunks, so employees can see progress and don’t become despondent.

Collaboratively rewrite your employees’ personal compacts

Back in 1996, professor at the International Institute for Management Development Paul Strebel believed that the personal compact was the cornerstone of doing organisational change management right. He described compacts as follows: “Employees and organizations have reciprocal obligations and mutual commitments, both stated and implied, that define their relationship. Those agreements are what I call personal compacts.” Personal compacts are so important (and still relevant today) because they are what’s familiar to an employee. Introducing a sudden change alters the terms of that compact, and can alter it across three dimensions:

• Formal: This includes the more traditional contractual agreements for employees – their job description, KPIs, performance agreements. A change may impact their working hours or areas of responsibility.

• Psychological: This is a less overt aspect and includes things like an employee’s personal commitment to an organisation, their loyalty and an understanding of how the company rewards their efforts, particularly in relation to their managers. Does a certain change you’re implementing expect an above-average level of commitment from employees with very little reward?

• Social: This relates to company culture and the company’s values, and how the employee believes the company really works (do they do more than talk the talk). If the company’s values suddenly change, so does its identity which may negatively impact an employee’s sense of belonging or inclusion.

If you’re implementing changes, what dimensions of your employees’ personal compacts are most impacted? All of them or just one aspect? How are you going to collaboratively redefine what employees have come to naturally expect in order to see change happen successfully? Remember, revising these compacts isn’t about pleasing everyone but rather about ensuring your change objectives are met while also ensuring expectations on employees are realistic and don’t completely alter their way of work. Providing the right context for these revisions is also important – why are you implementing these changes in the first place, and do employees have a full understanding?

Change is never easy, but there are ways to help employees adjust. When it comes to managing remote offsite projects, change is inevitable. Shifting deadlines, supplier disruptions and workforce needs may all necessitate change which needs to be effectively managed. With 12 years of experience in handling remote offsite projects, we are well versed in ensuring that any necessary changes – whether a formal initiative or a one-off – are well received by your project team and clients.