Engaging employees in change is essential to ensure that the change initiative is accepted and “sticks.” Consider these five ways to engage employees in your next change initiative.
- Get employees involved in shaping the change early on. Ask their opinions via a survey or in focus groups. This enables employees to provide their thoughts, concerns and feedback. When employees are involved in shaping the change they are more committed to the change overall.
- Ensure a cross representative group of employees who will actually work on the tasks associated with the change project. Since employees will be working with the change, it is important that they serve on the team who is working on the change project.
- Ask for feedback throughout the change initiative. As the change project progresses, ask employees to provide their thoughts through participation in pilot group testing, surveys, an internal website, focus group sessions or in one-on-one conversations. Enabling for continuous feedback enables for shaping a change initiative that will work for employees.
- Consider creating a stakeholder support committee. This group, comprised of employees from throughout the organization, enables for regular engagement in the change initiative. For complex change initiatives in particular, a stakeholder support committee are your champions on the project and keep others engaged in the initiative through sharing information about the change project.
- Once the change initiative is launched, be sure to check in with employees after they have had time to work with the change. This may be through surveys, focus groups, department meetings or in other forums. Use this check in time to determine improvements that may be made to ensure the next change initiative is even better.
