Change is one of the most challenging activities to initiate in the workplace. Most management personnel find it difficult to start a change successfully. Because change is inevitable in an organization, it requires specialized knowledge and skills to ensure that employees receive it positively. One of the ways of successively is through the proper engagement of the employees in accepting the change. There are various strategies for engaging employees during the change management process.
The first step is through creating a common vision on how employees will achieve a change. Before the change is initiated, the employees must be informed of the changes vision, which prepares their mind and energy on incoming change. The second procedure is developing a strategy. After employees are aware of the change’s vision, it is good to inform on how the change will be achieved. All employees and other stakeholders should be informed of their roles and the new skills which will be required. Third, communication is an essential tool for engaging in change management initiation. The frontline and middle leaders are directly linked to the employees, and as a result, they should be used to communicate the change to the employees. Communication should be made earlier and often. Everybody affected by the change should be engaged in why and how the change will happen. Lastly, leaders should offer the right environment that allows employees to ask a question or raise issues regarding the change. This can be achieved by giving an appropriate response and reasoning with the employees.
Different management levels have different roles to play during a change management initiative. HR plays an essential role in ensuring employees is capable of adapting to the change. They play the role of training and ensuring that employees are conversant with any new skills that accompany the change. Second, they play the role of monitoring and motivating employees towards accepting the changes and making them part of the system. They achieve this through appreciating employees for their efforts to incorporate and learn the changes.
Middle-level managers or supervisors play a greater role during change management. First, managers communicate with a direct report about the change. Second, managers engage and support project teams throughout the process of change. Through engagement, they will be able to understand the pace at which employees are adapting to the change as well as the challenges faced in the process. Lastly, managers play the role of coaching employees through the change process.
The C-suite level occupies the top positions such as CEO, COO, CMO, CIO, and CHRO. They play an important role in change management initiatives. Their first role is to measure the essentiality of the change and the benefits it would have to the organization. Second, C-suit officers assess if the company’s capabilities of initiating the changes in terms of finances and as well as preparing other change management resources.
As stated above, change management is one of the problematic activities to initiate in any company. However, some tips ease the process of change management if they are incorporated. Successful change management requires planning, communication, training, and monitoring. Planning usually involves the preparation of a budget and the schedule of achieving the change. Communication is a fundamental pillar of any change management. The change management should communicate why the change is necessary and how it will be achieved. Also, change managers should be aware of change resistance and thus establish how to deal with it. Training is another essential factor that successful change manages to incorporate. This is because employees may not have the vital skills to complete the task with the changes. Lastly, monitoring involves supervising if employees are capable of incorporating changes and the rate of adopting the changes. This enables change managers to identify and correct any issues that may be established during the process of change.