Taking your employees on a successful change journey
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At Southerly, we believe that internal communication is the key to success during times of change. If you peruse our blog, you’ll see we’ve explored the most effective ways to share messages to your employees – from the quality of your internal newsletters to using social media if you’re working on a budget. But whatever tactics you choose, it all starts with planning – and a strong communications strategy will ensure that change is communicated to the right people, in the right way, at the right time.
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Taking your employees on a successful change journey
- 1. Change can be challenging; good communication makes it easy Taking your employees on a successful change journey
- 2. Types of change The human response to change The change communications cycle Your plan of action Understanding the audience Key objectives Key messages and communication channels Measuring your success Agenda
- 3. “The only thing constant is change - Heraclitus Research shows that most organisations undergo major change about once every three years. But, as well as the big changes, there is also a constant churn of many smaller changes taking place.* *Government Communication Service
- 4. What type of change are you trying to communicate? Technology improvements Process changes New or retiring products Transformation programmes Restructures
- 5. The human response to change
- 6. The four stages of change
- 8. Your plan of action All good communications campaigns need to be underpinned by a clear strategy and plan, and discussing change internally is no different. • What you’re trying to achieve (your key objectives) • Who you’re talking to and how you will communicate it (personas) • Key messages and communication channels • Timeframes (mapped against change cycle) • How you will measure your success
- 9. Key objectives All good communication and marketing plans should start with a set of clear business and marketing objectives. And change communications is no different. These key objectives identify what you are trying to achieve and how your communication activities will help you do this. This is crucial in helping you define your key messages, target audiences, channels you’ll use and the activities you’ll undertake.
- 10. Understanding your audience How can you communicate effectively with anyone if you don’t know who you’re talking to? • Demographic data (employment tenure, age, location etc.) • Measure your current channels (intranet, internal newsletters, emails, survey responses) • Employee pulse surveys • Face-to-face communication • Polls and question inboxes
- 11. Create employee personas Personas are fictional characters created to represent the different needs, goals, motivations, and behaviours of your employees.
- 12. Change communication is all about the three Cs. Your messages need to be: Clear Consistent Compelling Saying things that matter
- 13. Use these the channels they’ve identified • Email and Yammer • Intranet article series • Town hall meetings • Team meetings and 121s • Social media • Desk drops, flyers, desk calendars • Question boxes • Posters and wall vinyls • Print magazines and newsletters And turn monologues into conversations!
- 14. Lead the way Consider the different types of stakeholders who may need to be involved. Internal communications Human resources Business analysts Training and development Senior managers Staff ambassadors
- 15. Measure your success (and areas for improvement) • Establish how well the messages have been understood • Gauge staff moral and engagement levels • Highlight concerns that have arisen as a result of the changes Caution! You should only carry out an employee survey if you are going to act on the information you gain.
- 16. Keep talking! People and processes do not change overnight, so successful change is about keeping the momentum going.
- 18. We tell stories that engage your audience. We use words, conversations, video and pictures to tell your story. We work online, face to face and in print to create compelling content. But really, the medium by which we tell your story doesn’t matter, it’s how we tell it that makes the difference. So how can we help tell your story? 020 3397 4971 - info@hellosoutherly.com - www.hellosoutherly.com
Editor's Notes
- *Government Communication Service - https://communication.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/ic-space/change-communications/what-is-change/ Research shows that most organisations undergo major change about once every three years. But, as well as the big changes, there is also a constant churn of many smaller changes taking place. Major change can include re-structuring or adopting new working processes, while minor change can mean anything from the introduction of new learning and development events or local parking provision. Even the minor changes, when taken cumulatively, can have a major impact on people over time.
- Technology improvements Process changes Transformation programmes Restructures?
- The human response to change. The Change Curve is based on a model originally developed in the 1960s by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross to explain the grieving process. However the model also holds true when it comes to business, work or employment. The Change Curve model describes the four stages most people go through as they adjust to change. This change be broken into four stages of changes.
- When a change is first introduced, people's initial reaction may be shock or denial, as they react to the challenge to the status quo. This is stage 1 of the Change Curve. Once the reality of the change starts to hit, people tend to react negatively and move to stage 2 of the Change Curve. They may fear the impact; feel angry; and actively resist or protest against the changes. Some will wrongly fear the negative consequences of change. Others will correctly identify real threats to their position. As a result, the organisation experiences disruption which, if not carefully managed, can quickly spiral into chaos. For as long as people resist the change and remain at stage 2 of the Change Curve, the change will be unsuccessful, at least for the people who react in this way. This is a stressful and unpleasant stage. For everyone, it is much healthier to move to stage 3 of the Change Curve, where pessimism and resistance give way to some optimism and acceptance. At stage 3 of the Change Curve, people stop focusing on what they have lost. They start to let go, and accept the changes. They begin testing and exploring what the changes mean, and so learn the reality of what's good and not so good, and how they must adapt. By stage 4, they not only accept the changes but also start to embrace them: They rebuild their ways of working. Only when people get to this stage can the organisation really start to reap the benefits of change.
