Why people resist change, and how data can help
The modern organization must respond with agility to external changes, whether in markets, employee expectations, or new compliance requirements.
Naturally, this leads to significant internal changes as your organization adapts by adjusting processes, implementing new tools, or redefining goals for employees.
In this blog, we will explore why people might resist change, and how technology itself can help your organization breed a change-enabled culture, rather than one that resists change.
Why do people resist change?
Everyone likes the familiar, and when it comes to day-to-day tasks entertaining new processes on the regular can cause some disruption to workflow. Organizations and HR leaders should consider why employees might find change hard, so that they can adapt their culture to support change, not just reacting when needs must.
Change happening quickly
In certain situations, change may occur rapidly and without much warning, and, excluding simple negligence, even when leaders announce the change as soon as they can, this can still leave little time for employees to adapt and manage change.
Leaders across an organization need to understand how the change will affect employees, and when there is little time for employees to adapt, to make concessions based on this and create appropriate goals.
Fear of the unknown
Why do we resist change in the workplace? For the same reason we resist it anywhere else, we like what we know. However, the perception of risk, related to organizational change, can be reduced by clear communication about the process and the expected output.
Without a clear communication of why change is happening, teams won’t understand why change is necessary. Moreover, employees need commitments that they will be supported in the change process and not just be left behind.
Mistrust in the change process
It goes without saying that a poor HR culture won’t support change, no matter how focused your implementation plan or change management process is.
The flip side of this is that when an employee is supported by an HR culture that supports them and understands the employee experience, no matter how large the change, employees will trust the process led by their managers.
4 tips for change management
Change management has to be embedded in your organization’s culture, rather than something you do when you are trying to implement change. When an employee already has an open and positive experience with HR and company culture, they more readily accept change when trust has already been built.
How a data-driven culture can help
When employees know their performance is judged by numbers, they can be confident that when change does occur the way their performance is being monitored isn’t changing.
Additionally, when reports and data are more readily shared in the company, between the various functions, employees can understand the need for change better and even pre-empt it themselves based on data.
This all relies on building a data-driven culture in your organization.
Click to read Unit4 HCM product brochure Gated
Build trust with a continuous feedback loop
When trust has already been built between manager and employee, backed with the transparency that data and regular conversation bring, they will feel they can have avenues to discuss change and its effects in an open way that will be understood.
When feedback sees action, employees will often be more honest about the change management process as well as the actual implemented change, which can give managers a better understanding of how to improve the process for next time.
Focus on the employee experience
With deep data insight into the employee experience, managers can have a better understanding of how change could affect employees in various roles and can include this in their change management plans, perhaps focusing on those employees who will be affected the most.
Equally, monitoring key metrics like employee engagement, satisfaction, and survey responses, can provide data-driven insights into the implementation process and allow managers and implementers to understand the effects of change on a more granular level.
Listen to the end user
It’s often the end users of systems and processes that can be forgotten about, if implementing a new tool will affect an employee's day-to-day operations it can be beneficial to understand how they will affect them specifically.
Your end user will often understand your stems and operations best, and speaking to them before implementing or changing things can often help you understand the scope of change and implementation the best and help avoid issues before they occur.
How can Unit4 help you manage change?
Unit4’s HCM solution and Talent Management module are ideal tools to support you in change management. Our solutions can help you turn box-ticking HR exercises like surveys and meetings into regular and useful exercises that help you gather data on key HR metrics like engagement and satisfaction.
When manager-employee conversations become a transparent two-way conversation where employees can see their feedback is turned into action, it’s more likely that employees will trust the process and have more faith in managerial decisions.
Moreover, when employees know how their performance is judged and can see the data themselves, they too can understand why change is needed, rather than being blindsided.
To learn more, consult our website, or talk to sales directly, today!
Frequently Asked Questions
How can businesses overcome resistance to change?
Communication is vital, but it’s only the beginning of overcoming change resistance. Involving your people in the process at every stage is critical - as is targeted support throughout the implementation of any changes to individual day-to-day job functions.
Why do employees resist change?
Employees resist change for the same reason anyone resists change - even imperfect solutions are preferable to the unknown, and an unexpected disruption to business-as-usual often makes our lives more difficult (even if the long-term prospects are better).
A failure to properly engage your people with change also risks alienating them from the process altogether.
How should employers deal with resistance to change?
Proper change management and enablement workflows are essential parts of any change implementation. Check out our resources above for more details on how to make use of them in your own projects.
