Getting a new business initiative approved can feel like pulling teeth. HR practitioners often hit a wall in the form of budget restraints, unrelenting leadership or a workplace culture averse to change.

In the current economic environment, this can turn into a Catch-22. In times of skills shortages, technological disruption and shifting regulatory landscapes, large-scale people initiatives are often necessary for survival, but these same issues are driving many executives to tighten their purse strings.

As a result, HR practitioners without the necessary influencing skills risk letting their best strategies remain forever as ideas on a page.

To avoid this, HR practitioners can develop the skills to speak executives’ language, cultivate advocates and develop a deep understanding of a business’s needs and pain points.

A research-backed approach to executive buy-in

When pitching for executive buy-in, an approach that combines human skills with business acumen is key. 

In an article for Harvard Business Review, professors Susan J. Ashford and James R. Detert provide a detailed breakdown of how to gain executive buy-in based on their research. 

In their research, Ashford and Detert identified the tactics of a successful “issue seller” (their name for a person seeking buy-in).

“Issue sellers who accomplish their goals, we found, look for the best ways, venues, and times to voice their ideas and concerns – using rhetorical skill, political sensitivity, and interpersonal connections to move the right leaders to action,” they write.

They break this down into seven key tactics:

1. Tailoring your pitch – this was the key success factor. They say it’s critical to become familiar with your executive’s “unique blend of goals, values and knowledge” and use these insights to customise your pitch according to who you’re speaking with.

2. Strategically frame the issue – this is the stage most HR professionals would be familiar with: building a business case. Not surprisingly, the researchers found this was more effective than moral framing (e.g. trying to convince people to ‘do the right thing’).

3. Manage your emotions – passion, they said, was proven to help in achieving buy-in, but passion can easily spill into anger and this inevitably works against issue sellers. Emotional regulation is key.

4. Choose your timing wisely – pitch ideas when there’s a groundswell from employees, when a business’ priorities are shifting (we’re in such a time right now) or when a new leader is at the helm.

5. Don’t do it alone – the researchers found having a group of people involved in seeking buy-in made it happen a lot faster, as each individual brought their own experience, relationships and social pull.

6. Tailor your approach– understand how various executives like to receive information. Do they prefer formal presentations to a casual coffee catch-up, for example? Or, does anecdotal data sourced from employees have more impact than referring to external statistics?

7. Have a solution – it seems obvious, but don’t suggest changing a process without providing what the researchers call “thoughtful fixes”. Come prepared with a well-researched solution, but be willing to make changes and seek feedback from others to ensure diversity of thought.

Read the full HBR article for further explanation, advice and examples backing up the tactics.

HR influence in action

Gaining executive buy-in requires HR to strike the right balance between human skills such as emotional intelligence with technical skills such as business acumen, says Shirley Vella CPHR, Executive Director of HR at SPV Consulting.

Based on her experiences getting HR strategies over the line, Vella offers three key tips for HR practitioners hoping to boost their influence among the executive team.

1. Speak executives’ language

For HR practitioners, the engagement, wellbeing and/or capabilities of the workforce tend to be the number-one goals of any new initiative. So, when pitching to executives, it’s often HR’s first instinct to lead with workforce benefits. 

However, it’s important for HR to put themselves in executives’ shoes and demonstrate that costs and business context have been prioritised in the strategy, says Vella.

“In my experience, executives really want to do good things for the employees, but, at the end of the day, the business needs to be sustained,” she says. 

“You need to understand your audience. If they’re looking at the bottom line, then you talk about the bottom line. Look at the ROI and what’s in it for the business.”

To get this right, it’s essential for HR to upskill themselves in the fundamentals of finance, she says, such as the right way to do a cost-benefit analysis or return on investment forecast.

“HR is fundamentally about people, but it also requires a strong focus on the profitability of the business. So you need to have that business acumen.”

