Change happens every day in organisations. Whether it is new initiatives around regulation or adopting new technology, the key component to achieving your intended outcomes is your company culture. Many organisations fail to recognise the importance of change management, it is crucial in changing how employees do their work and crucially, their behaviours long term.
Why change management?
Organisations facing major changes often think the answer is to transform their culture by using traditional change management tactics, however, culture is more complex and rarely lends itself to conventional methods. The true measure that your organisation is embracing change manifest in the behaviours of your employees. The benefit of change management for culture is that it puts people first; it taps into the energy and commitment of employees and changes their behaviours.
What are the benefits of change management for culture?
No change initiative in an organisation, including cultural change, should be about simply finding a “one size fits all” solution or ticking a box. Much of the benefit for your new initiative will be linked to people changing their behaviours long term. To achieve this, you will need to ensure your company culture encourages employees to not only to settle for what is necessary but work towards the ideal. Change management closes this gap by supporting those most impacted by the change, to be successful in bringing it to life.
What’s the importance of change management for your organisation?
Change management is key to navigating organisational transition; it helps employees to understand, commit to, accept and embrace changes. Change management that puts culture first has many benefits for your organisation, including:
- Reducing costs and increasing profits: Change in an organisation is generally undertaken to improve performance. Increased performance increases profit. The sooner employees adopt new initiatives with the help of change management, the sooner your organisation can begin to make significant cost savings and efficiencies.
- Mitigate organisational risk: Ignoring the role that culture plays in any change your company undertakes creates unnecessary risk. If the adoption of your initiatives are neglected, the result is often excessive risk and cost. Productivity declines, morale suffers and eventually, employees disengage. Change management focuses on user adoption and an easy transition helping you to avoid additional risk.
- Increase the likelihood of success: When applied effectively, change management can significantly increase the chances of success in your initiative. Getting to the heart of what makes people change their behaviour is the only way to improve their commitment long term.
- Employee engagement: If you fail to actively support and encourage employees through change, you will be leaving their adoption to your changes to luck. By providing employees with the preparation, support and skills they need to succeed, change management removes the chance from change. Ongoing support and engagement with individuals and teams will also help to demonstrate that they are valued in your organisation.
- Sustainable competitive advantage: As organisations are facing faster and more complex changes than ever, having the right tools to deliver multiple changes at once allows your organisation to achieve its strategic vision more effectively. With change management your efficiencies improve, your costs decrease, and your employees become change advocates, keeping you one step ahead of competitors. Building competencies across your business will support your organisation’s capacity to tackle changes now and, in the future, giving you a sustainable competitive advantage.
Change management helps to ease the tension that change can bring and creates a smooth process. It is a formal way of communicating with employees; it tells them why change is happening, what it will look like for company culture and how it will ultimately benefit them. By helping employees better understand change, change management creates a workplace culture that is more open-minded and ready for change.
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