The ultimate guide to Digitizing Change Management

The ultimate guide
to Digitizing Change
Management

INTRODUCTION
Businesses are continuing to invest heavily in
digitally transforming their organizations. The
Digital Transformation market alone is set to be
worth $2tn by 2020 (IDC).
With the speed and scale of software
implementations increasing at a drastic rate,
businesses are pressured to react to the demand to
implement feature rich, highly complex
technologies faster than ever before.
This pressure questions whether traditional
processes for change management, communication,
training and support are fit for purpose and more
importantly sustainable in line with business and
software change.
The ultimate guide to Digitizing Change Management

INTRODUCTION
This challenge is not just something that clients are
facing alone it is also a conundrum that both
vendors and systems implementers alike are having
to address also?
SI’s – Systems implementers and service providers
often assume the responsibility for change
management, enablement, training and support.
Businesses are challenging them to connect with
their workforce in new and more effective ways.
Similarly, the pressure to demonstrate readiness for
change quicker is also apparent as new
technologies represent an opportunity to collect
deeper insights into employee readiness and
perception.
Vendors – this direct impact of poorly executed
change management will ultimately be felt by the
vendor as opportunities to upsell further modules
and retain customers will be challenging.

INTRODUCTION
More organizations are asking for digital
alternatives in RFP’s for change management
representing an early view
that organizations are aware that traditional
methods are out of date, ineffective and do not
resonate with their users.
The need for sustainable solutions to these
challenges has grown out of the learnings from
early cloud transformation projects.
Organisations realized that their communication,
training and support strategies needs to
accommodate their future users that they have not
yet hired that will one day need to engage with
their existing technologies and processes whilst
accommodating constant change for regular users.
What is the answer?

An expert in HR Transformation. With
over 18 years experience in
transforming corporate support services
& managing the people implications of
major change programmes.
Niraj Varia, Director of HR
Transformation at Cushman &
Wakefield
An experienced HR Transformation
Consultant with a sustained record
of leading and implementing major
global and international change
programmes.
Margaret Ruiseal, Head of HR
Transformation Practice, Europe at
Mercer
HR Transformation Specialist and
Global Programme Director, strong
candidate for CHRO, HR CIO and
HR COO roles in larger corporates
and enterprises.
Aaron Albury, HR Transformation
Specialist. & Founder of LACE
Partners
Experienced Director of Product
Strategy with a demonstrated
history of creating and selling
innovative solutions in the
information technology industry.
Andrew Barlow, Director of
Product Strategy, AppLearn,
Question-master
WE ASKED THE EXPERTS
AppLearnThe ultimate guide to Digitizing Change Management

Why are businesses investing In
Digital Transformation
“Clearly cost saving is a key
consideration, efficiency of processes
and competition in the market.”

What is driving the need for
such investments?
“Only 8% of executives say their
organisation is digital, 77% are on the
journey.
User expectation of digital at work linked
to the generational change. Margaret:
Drive for increased analytics provided by
digital systems.”

What areas of the business are
investing in Digital Transformation?
“Traditional areas for digital transformation started
with CRM systems and knowledge of customer
behaviours and relationships.
Then came investment in infra-structure (HR, Finance,
Procurement, Research). Cloud based technologies are
replacing traditional ERP systems.
In HR we are looking at fundamentally different ways
in which we attract, develop and connect our talent 6
There is now greater disruption in our core products
and service lines. New competitors are attacking the
cash rich parts of our business, delivering ‘standard’
services at a lower cost.”

What challenges do businesses face when embarking in
Digital Transformation programmes?
Margaret: “The speed with which the technology can be delivered is much greater than individual
speed of behaviour change. The impact on culture and leadership that follows a digital
transformation. Lack of in-house skill and ability to deliver the change compared with the
Providers.”
Aaron: “Understanding the impact on the user Experience. Underestimating the adoption of new
ways of working.”
Niraj: “Can speak to either one of; Pace of change – e.g. how we attract new talent? They have to
be able to find and apply for jobs on their mobile, is your talent acquisition strategy and team
ready to embrace this? Leadership – managing a multi- generational and diverse workforce makes
it difficult to predict how they will react. Does your leadership even acknowledge the issue?”