“In my experience, executives really want to do good things for the staff, but, at the end of the day, the business needs to be sustained.” – Shirley Vella, Executive Director of Human Resources, SPV Consulting

Vella recalls an instance where she put these skills into practice to get executives at a previous organisation on board with a new HR information system (HRIS). 

“The company had never done it before. And they [looked at] the subscription fees and implementation fees first and asked, ‘What’s good about it?’

“The first thing I did was [demonstrate] the ROI of having the system – for example, [pointing out that] leave management and performance management could all be done through the system, so it’s saving a lot of HR time [to be reinvested into more high-value work]. Also, regulatory compliance is all set up in the system, so, for example, if an employee had an expired or invalid license, the system comes up with an alert, which reduces the risk to them. So we’re using those points and converting them into dollar signs.”

2. Divide and conquer

When cultivating the ability to influence executives, it’s important for HR to remember that each executive will have their own unique language and priorities.

“When you’re trying to get executive buy-in, use a divide and conquer [model],” says Vella. “Try to map your stakeholders first.”

For example, when she pitched the HRIS mentioned above to her company’s executive team, she first made a list of the leadership team members and determined who was the most computer-savvy and systems-focused, and approached them first to demonstrate the benefits.

“If you get their buy-in first, then they will become your advocates, and they will spread the word.”

Once initial advocates are onboard, leverage their support to influence other executives, she says. Many executives will be more convinced of an initiative’s benefits if they hear about them from more than one source, and this can create a positive knock-on effect that lends momentum to your proposal.

3. Start small

As well as building advocates within the executive team, Vella says that the greatest advocates for launching or sustaining HR initiatives are often the employees participating in them. 

Similarly to executives, employees are often more swayed by word of mouth than by formal presentations from the HR team.

For this reason, Vella suggests launching every important initiative through a pilot program in an area of the organisation where it’s likely to have the most impact.

“Whoever you pilot with will become your advocates too,” she says.

She offers the example of a lunch and learn initiative she recently launched in her current role.

“Everyone was fairly sceptical at first,” she says. “First of all, I [convinced] the executives to buy in, but they couldn’t force staff to go. So the next step was [convincing] the frontline managers, who are always busy. I personally went to them and said, ‘Come for five minutes, and if you don’t like it, you can leave.’

“Some of them who never wanted to join [in the first place] just came in to have a look, and  ended up  staying for the entire hour. The positive feedback was enormous and, slowly, they started to talk about [rolling] this out to other teams as well.”

By using these strategies to cultivate advocates among both the executive team and the broader workforce, HR can ensure their ideas translate into meaningful change.

A version of this article was originally published in June 2020, and has been updated with fresh insights from Shirley Vella CPHR.

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Over the past few years, overcoming resistance to change has become one of HR’s most important strategic priorities.

Faced with rapid advancements in technology, the transformation of our ways of working and a turbulent economic environment, research from Gartner suggests employees are experiencing increased levels of ‘change fatigue’.

This reluctance to embrace change can stifle organisational and cultural growth, leaving employees disengaged and disconnected from the business and the transformation process. 

To avoid resistance to change slowing your business down, it’s imperative to find ways to bring employees along on the journey. The risk of change fatigue in employees falls by 29 percentage points when employers adopt ‘open-source’ transformation strategies and codesign the change with their employees, finds Gartner’s research.

In other words, employers need to ensure people feel that change is happening with them, rather than to them. 

Get employees on board with codesign

Over the past three years, this principle has guided the transformation process at Great Southern Bank during the realignment of the company’s culture and values – part of a major rebrand.

By involving employees from ideation to implementation, the organisation was able to cultivate a sense of belonging and commitment, ensuring a smooth transition and sustainable outcomes.

The success of their engagement efforts resulted in Great Southern Bank being awarded the Best Organisational Development and Change Strategy Award at last year’s AHRI Awards.

“It was the biggest change we had seen in 75 years as an organisation,” says Lisa Behrendt, Head of Culture, People and Leadership at Great Southern Bank. 

