Change Happens – It’s How You Handle it That Matters
The LIHR team recently celebrated our 6th anniversary and as the company matures, we start to see more and more changes that affect us. We have had employees transition into new opportunities and experience life events, which means we get to bring in new employees. What a great opportunity!
What a lot of work…
On the plus side, new employees bring a wealth of knowledge, experience, and different ways of looking at the work we do. On the other side, they have to learn our processes, tools, language, systems, clients, culture, and often-times, a new way of working (as a primarily-virtual consultant compared to their previous corporate or in-house roles). On top of this, they also have to learn how they fit into the team, who to go to for what, different personalities and preferences and styles, and what the heck we even do at LIHR. Read our June blog about onboarding from one of our newest team members for greater insight.
All of this has prompted me to reflect on the fact that change happens. Whether you are the owner, leader, or employee, it happens to you too. This blog explores some ways to approach change proactively to reduce the negative effects and move back into an effective flow.
Change: Identify, plan and manage, evaluate
Change is when the status quo is disrupted. It can be small, like a new brand of pens in the office, or large like a total overhaul of your organizational design, reporting structures, and compensation. Regardless of the change, it involves people in some capacity. And people are unique—that’s the great part of working with people! But it also means it’s difficult to predict how they will react. While I can’t offer you a way to see the future, there are many studies and tools that help us to understand generalities of peoples’ behaviour related to change. It isn’t usually the change itself that’s challenging, but the way that change is planned, communicated, and implemented. How this is handled is within your control.
First, identify the change and develop a plan.
People have a series of reactions to change. These are obviously unique to the individual—a unique depth and timeline to which they experience it – but are similar enough to be helpful in planning. Check out this 3-mins video: The Change Curve - Change Management Training from MindTools.com for more on the Change Curve. Take the time to reflect on the upcoming change and how those who will be affected might make their way through the Change Curve journey.
Change: Communicate early, often, and in different ways
The best change management plans are not helpful if no one knows about them. Right from the start, once you know change is needed, engage with the people who will be impacted. Recognizing that there is something that needs to change, and acknowledging that it exists to others, is sometimes the most difficult step.
Recently, I was working with a group who is implementing a living wage minimum in their organization. They are a not for profit who relies primarily on government funding. After crunching the numbers, we met with the department heads to discuss the plan. Everyone agrees that wages need to increase, but the difficult discussion was about where the funding comes from. No one wants to cut program dollars; however, everyone recognizes that the money needs to come from somewhere. This was a passionate, emotional, and honest conversation amongst leaders, and even though we are yet to a final decision, involving those who will be impacted by the change allowed them to understand the “why” the change is necessary, and go through the anger and confusion stages early on. Perhaps an easier solution would have been for leadership to unilaterally cut budgets and asked those departments to deal with the impact, but by involving people in the change, we are creating understanding and collaboration from the beginning. We meet again in a few weeks and will be able to work through some more of the frustration, but also start to see the innovation and acceptance of a needed change and moving towards a better workplace, and in turn, better service delivery.
We also developed a strategic communications plan around the change. In the initial stages, we listed out each audience (managers, employees, the board of directors, etc.) and determined where each of those audiences were at in terms of the compensation impacts. Then, for each group, we asked ourselves, “what do we want this group to think? To feel? To do?” Employees are provided with monthly information packages to help with the initial stages of anger and confusion, and to help build the understanding of the necessity of the change. This strategy has helped keep us on track and focused not just on the technical changes that are happening, but how we’re communicating to everyone involved.
Change: Monitor and adjust
Once the change has been executed, don’t leave it alone. You need to assess how not only the change itself went, but also how your change management process went. By making change management a living process, you can help keep the change on the path to success.
We have recently worked with a small business that implemented a new HR management system (HRMS) as they had many employees who worked variable shifts, 7 days a week, spread out across a large rural area. As a busy start-up, the employees and managers weren’t engaged in implementation of the new software – it seemed like there was something new every week! The HRMS implementation team did training with a few people on the team, data was cleaned and migrated, and then it went live. Training for employees was available self-serve online, but wasn’t talked about by leadership or the implementation team. When the recruitment team was so busy with all the growth and business development opportunities, they didn’t take the time to learn the new system and maintained the old “spreadsheet” way of doing things. We were called in to help with an escalated discrimination claim when a series of candidates didn’t receive any follow-up communication. In our investigation, it turned out that the recruiter on that portfolio had left the organization, and taken their spreadsheets with them. No one else knew that the candidates had already been booked for interviews and never heard back.
Even when a change management process has not been proactively developed, monitoring and assessment of the change can help correct the communication and change plans. In the case of the HRMS, the reasons why employees need to use the HRMS, training opportunities, and expectations were communicated, and ultimately better supported by employees. One of the key elements for success during change is to allow people time to explore the change and provide the resources for training and learning. Celebrate the wins when things go well with the new change. Eventually, it will become part of the way of working.
Key takeaways and next steps
Change is inevitable in the workplace. Sometimes you have no control over it, like a change to workplace legislation. What you can control is how it is handled. Once change is identified, plan for it. Develop a communication plan for everyone being impacted by the change, and communicate early and often. Give people the time and resources they need to learn and practice, and celebrate the wins. Evaluate how your team handled the whole change management process and make slight tweaks for next time.
As we reflect on both reactive and proactive change management methods, the team at LIHR planning for the future. We are experienced in supporting change management in the workplace and is always happy to host a free discovery meeting to chat more about our services like a Dedicated HR Advisor or HR Consultant starting at just 4 hours per month.
For professional HR advice that you can trust, contact us today!
Lisa Isaac HR Professional Services
From the LIHR team and lead collaborator, Lisa Isaac,CHRL, CHRP, Owner & Sr. HR Consultant Lisa@LisaIsaacHR.com
Photo by Ross Findon on Unsplash
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