What role does Change Management have in
Digital Transformation?
Margaret: “Change management is about leadership, engagement, communication, training and
measurement should be able to demonstrate the “wifm” factor of the change ensures the value
from the business case is delivered.”
Niraj: “Businesses make huge investment in technology, recruits the brightest talent they can
afford to manage the programme, and many even deploy on time and budget, and may initially
realise their efficiencies. Yet, a couple of years after deployment, they have to make further
investment in an ‘Optimisation’ programme because of poor adoption, or shadow roles popping
up elsewhere in the organisation, benefits being diluted. Change management is often talked
about or even ‘blamed’ for poor execution – yes, it is critical as any other part of the programme.”

What unique pressures do modern
technology deployments bring to
traditional Change Management?
“The need to better articulate the impact by persona –
one size doesn’t fit all. More emphasis on marketing
content than on stakeholder tracking
In the case of a recent Workday implementation the
modern approach brings the change management
requirement much further forward in the agenda. The
prototyping methodology followed by so many SaaS
products requires early messaging and engagement.”

What is the result of getting this wrong?
Margaret: “No adoption and so you don’t deliver against the business case, costly implications of
re-design or re-planning & Reputation and risk – you might get fired!
Niraj: “The organisation will have to make further investment in ‘Optimisation’, in some cases even
a restart/re-deployment. Yet the programme has lost its credibility in the organisation at that
stage, making change even more difficult.”

Why are traditional
approaches failing? Are they?
“Not enough consideration to post go
live operation adoption support.
Following a one size change approach.
Clinging to traditional training
approaches.”

Can this affect the value that the business gets from their
investment in technology? Why will it affect and how?
Margaret: “Yes, usually reduction in workforce associated with automation – may not be delivered
Psychology of the sunk cost = must keep spending to make it work overcome the problems Missed
opportunities.”
Aaron: “Definitely – re-work, loss of engagement, data completion for the sake of data completion
eroding quality and damaging analytics.”

Is the pressure to deploy
technology quickly a problem?
“Yes, this comes into different guises
There is an every growing list of
investment programmes and requests,
driven by the disruptive change in our
businesses
Second, there is no such thing as
business as usual any more, we are
facing constant change
We integrated about over 20,000 new
employees across 40+ countries on our
Workday platform, as a result of a
merger in our business in the same
timeframe as we managed to upgrade
our previous ERP platform.”

Are businesses under more pressure to demonstrate
business readiness for change?
Margaret: “There is an inherent assumption with technology that people are ready for the change.
The idea of readiness gets lost in the rush to implement. 35% of CEOs think HR do not provide a
digital experience – so expect them to be ready to deliver it.”
Niraj: “Yes, but I think the real challenge is organizations and specialists can articulate the
challenges, follow all the right steps, yet the execution is below expectation, and adoption remains
an issue.”

Is technology being used to implement change faster and
measure change more accurately?
Aaron: “Yes – a number of products are coming to the fore to help digitise this element. Digital
allows for context sensitive support. Digital also allows for Point of Need and deeper more
targeted analytics on change.”
Niraj: “Yes, technology enables you to implement change faster, but the ability to measure change
remains a challenge – e.g. just because you have a high hit rate on your reference guides, does not
mean they understand the strategy and are executing this well.”

Do businesses have the tools that they need to connect with
their people and sustain interest in such programmes?
Margaret: “Fundamentally HR is seen as support so new HR digital tools are not seen as core
business but as a detractor, so connection with the business strategy has to be made. Existing
channels are not good enough, businesses need to be more creative in their change approach.
Needs to be just in time – managers will want to know how to engage with the system at point of
need e.g. transfer, performance management and don’t want lengthy up-front training.”
Aaron: “No in a recent survey we carried out of 120 companies less than 25% said they had a
digital adoption strategy.”
Niraj: “Businesses and our people have a low attention span – they are involved in multiple change
initiatives, expect quick and instant results, this should make us think differently about sustaining
change.”