“It was incredibly important to us that our people came along on the journey. Our surveys and qualitative feedback showed that they found it really exciting.”

The transformation was catalysed by the customer-owned bank’s decision to rebrand from Credit Union Australia to Great Southern Bank, a move aimed at reinforcing its customer-first ethos and commitment to its new purpose of helping all Australians own their own home. 

“Leaders need to be aligned and committed, and they also need to be open to involving employees and hearing what they have to say.” – Lisa Behrendt, Head of Culture, People and Leadership at Great Southern Bank

The aim of the transformation was not just to alter the company’s external image, but to fundamentally evolve its internal culture and values.

To ensure employees felt aligned with the bank’s new purpose and brand, Chief People Officer Tracey Lake and the people and culture team worked closely with the marketing and corporate affairs teams to take a codesign approach to every aspect of the transformation. Employees were surveyed and consulted on the rebrand itself and the cultural changes that came with it.

The process involved crowdsourcing ideas, voting on new company names and visual designs, and extensive communication to keep the workforce informed and engaged.

Leaders were key to creating the change.

“Leaders need to be aligned and committed, and they also need to be open to involving employees and hearing what they have to say,” says Behrendt.

“That takes a lot of courage, trust and transparency, and that starts at the top – it’s vital to ensuring the transition is going to work.”

Codesign through storytelling

A key element of the company’s rebranding strategy was to align employees with the new purpose to foster a stronger sense of belonging and understanding of the strategic direction of the company.

“We were transforming our culture with new values and behaviours,” says Behrendt. “And part of that was about lining up individual stories and experiences with the broader story of the organisation.”

To facilitate the sharing of these stories, the bank enlisted help from speaker and author Gabrielle Dolan, who spoke alongside Behrendt at AHRI’s recent webinar on transformative strategies for organisational change.

“We asked Gabrielle to run a few big storytelling sessions virtually. They were about establishing how people’s personal stories resonate with stories of the business.

“For example, if we want to influence a customer or a stakeholder to create supporters and advocates for the changes, we can use a personal experience and relate it back to the business context.

“Take my personal experience of moving interstate as an example. This significant change was confronting and at times overwhelming – but also very exciting! Team members experience similar reactions to change as part of a culture transformation. By highlighting a personal experience, we can help our team to embrace the change with excitement, empathy, authenticity and support.”

“You have to be consistent. If you promise people that they’re going to be involved in creating something, you have to follow through on your promise.” – Lisa Behrendt, Head of Culture, People and Leadership at Great Southern Bank

Keeping the process lighthearted and injecting some fun into the workshops helped maintain engagement and ensure employees felt comfortable to share their experiences authentically, she says.

“We take banking seriously, but not ourselves. And they could see themselves in those stories. And [later on], when they would pick up the phone and speak to a customer, they had that passion and desire, they could see themselves as part of something really big, and they knew their part in it.”

Engagement powered by codesign

Feedback from Great Southern Bank’s employees on its codesign approach has been overwhelmingly positive. Sentiment surveys showed employees felt more aligned with the brand and the organisation’s values and purpose. Employee engagement scores also increased from 4.22 out of five in 2021 to 4.47 out of five in 2023, the company’s highest-ever score.  

The success of the rebrand and commitment to the new purpose has also delivered benefits to the bank’s customers. For example, the average amount of time taken for a home loan application to be approved has decreased by more than half since 2021.

“Engagement has been exceptionally high all throughout the change process. In [our surveys], we look at the effect of highly engaged team members on customer calls and customer experience. And what we see is that those who are really engaged, which is most of the organisation, have better customer experience outcomes as rated by the customer.”

Having these achievements recognised with an AHRI Award last year was all the more rewarding for Great Southern Bank because the entire workforce contributed to the outcomes, she says.

For HR professionals looking to adopt a codesign approach like this, she stresses the importance of commitment and authenticity.

“You have to be persistent, and you have to be consistent. If you promise people that they’re going to be involved in creating something, you have to follow through on your promise, and you’ve got to keep going. 

