Change is going to happen no matter what when you run a business. The simple fact is the ever-marching progress of technology means that all businesses have to embrace change at some point or they lose their competitive edge. Unfortunately, employees do not often embrace change. Once your team is comfortable in their processes, they’re naturally inclined to resist change. This is where data-driven change management can make a difference for your business.
Change doesn’t have to be as painful as employees usually think it is. In fact, with the right organizational change management tactics and processes in place, employees can accept and embrace change. This helps to minimize resistance and maximize the chance new processes and technology are successfully adopted. It helps your business stay ahead of the curve and ensure you can consistently implement change as needed.
Organizational Change Management (OCM) is an approach to ensure changes implemented by an organization are successful. It involved preparing the organization for the change, implementing the change and ensuring the change is successfully adopted after implementation. Organizational Change Management helps to manage the actual change process, but it also focuses on minimizing disruption while maximizing engagement. Organizational Change Management is multifaceted, and it’s important to have certain strategies and processes in place if you want to have effective change management in your organization.
Change is a constant in business, but people often resist change. If you have no change management in place, it’s going to be even more difficult to push changes through. In the worst-case scenario, a lack of change management can lead to initiative outright failing or key talent quitting. Even if these worst-case scenarios don’t happen, mismanaged changes can also lead to wasted resources, confusion, decreased morale and wasted money.
With Organizational Change Management practices in place, you have a structured framework for addressing the human side of change. OCM helps you to ensure that any change is not only successful but also sustainable.
When implementing change management, you want to measure the success of your initiatives. This is where Key Change Indicators (KCIs) come in handy. Key Change Indicators are the metrics organizations can use to measure the progress and impact of change initiatives. This can include a range of data points and metrics, such as employee engagement, productivity, how frequently employees are using technology, etc. KCIs provide valuable insights into if your changes are being adopted and where extra attention may be needed.
Tracking KCIs from during and after implementation can help you identify roadblocks and issues as early as possible, so you can address them before they become bigger problems. It’s a data-driven approach to change management that can help change initiatives feel as seamless as possible, both for the business and for the employees.
Data is used in nearly every facet of business these days, and change management is no different. With quality data, you can get the insights you need to make informed decisions, assess risks, measure success and more. It allows you to make adjustments in real time, see potential obstacles and identify usage trends in the context of the new changes.
With better data, organizations can go from taking a reactive approach during changes to a proactive approach. This improves the chance for change initiatives to be successful and makes things as easy as possible for the team. To collect the data you need for change management, it’s best to use a people analytics platform like Worklytics.
People analytics is the practice of collecting and analyzing data related to your workforce. People analytics can help organizations understand the problems their teams face regularly. Using this information, businesses can implement strategic interventions to address these issues, which improves business outcomes while also making the business a better place to work for employees.
People analytics can measure key metrics like employee engagement, satisfaction, mobility, employee life cycle, management success, collaboration, inclusion and much more. For change management, people analytics can give you direct insight into how change initiatives are affecting your workforce. This information can then be used to tailor change management strategies to better meet the needs of employees, ensuring that they are more engaged and invested in the change process.
Now that we know change management is important, how do you implement effective change management in your organization? Below, we’ve outlined six steps to successfully manage organizational change:
We’ve talked a lot about how important employee buy-in is for any change initiative, which is why it’s the first step for effective change management. You need to engage your team at every level, from leadership on down. This involves communicating why the change is being made, the benefits and how the change is going to be implemented. Engaging employees and leaders from the beginning will make the transition as seamless as possible and increase the likelihood of buy-in.
You can engage your employees and leaders through meetings, emails, workshops and other communication channels. It can also be helpful to include employees and leaders in the planning process so you can understand their current issues and how the change might disrupt their workflows. This increases engagement while also giving you insight into how you can make the change easier on your team.
Before the implementation phase, you’ll want to identify your target outcomes. This means defining what success looks like and setting clear goals for the initiative. Make sure to communicate these goals to everyone to increase your chances of hitting them.
Target outcomes can provide a clear direction for your change initiative and ensure everyone is on the same page. It also helps with identifying your North Star KPIs, which we’ll touch on soon.
Data collection is a necessary part of effective change management. Gather data from a variety of sources like employee surveys, performance metrics, analytics platforms and more to get a comprehensive understanding of what things look like before the change is implemented. Data collection should continue throughout implementation and continuously afterward, too.
Collecting data through every phase of the change initiative allows you to monitor progress and see if the change is making a positive impact. Collecting data can also help you spot trends and issues, so you can make adjustments to the plan as necessary.
We mentioned earlier the importance of setting target outcomes. While having defined goals in mind is crucial, you also need to have ways to measure progress toward those goals. These are your North Star KPIs or key performance indicators. They serve as guiding metrics for your initiative and should help keep everyone on track and working toward the same goals. These KPIs will also help you measure the success of the change initiative on an ongoing basis, so you can optimize your strategy.
Planning and preparation may take a while, but the efforts made will be well worth it when it’s time to implement the change. If things have been carefully prepared, then your team should be ready for the change. Implementation involves executing the initiative and you should have a clear execution plan in place to make things as seamless as possible with minimal disruption to everyone’s workflows.
When implementing the change, keep lines of communication open and provide support as needed. All the planning in the world doesn’t guarantee that the implementation will be flawless, so have measures in place to address any issues that arise during this process.
Once the change has been implemented, the final step in the change management process does not end. You need to continually monitor, measure and adapt. This means tracking the progress of your change initiative, measuring its impact and making adjustments as needed. By monitoring, measuring and adapting, organizations can ensure that the change initiative is not only successful but also sustainable in the long term.
Holistic Workplace Data Makes Change More Effective
In almost every step of effective change management, workplace data is needed to guide your decisions and measure your performance. With holistic workplace data in hand, you can get a comprehensive view of how the change is impacting your team and if it's driving successful business outcomes. If you want to leverage holistic workplace data to make your changes more effective, then Worklytics is your solution.
Worklytics is the ideal platform to help organizations manage and take charge of change. Worklytics provides in-depth people analytics and insights needed to make informed decisions and track the impact of change initiatives. With our platform, you get real-time data that shows you how work is getting done and how your team is reacting to change.
Worklytics provides intuitive self-serve dashboards to dive into insights about employee engagement, lifestyle, collaboration, inclusion, work-life balance and much more. Worklytics is also anonymized to protect the privacy of your team while also keeping your data secure. Ready to learn more? Book a demo with Worklytics today.