- - The bigger the organisation, the more segmented it will be. You will have more departments, more locations and a variety of people so it is important to define your audience and understanding their concerns. Who do they want to get the information from and what channels would they like to be communicated through? Understand your audience: You should also take the time to understand what makes your employees tick. By building a clear picture of their hopes and fears you will know how to structure your messages most effectively. It’s important to ensure that people have multiple opportunities to share their concerns and ask questions. Don’t overlook the obvious. This has to be a two-way process, and that involves listening to staff and creating forums for people to ask questions and have face-to-face conversations with their line managers. Demographic: Employment tenure, age, location, do they work remotely, have line managers. Pulse survey: An employee pulse survey is a fast and frequent survey system, that does away with complex questions and is intentionally designed to be done weekly, or every few weeks. They give a quick insight into the health of a company, hence the name ‘pulse’. Face-to-face communications: Talk to your employees face-to-face in team meetings, gather their feedback, run a workshop Polls and question inboxes: Create intranet polls or invite them to submit feedback, thoughts, feelings or concerns before they start a campaign. Create employee personas: Once you have this data, create employee personas, each group may need a different set of key messages to help them along the change journey.
- Personas are fictional characters created to represent the different needs, goals, motivations, and behaviours of your employees. They will help you to conceptualise what that person would need or want in real life. They are extremely useful when developing your overarching strategy as they can help define your key message, what channels you should use and the timing of your key messages. They are depicted as a person but they are not a real person.
- Clear: Keep things as simple as possible. Even when you are communicating complex information, you should always make sure that it’s delivered in a way that people can quickly understand. That doesn’t mean you should diminish the message for the sake of brevity. There are times when providing more information will make it easier for your employees to see the bigger picture. For example, tell people exactly what you mean when you say the organisation needs to be more responsive, or that you’re right-sizing the business for success, and why that needs to happen. Explain the rationale and be honest, particularly if some of the upcoming changes – such as job losses - may present challenges for certain people. Your employees may not like what they are hearing but they will react better when they are confident they have access to all the facts. If you need staff to do things differently, take on new behaviours or new ways of working as part of the change process then tell them that explicitly. Where appropriate, offer training and guidance. Some will be proactive and embrace the new ways of working but others will need to be helped and led. Consistent: The messages must remain constant throughout the whole change process. All line managers and key departments, specifically HR and internal communications, need to be delivering the same information in the same way across every channel. Any inconsistency will cause confusion and potential resentment that could negatively impact on the wider process. Compelling: Once you know what you’re saying, you need to make sure you deliver it in a way that gets people’s attention. It can be challenging to break through the noise of everyday company life, so think about how you are going to make your messages stand out and receive the attention they need and deserve.
- Senior management and line managers need to become ambassadors and lead from the front. Depending how big your company is, it could be beneficial to create a specific team of senior managers who will actively lead the change. Staff also need to hear the views and vision of those at the very top of the company. The CEO or managing director should deliver core communications to all staff at key points through the process. In our experience, successful change is also born out of bringing together the right people in the right roles. Think about your teams and what they can bring to the table; it’s likely you will need experts to cover: Internal communications responsible for getting the key messaging right Human resources coaching and supporting the change ambassadors and the staff Consultants (drawn from an external source or seconded from within the business) – these will be your change management experts, advising on the strategy Business analysts looking at the impact on the organisation Training and development giving staff the training they might need to adapt to the new situation
- One way to do this is by conducting an employee engagement survey before and after your communication campaign. The first survey is an opportunity to establish answers to the questions we covered earlier around how staff work and the best ways for them to receive key information and messages about the business. It can also be used to identify concerns which will influence the communications strategy.
- People and processes do not change overnight, so successful change is about keeping the momentum going. It’s easy to underestimate the length of time required, but most change initiatives will benefit from a communications plan that ensures a steady flow of information that continues even once the change has taken place. You need to share information across the entire business – not just with those who you think will be affected directly. This has to be a two-way process, and that involves listening to staff and creating forums for people to ask questions and have face-to-face conversations. It’s important to ensure that people have multiple opportunities and channels to share their concerns and ask questions. Think about the change cycle