How Can HR Influence Change Management?

The last few years have seen a lot of change in the business world, and it’s only going to keep changing. For example, in 2023 Millennials became the largest generation in the workforce, and Gen Z employees are projected to overtake Baby Boomers in the next year or so. Many employee experience strategies that worked for older generations will need adjusting for the newer ones.

And that’s just one example. Take evolving employee expectations, the flexibility conversation, and AI advancements, blend them all together, and you get a work environment where the only constant is change.

With that in mind, it’s clear that learning how to introduce and implement change in an effective way will be the difference between businesses adapting to find success and stagnating into irrelevance.

And with 66% of change initiatives failing, we still have some work to do.

In this post, we want to discuss HR’s role in change management and provide some strategies that HR teams can use to help their companies have successful change initiatives. 

Understanding Change Management

What exactly is change management? For our purposes, we like this definition the most: change management is the application of a structured process for managing the people side of change. 

From executives to managers to individual contributors, handling change is hard. Even small, well-meaning changes are disruptive to the status quo. Without guidance, both small and large changes are likely to fail.

Change management means providing the framework, tools, and guidance necessary to help people adopt and adapt to changes in effective ways.

What Are the Risks of Poor Change Management?

Without a systemic strategy in place, introducing change into the workplace is like trying to remodel a house without blueprints. Or framing. Or drywall. You get the picture. 

Common risks include:

• Unsuccessful change. When putting effort and time into planning a change, you don’t want it to fail due to poor reception.
• Performance disruption. Change will always take some time to adjust to, but poorly implemented change can throw employees off their groove for weeks or even months.
• Employee frustration. When workflows are disrupted, processes are changed, and days are changed, employees can get frustrated—especially without guidance from the company.‍
• Harmed customer experience. All of these consequences lead to a poor experience for customers and clients.

The Role of Leadership Vs HR in Change Management

As we mentioned, change management is implementing a process to handle the people side of changes. And HR is the people team. It’s pretty easy to connect the dots, right? HR can play a huge role in change management and helping people adjust.

However, it’s no secret that leadership from the executive team is where changes should start. These leaders need to handle things like:

• What exactly is changing?
• Why is it changing?
• How will it affect each department or team?
• How will it affect each employee specifically?

This preliminary information is key to helping employees understand and accept the change. 

HR, on the other hand, should help with more of the logistics of implementing the change. HR responsibilities should include:

• Analyzing potential impact of the change
• Assessing readiness before the change
• Preparing informational documents if needed
• Providing employee communications
• Developing training programs

With leadership and HR working in step, changes will be more successful than ever before.

Change Management Strategies for HR

Now for the meat of this article—what can HR do to make change management more effective. Here are some strategies for HR to keep in mind.

Providing Change Management Training

Whenever a change will adjust processes or introduce new tools or software, HR should provide a training opportunity for impacted employees to learn the new system and acquire any new skills necessary. This needs to happen before the change officially rolls out so that no one feels like they’re dropped from a plane without a parachute.

Communicating Clearly and Frequently

While leadership will provide the change and the reasoning, HR needs to communicate these things to the company as a whole early and often. Expectations need to be crystal clear to eliminate apprehension and fear.

Here are some ideas for effective communication:

• One sheets that compare the old vs new process
• FAQs that provide as many helpful answers as possible
• Individualized messages that explain any changes to each employee

By providing effective communication beforehand, HR can help reduce friction when the company implements the change initiative.

Assessing Readiness and Areas of Resistance

HR should get a pulse on their people to see how prepared they are for a specific change. And part of that is seeing where there is resistance to change. Change is hard, and some people may be especially resistant to it, especially bigger changes.

By making a thoughtful assessment of how the planned change will impact employees, HR can find out who will be impacted and can work with them pre-change to minimize resistance and build excitement.

Being There to Answer Questions and Provide Resources

HR is the support structure for employees, especially when they’re struggling. If a change initiative is disruptive or hard to get used to, employees need to know that they can get the information and help they need.

HR needs to prepare to provide the best support they can during any change. They need to prepare resources, prepare answers to questions, and prepare for some tough times when the change is implemented. Be patient and understand that change is hard!

Change Is Constant. Let’s Make It Less Scary

Running a business means dealing with change. From implementing a new recognition platform or switching project management systems to adjusting department composition or hiring a new leader, change happens constantly. Hopefully these strategies will help HR teams know how to help make it less intimidating and more effective.

And if you want to implement modern employee recognition to meet modern employee expectations, Awardco’s Customer Service and Implementation teams are experts at making that process easy and stress free. Schedule a demo to see for yourself!