“We’ve been on a journey over three to four years where we’ve been very consistent and very intentional about what we’ve done as an organisation, and we’ve continually listened to our people. They know we’re genuine when we say we want to hear them and we want them to know that we value what they say. That’s been one of our biggest learnings.”

AHRI members can log into their member dashboard to view a free on-demand webinar with Lisa Behrendt and a range of other experts on transformative strategies for organisational change.

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Many organisations are experiencing a “change crisis” at the moment, according to Neal Woolrich, Director of HR Advisory, Gartner.

In 2016, the average business experienced approximately two major planned changes each year. This could be anything from a change of senior leadership to a merge with another business.

In 2022, businesses were experiencing an average of ten major planned changes per year – think organisational restructures, introducing new technologies, mandating a return to the workplace.

While it’s expected that changes will occur as business environments become more complex, what’s concerning is that, concurrently, employees’ willingness to embrace change has seen a sharp dip (74 per cent in 2016 compared to 38 per cent in 2022).

“That’s a massive reduction in the willingness of our people to support our change. Change fatigue is increasing,” said Woolrich at Gartner’s ReImagine HR Conference, held in December. 

He says anecdotal information from clients suggests that these numbers could be even worse in 2023-2024.

The confluence of these two data points is leading to what he calls a “transformation deficit”.

“A lot of our organisations have lofty transformation goals… but we’re at serious risk of descending into a transformation deficit spiral.”

If organisations are trying to innovate, grow and work in new ways, a workforce that’s drowning in change fatigue will be a significant handbrake. The good news is that HR professionals have the skills and expertise to solve for this, says Woolrich.

Open-source change management

Change fatigue can have serious impacts on talent and organisational outcomes. It can cause individuals to feel anything from frustrated to apathetic about organisational change.

This can lead to lower rates of enterprise contribution, poorer performance and lower intent to stay with the organisation, said Woolrich.

In order to keep change fatigue at bay, organisations need to embed high levels of employee trust and facilitate strong team cohesion, he added.

One solution is to practise open-source change management which allows for employees to be engaged in the change process in a transparent manner.

“There are three key pillars to open-source change management: employees co-create their change decisions, employees own implementation planning, and also we give employees permission to talk openly about change.”

Organisations that successfully embraced open-source change initiatives saw a reduction in change fatigue by up to 29 per cent, Woolrich said.

“And [employees’] willingness to change is almost 50 per cent higher in those organisations.”

However, a key barrier preventing open-source change from being a success in businesses is a lack of psychological safety, he said. 

“It’s a foundational element to enterprise change. Without it, even the best change strategies are destined to fail, or not get the outcomes we want.”

Safety to experiment

When psychological safety was present, businesses saw a 46 per cent drop in change fatigue, found Gartner. However, there’s an important caveat. There are two different types of psychological safety that employees need: safety to experiment and safety to challenge.

Safety to experiment includes feeling safe to learn from mistakes, ask questions and try new things.

“The safety to experiment in times of change is a prerequisite for people to feel empowered, to contribute, to make a difference.

“There is a clear role for HR teams to create that accountability for fostering safety to experiment.”

Woolrich shares an example from Mercadolibre, an e-commerce retailer based in Argentina.

Mercadolibre developed a decision-making framework, with the end goal being that employees decide on 90 per cent of decisions and 10 per cent are escalated upwards.

Employees are coached to apply three criteria to determine whether to escalate a decision:

1. Is it reversible?
2. Is there a low correction cost?
3. Does it have a limited impact on the ecosystem? 

If employees can answer ‘yes’ to all three, then they are empowered to make the decision themselves. However, they are supplied with guidelines to help them, such as how long certain decisions should take, how decisions should be communicated and how they will be executed.

For example, the general rule of thumb is that decisions owned by employees should be executed within a week and the 10 per cent that are escalated are usually decisions that would take a few months, and several meetings, to make a call on.