What experiences do you have with businesses that have to
overcome these internal pressures to implement change faster
and demonstrate readiness for change?
Margaret: “Global bank drive to introduce within one year need to deliver the readiness first –
looking across the whole HR system before implementing the tool – divide the implementation
into 2 phases.”
Niraj: “Not sure I believe there is one answer, significant differences in methodology and
approach, or one toolkit. Based on my recent experience, pragmatism, focus, having a range of
tools and ideas and flexibility to pull different levers during the programme improves the chances
of execution
On my programmes in the last 3-4 years we had different change specialists and consultancies
advise us, arguably with limited impact. Some of the best results 9 we achieved were when we
pulled a business leader out and appointed him as the change lead, supporting him with the right
tools and resources.”

What benefits will these types
of tools give the business?
“Change and adoption works in
mysterious ways. Having simple, on
demand, small bursts of content targeted
to the individual at the right times is
delivering the best results
Providing the ability for users to create
and share their own content is
increasingly important.”

How will this affect the way that
we report on success?
“It is getting more difficult to report on success of a
programme, let alone change management. No longer are
traditional metric being used and the infrastructure teams
are no longer playing a ‘policing’ role, e.g. look at the trends
in how performance is being managed in our organisations
and how people are appropriately rewarded.
No answers just some tips – have a dynamic dashboard and
feedback systems; look at what content is being targeted,
create a pull factor from the business to address specific
topics, short bursts of promotions, and reduce the noise.
Having suffered from poor adoption of CRM systems in the
programme, one area unexpectedly had much better take-
up. It emerges those teams had used the CRM tool as the
method for requesting business development support, so
this business was requesting change support and tools, not
the programme.”

Will traditional Change Management continue to be challenged
as businesses continue to invest in Digital Transformation?
Margaret: “The concepts of change won’t be challenge – what it takes to change behaviour
doesn’t change. What will change are the tools and approaches to deliver against that and the
speed of the transition. There is a need for a multi layered approach.”
Niraj: “Yes – pace of change, shorter attention spans and the different expectations of when and
how are our people need support, reduces the chances of traditional approaches having the
desired impact on programme and business performance.”

Are businesses thinking about
the issue properly?
“Still a maturing market. More can be done on
metrics and measures. Data still be gathered to
prove knock on affect to support functions.”

Are they preparing themselves to
invest in solutions to address this?
Are they budgeting properly?
“HR budget is always a challenge. Made harder by
providers emphasising the simplicity of their systems
and therefore the need to invest in change tools.
Need to emphasise the value to the business in terms
of analytics etc to support the financial business
case.”

What advice would you give to someone embarking on a large
digital change project?
Margaret: “Start with the business strategy to develop the business case and then ensure you
have full leadership buy in.”
Aaron: “Plan early, budget for post go-live and leverage technology from the first communication.”
Niraj: “There are new and innovative solutions, lots of advice available, but you need to be an
informed client to make informed decisions on your programme and influence your stakeholders
and leadership teams.”

Any last words?
Margaret: “Successful change management starts with a fully aligned and engaged leadership
team who can articulate the case for change and how this supports the business strategy – if you
don’t have this, it won’t succeed!”
Aaron: “Adoption and Adaptation are now the key metrics for successful technology
implementations. Don’t be part of the 75%.”
Niraj: “Don’t spend your time search for one answer and a single solution.”

Address: 16 High Holborn, London, WCIV 6BX
Telephone: 08455 202080
Thank you
The ultimate guide to Digitizing Change Management AppLearn

The ultimate guide to Digitizing Change Management

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