Change Management

One of the great inevitabilities is change.  When Covid-19 began to spread across the US, change happened on a massive scale.  Companies shut down for weeks or months.  Others went to a remote or hybrid model overnight.  There was fear and uncertainty in many industries.   

Ideally, a change does not occur quite as rapidly, and organizations are able to process change in short and long term planned conversions.   

What can cause a company to change? 

One cause – crisis.  Financial crisis, the attacks on 9/11, Covid – organizations changed because of these things.  This is a forced change, in a short period of time there are massive changes to wellness, safety, and money.  Government policy can cause a change, such as the taxation on employers under the Affordable Care Act. 

Technological advancements can cause change and be extremely beneficial to an organization in terms of simplification and streamlining ways of doing business.  New technology can create efficiencies across an organization. 

New opportunities can create change, where an organization find a space that they are able to be competitive in. This can lead to growth and breaking into new industries, a safeguard of scale. 

While some change can be predicted and some can’t, it is good to have a plan for change management. 

“Change management is a systematic approach to dealing with the transition or transformation of an organization’s goals, processes or technologies. The purpose of change management is to implement strategies for effecting change, controlling change and helping people to adapt to change” (TechTarget) 

How can an organization approach change? 

When considering change; when and why, there are several models to look at.  The 7 Rs of change management discuss what questions should be asked and answered as a preliminary step to making organizational changes.  These are: 

• What is the Reason for change? 
• What are the Risks involved in implementing change? 
• What Resources are required to successfully execute the change? 

• Who Raised the change? 
• What would be the Return on the change? 
• Who is Responsible for implementation of the change? 
• What Relationships exist with other changes? 

By asking these questions, an organization can assess the risk to benefit ratio and choose to move forward with the change or not.  Importantly, in this preliminary strategy, there is a defined role for a person to hold responsibility for the change; coordination, authorization, following a process, and reviews results throughout. 

Another strategy for making changes is the 8-step process for leading change, developed by Harvard University Professor Doctor John Kotter.  

Kotter’s model has simple steps: 

1. Creating a sense of urgency
2. Creating the Guiding Coalition: Putting together a group with enough power to lead the change
3. Develop a change vision and strategies 
4. Communicate the vision for buy-in.  This ensures that as many people as possible understand and accept the vision 
5. Remove barriers to action and enabling people to do their best work 
6. Accomplish short term wins: celebrate visible successes as they occur 
7. Build on the change: don’t stop with one accomplishment, build on the change 
8. Make the changes stick: adapt the change into the culture 

What are the benefits of change in the workplace? 

With a structured implementation, change can bring a lot of positive results to an organization quickly.  Many times, one change is a catalyst to more, such as new vision, updates to procedures, more opportunity for an organization and the employees within it, and new challenges. 

Change can be a great thing for an organization, but it is definitely beneficial to make changes with a strategic approach and a plan and process in place. 

How can working with ESSG create positive change for an organization? 

Employer Solutions Staffing Group has a variety of solutions for businesses of all sizes to make changes, experience growth, and increase profitability.  Our departments reduce financial risk and provide overall cost-saving strategies.  ESSG takes a proactive approach to managing risk and has a unique model of leveraging hard costs, which both reduces the cost itself as well as limits variability.  Thinking about change in the present gives an organization time to find a partner that they like and trust.