“This way, during periods of high disruption and high change, employees will intuitively know those routines that are safe to experiment with.”

Safety to challenge

Employees also need safety to push back against the status quo, says Woolrich. That can look like speaking truth to power, playing devil’s advocate and being involved in shaping certain decisions.

“Less than half of employees feel as though they have safety to challenge. Again, there’s a critical role for HR in this process. 

“We need to embed those cultural norms and invite healthy and productive challenges to the status quo. That way, our leaders will be able to get that critical information from their teams to help better inform change decisions.”

“The safety to experiment in times of change is a prerequisite for people to feel empowered, to contribute, to make a difference.” – Neal Woolrich, Director of HR Advisory, Gartner.

However, it’s critical that there are clear boundaries in place.

“The safety challenge does not mean everyone gets a vote or everyone gets a voice. [We want the] right people in the conversation – empowering knowledgeable employees to share that information.”

You need to distinguish between the squeaky wheels and what Woolrich calls the “productive sceptics” – people who are knowledgeable, customer-minded and solutions-driven. 

He refers to another example, a US-based organisation that provides healthcare and insurance services, that approached safety to challenge in an interesting way. 

They ran workshops that allowed their ‘productive sceptics’ to challenge rules in their organisations that felt outdated or unnecessary. They defined these as rules that added no value, had arbitrary deadlines, took attention away from high-value tasks and frustrated end users.

“It’s not a free for all, they’ve clearly defined these workshops and they’re really clear about the people they want involved,” he said.

“HR leaders are involved because they have decision-making powers. HRBPs and HR managers are included because they have the [ability] to identify significant process pain points.

They also get subject matter experts involved, especially those with cross-functional expertise and exposure. 

“Bringing those people together is critical to having a shared understanding of what needs to change.”

We need proactive methods like these to manage change, says Woolrich, as it helps to respond with speed, build buy-in and, over time, develop change momentum in your people. It’s a worthy investment of time because if your employees aren’t championing your changes, it could have significant impacts on your business’s progress towards its goals.

Need help navigating workplace change? AHRI’s change management short course will arm you with the skills to understand change dynamics at an individual, team and organisational level.

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Brenda Hawke became aware of her gifts early on. She loved helping people assess their needs and reach new goals, and was confident about having tricky conversations. But it was when her father lay sick in a Mackay hospital during his final weeks and she watched staff rally around him, exhausted yet determined, that she knew where she wanted to apply those skills. 

“I suddenly had a completely different perspective. From the cleaning staff to the admin staff, to the doctors and nurses who just got through COVID, these people have had to turn up daily. I wanted to be able to give back to that industry, to help them do their jobs,” says Hawke, who is the Senior Director, Talent and Organisational Development, at Queensland Health. 

Before taking on this role, she had already garnered considerable HR and change management experience. After 14 years at Westpac, where she ended up leading the Regional Finance Service Centre, she had yearned for something more community-focused, and took the role of local government customer service and HR manager in the small Queensland town of Beaudesert.

“It was my first specific HR role. I loved assessing what motivated people and helping them decipher their next step.”

Her skills were tested in 2007 when the Queensland government created new council boundaries. Hawke helped disband an entire workforce into two councils.

“People had so many questions: ‘Am I going to have a job at the end of it? How do I pay the bills? When will I know what’s happening next?’ I learned that even if there is nothing to say to people, there is still something to say. 

“I also realised how comfortable I felt leaning into difficult conversations to ultimately help businesses move forward.”

From there, she moved to Queensland Rail, where she centralised its decentralised model and reviewed its resourcing, training and recognition policies, ultimately transforming its operations. Then she spent four years at Suncorp, where she implemented a reskilling program that dramatically changed the capacity of the workforce. 

After this professional milestone came a momentous shift in her personal life when her beloved dad passed away from cancer.

By chance, she saw a role advertised at Queensland Health that had carriage of leadership, job design, organisational development and talent attraction.

