Many revolutionary forces have an impact on an organisation, including globalisation, privatisation, mergers, deregulation, acquisitions, and movement of work to new lower costing locations, as well as technological advancements, simultaneous empowering of consumers, and changes in demand. Organisations must be fluid, evaluating their work on an almost daily basis to determine whether or not they’re doing the right thing for their staff, shareholders and customers. If they’re not willing to change, strategically or operationally, successful growth becomes impossible.
Internal communications are probably the most important part of change management. Transparency with the workforce in an absolutely essential element when planning any change, big or small. Employees must be aware of the change and their role in it, or else you cannot expect them to play their part in influencing that change, and without them helping you, it becomes difficult and laboured. The communications need managing themselves, because you want your team on your side. Any mistakes made in communicating what you expect from your employees, and your final destination could be costly in terms of both time and resources.
You need to consider a number of elements of your communications, including how you’ll communicate your initial ideas effectively with your staff, and how you’ll answer any questions they might have. Your communication strategy should be thought through and carefully planned. If your workers are clearly communicated to, they will feel more involved and secure, and filled with confidence to assist positively in adapting to whatever direction you set.
Company culture
Before you plan your communications, you need to have a real think about the culture of your organisation and how you’re going to maintain it. If you don’t have a strong culture, it might be time to put one in place. Severe changes should be avoided until a strong workplace culture is embedded in your organisation. Once you have that, it’s important to think about how you keep that culture alive and inspired during your change management process. A big part of that will include weaving it into your communications.
If you have a strong culture already and then you communicate your plans for change in accordance with it, it will make it easier for your staff to understand how you expect them to respond in any given situation. A strong culture equals and invested workforce. If your staff feel as though they will be rewarded for demonstrating the organisation’s values, they’ll be much more likely to be motivated in helping you manage a huge change. Invested employees will often respond positively to any change or adjustment proposed at an organisation, because they feel as though they are needed, valued, and have an influence over the outcome.
Statistically speaking, only one third of organisational changes are successful. Organisational changes are not something you should throw about without careful consideration, so take your time. Install a strong culture, develop a robust communications plan, then progress. Don’t cut corners, or it won’t work. It’s a good idea to start with your stakeholders.
Morale
Organisational change has the ability to cause confusion, negatively affect motivation and productivity, and impact workforce morale. Keeping morale up and helping your staff to stay motivated is very important in organisational change. You must take your employees on a journey through clear and excitable communications with them, otherwise they could become absent. Remember: you need them.
But managing morale can prove difficult. Internal communication can keep workers engaged, but only if it is managed correctly. You want your staff engaged and aligned with organisational change strategies, and successful engagement is crucial to this. Workers who remain engaged are more likely to embrace change and transitions, having often proven a larger interest – and having a greater stake – in the organisation’s success.
Change management can see endless pressures and difficult situations. Seeking and employing professionals with many years of understanding to help you work on internal communications can lead to faster and better results during change. If you’re concerned about change management and the elements that work with it, it might be worth employing a third party professional to help you. Yorkshire Change can offer experienced professionals, who will help your organisation build a robust, morale boosting communications plan to help your company proactively and effectively.
Digital
Organisations on a whole can be sceptical to new ideas, especially if those ideas are digital. There’s something about anything digital or technological that frightens most teams. Times are evolving, though, and these new systems have been designed to make things easier for the company, as well as predicting and influencing results. Digital technology can be used to your advantage. Using digital is the quickest and easiest way to communicate your goals for change to your team.
That’s not to say it’s the only thing you should use. Changes to your organisation should be communicated in person as much as possible, so that employees can feed off your excitement. Once that’s been achieved, you can use digital to set out your marker points and end goal.
Yorkshire Change understands the need for proactive and effective communications. We’ll work with your senior leadership team to create a list of needs, and our fully competent and trained staff will guide you through change management from start to finish, to give you the best possible outcome.