The need to motivate staff during change management

Change management is more effective with all hands on deck. Find out how and why effective HR departments involve not only executives in major operational changes, but also the company as a whole. 

The importance of leadership involvement

It's paramount that business leaders see the importance of a major change program, wrote Rebecca Newton, a leadership advisor, business psychologist and Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics in a Harvard Business Review article. It is detrimental if business leaders see a change initiative as just another HR box to tick and are not thinking as much about the importance of the change that is being proposed.

What's the solution? HR must include senior staff in more discussions and show them that making an adjustment is a priority. They should give the executives concrete examples of how they have improved companies with similar changes in the past and exactly what they plan to do this time around.

Explain why change is necessary

In addition to having greater management involvement, transformations in businesses are in part achieved by informing the company as a whole as to why the change is a good thing. Mark Murphy, the founder of Leadership IQ and author of Hiring Attitude said it well in a Forbes article: "If people don't understand why they need to change, they won't change."

McKinsey and Company found that a whopping 70 per cent of change programs are failures, mostly due to resistance from the employees who feel either uncomfortable changing or simply feel that it is needless.

HR needs to invest more time into engaging employees in the change program. For example, they should show how a change will yield positive results. McKinsey and Company gives the example of a company that frequently sent SMS messages to sales reps, which contained their personal performance, market insights and customer satisfaction information. 

This technique proved successful because it let employees in on the ongoing transformations the company was going through. It also showed the employee their own personal growth as a result of a change in operations.

Here at Flexi Personnel, we know that leading a change program involves tapping into the motivations of employees and leaders and getting them actively involved in the process. Get in touch with our HR Consultants to learn about how we will effectively guide your company to make necessary adjustments.