“It was an ideal fit in terms of my personal purpose and my experience. I started the role literally a year to the day after my dad passed away,” she says. “That to me is very special.”

With a workforce of 100,000 people, plus 11,000 in the Department of Health, the opportunities and challenges were vast.

Values-driven change management

In her new position as Senior Director, Talent and Organisational Development, Hawke’s mission is to transform Queensland Health into “a contemporary organisation and an integrated health service, with people knocking down our doors to work for us”.

Achieving this requires “bold and courageous ideas”, she says. There are plenty of initiatives already underway.

One notable success has been the introduction of hybrid working for non-medical staff – a significant shift for a government organisation, but crucial for its attractiveness as an employer.

“Don’t be a passenger; if you’ve got an idea, put it forward. You need conviction behind you to do that.” – Brenda Hawke, Senior Director, Talent and Organisational Development, Queensland Health

Hawke has also played a pivotal role in centralising diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, previously isolated to individual hospitals. 

“We have a fabulous First Nations-first approach. We’re very strong on multiculturalism, and we want to improve our focus on disability in our workforce. Departments across Queensland Health are committed to partnering together to create holistic solutions and a truly diverse workforce that represents the communities we service.”  

To enhance recruitment and relieve the burden on individual hospitals, Hawke also wants to unify the hiring process. She believes elevating recruitment campaigns, improving branding and streamlining recruitment operations will help attract more talent, especially from overseas.

“We want to get qualified people in the door sooner, [so] hospitals will be able to meet these quality candidates and appoint them in a shorter period of time.”

Part of attracting these quality candidates is being able to communicate and promote Queensland Health’s key values, she says. 

“While we align to our public sector values, one of my observations coming in was that there wasn’t common language around those.”

The key values at the Department of Health are: customer first, ideas into action, empowering people and unleashing potential. Hawke’s team is currently collaborating with internal communications to ensure consistent messaging across all channels, including in-person interactions, branding, strategic communications, reviews, forums, emails and social media campaigns.

Additionally, Hawke encourages individuals to continually evaluate and celebrate their own values both personally and professionally, and without compromise.

“Performance can’t be at the expense of values; you can’t have one without the other,” she says. “Employees need to consistently evaluate what worked, what didn’t, what they’ve learned, and what changes they can implement.”

Throughout her career, Hawke believes she’s kept her own values front of mind; specifically integrity, courage and care.  

“We all have highs and lows during our career and personal life. However, these three personal values are what keep me grounded. The whole time, I’ve maintained my values, my sense of purpose, who I want to be as a person. And I’m incredibly proud of that.”

Winning support from stakeholders

Equally important to Hawke as attracting the right talent is equipping them with the skills they’ll need to thrive. One of the greatest challenges of her career to date was the revamping of Suncorp’s reskilling program.

From 2019 to 2022 she held various executive positions related to the learning experience. When she first joined the company, the learning and development initiatives “lacked direction and impact”.

“I didn’t believe in the program in its previous form and I didn’t want my name associated with it,” she says. “So I made a bold move to disassociate myself from it and asked for the authority to reset what was required for the future.

“I engaged with strong-willed individuals, each with their own vision of how things should be done. I embarked on a mission to win their support, which meant testing different ideas with different executives at the leadership table first, getting their buy-in individually, then asking them to state publicly that they backed the proposed changes. Eventually, we managed to move forward as a united front.”

“Performance can’t be at the expense of values; you can’t have one without the other.” – Brenda Hawke, Senior Director, Talent and Organisational Development, Queensland Health

Securing their agreement enabled her to set up a pilot group that was “truly something magical and got us those positive results”.

“But I left the public recognition to those business areas, and that’s something I’m proud of. In HR, we help move the business forward so we ultimately achieve our combined purpose.”

Hawke firmly believes that true progress occurs beyond the comfort zone, that it’s imperative to push boundaries and find new ways of doing things.

Her advice to other HR execs wanting to execute change and transformation, particularly in the face of resistance, is simply to communicate – and be brave.

