Bring your people on board through thoughtful change experiences

Authored by Steve Wakeham, Associate Partner at EY Canada

Helping people engage with transformational is as important as new technology, powerful tools and refreshed policies, as their experience is the real business imperative in a changing market.

New technology, powerful tools and refreshed policies are all well and good. But the way you help people engage with those transformational drivers is equally important. Their experience is the real business imperative in a market where the only constant is change.

People — and their expectations around work — have evolved dramatically over the last two years. As folks return to offices in Canada and around the world, 90% of employees have come to expect flexibility in when and where they work. More than half are willing to resign over it. Even so, that’s just one piece of an increasingly complex puzzle. The shifts reshaping the workforce now are driving employers to rethink just about every aspect of operations. This is giving way to a veritable tidal wave of large-scale transformational change:

• 65% of employers are planning to invest in better office technology.
• 48% expect to spend on software that supports collaboration and enhances home office productivity going forward.
• 51% anticipate a decrease in business travel and are re-evaluating mobility strategies accordingly.
• 100% are considering at least one change or policy enhancement around learning and skill development.

Clearly, employers are tuned in to employees’ shifting needs and adapting. That’s a good thing. But it’s not enough to simply implement these updates. Transformation results are only ever as strong as the workforce’s willingness to buy in and actually adopt desired behaviours. Any organization that wants to gain the full lift that innovative tech, tool and policy investments can bring should pair those efforts with a human-centric change experience plan designed with employees in mind.

Consider these four guiding principles to kickstart change experience planning and empower your people to embrace the transformation you’re driving for — and with — them:

1. Put your people at the heart of change by grounding their experience in rich human insight. From awareness and readiness to sentiment and adoption: your understanding of employees is your superpower. Invest in data-gathering at the front end of your change experience and plan to get a clear view of where people stand today. This is foundational; it’s how you begin to put humans at the center of your transformation. Then, use surveys, focus groups and listening sessions to get a sense of whether change is sinking in and what aspects of your transformation efforts are resonating the most.
2. Bring the change experience to life by connecting it clearly to organizational purpose. Change management tends to focus on celebratory, moment-in-time engagement opportunities. These initiatives are key. In and of themselves, they’re no longer enough to encourage true adoption of new behaviours. You must effectively rally people around the why behind the change itself. That’s where purpose comes in. Help people understand why the changes you’re creating will benefit them and enable their teams to deliver on a clearly stated purpose or goal. It’s essential to engage in leader-led, data-driven change that permeates your organization's culture and offers comprehensive understanding into the why behind the shift. When leaders walk the walk and emulate the right behaviours by committing to purpose, employees notice. Behaviour dashboards can help you track progress along the way.
3. Make the change experience a personal experience. When change is managed at the personal level, with real consideration for the challenges, feelings, concerns and desires of the workforce itself, it’s much more likely to succeed. The best change experiences will feel inherently reflective of the unique individuals who make up your organization. They will address the core needs of key personas across the organization. Authentic, genuine, and personal go a long way for people expected to welcome change and transform the way they work or behave. Build a personal and inclusive plan not from the top down, but the bottom up. Use the change experience to deepen connections and speak directly to the nuances that characterize your workforce.
4. Get interactive to inspire change agents across the organization. Change experiences shouldn’t be one sided. Make people part of the process by creating interactive opportunities for them to weigh in, share ideas, provide feedback and spread excitement. Take what you’ve learned about your people and channel that insight into interesting new ways of helping them feel good about the change they’re supporting. Consider gamification. Explore communications channels. Think through in-person opportunities. Figure out who you need to involve and cultivate interactive experiences that empower those individuals to go out and serve as ambassadors for the transformation. Whether your audience is after high-tech activities or low-tech touchpoints, there are endless ways to create interactivity across your program. Tap into what you know about the audience. Then, invest to bring change to life in interactive ways people will remember.

1. Consider people first. Modern operating models should start with a human-centred design. Cultivating a rich understanding of how people will engage, collaborate and serve your customer is crucial. Equally important is knowing the way people will work — in office, hybrid or remote. Consideration needs to be given to these realities, as they will both inform and enable new alternatives.
2. Build around purpose. Align the way you operate with the reason your organization exists. Creating an “efficient” design when you want to encourage innovation and collaboration may not end well. When it comes to design and desire, there can be no disconnect between the two. Every element of the design and every action deployed must come back to support the visionary purpose and enable the desired culture.  
3. Connect through platforms. Enabling people and operations with digital tools and platforms allows your people to make data-driven insights in real time. It’s imperative to strengthen business resilience through digital capabilities that empower your people to stay informed to enable organizational agility and innovate often. Digital operating models that harness the power of data and platforms will flatten the organization and inform how your people will organize themselves to serve their customers.