“Know who your stakeholders are and engage them early. Get their thoughts and ideas. If people disagree, get them to the table to understand what some of the blockers are. 

“Don’t be a passenger; if you’ve got an idea, put it forward,” she adds. “You need conviction behind you to do that. If you’re not confident, talk to others before the meeting so you can test some of the ideas and know you have support.”

Effective HR, she believes, requires buy-in from the get-go.

“HR gets a bad rap when we develop something in isolation and then throw it over the fence and wonder why people aren’t embracing it. We need to actually involve people up front so they feel part of the journey. And more importantly, they can be excited and be the cheer squads for it.”

People power

Hawke’s experience in executing change has made her realise that all organisations actually face the same challenges.

“All businesses think they’re unique, special and different. The reality is they’re not, because they’re all made up of people. And as much as people are different, there’s a sameness that comes with that. The obstacles we have at Queensland Health are literally no different to Microsoft or Google or Foot Locker.”

Tackling these issues through a big-picture lens is where Hawke truly thrives.

“I love seeing where an organisation is currently, where it could be in the future, developing a roadmap of what we need to do, and then making sure we get there. I love converting ideas into action, and I love seeing an organisation and its workforce find its wings.

“I love the chaos and complexity that comes with large organisations. Just because something’s always been done a certain way, that’s no reason not to change it, because everything evolves.

“Do I think I would have done this role at Queensland Health four years ago? Absolutely not. My dad’s passing shifted my own perspective on what was important, which is people, and people looking after people.

“He’d be incredibly proud that something that was so terrible has been turned into something so positive.” 

A version of this article was originally published in the December edition of HRM Magazine.

Need help navigating workplace change? AHRI’s short course will arm you with the skills to understand change dynamics at an individual, team and organisational level.

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Navigating changes to the way we work is an uncomfortable process for the human brain.

Leaders and employees can dedicate great time and effort to preparing for change, but what often holds them back is their own mindset. Our brain’s instinct is to tether us to the comfort of familiar routines and processes, and to see behavioural change as a threat to our sense of self.

However, holding on to traditional ways of thinking could mean getting left behind in the new world of work. As Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg once put it, “In a world that’s changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.”

So if our cognitive reflexes are rejecting the thought of change, how can we influence our brains to adapt to a changing world?

How do our brains respond to change?

According to Peter Burow, Founding Partner and Chair of NeuroPower Group and author, our brain’s immediate reaction to disruption is a chemical shift in our mood.

“We’re happiest as human beings with routines,” he says. “When we feel confident with our place in the world, one of our brain’s core neurochemicals, serotonin, stabilises. Change any of those elements and we can disrupt our serotonin levels. Too much or too little serotonin can make us feel anxious or depressed.” 

Our brain’s sense of emotional stability operates on a simple rule of thumb – the thoughts, feelings and behaviours that have kept us alive in the past will keep us alive in the future.

“If, for example, we feel lonely, angry or anxious for an extended period of time, our brain encodes those emotions as part of what’s normal and keeps us alive,” he says.

“This results in the strangest quirk – feeling good about uncomfortable and often undesirable emotions. We get rewarded for habitual thoughts, feelings and behaviours, even if they are uncomfortable and, at times, counterproductive. The reason our brains don’t adapt easily is because, whatever the familiar past looks like, good or bad, these patterns are reinforced by feel-good chemicals. And when we step away from them, we literally experience withdrawal.”

As a result, employees are likely to feel some degree of stress and anxiety as a natural response to an industrial landscape that’s changing faster than ever. In order to keep this in check, there are steps that both employers and employees can take to boost their cognitive resilience.

Rebooting the system 

One of the reasons it’s difficult to rewire our brains for change is that we’re not usually aware of the thought processes that guide our reactions, says Burow. 

“The brain is designed to revert to screensaver mode to minimise energy usage, because when it’s fully engaged in high-level thought, it uses a phenomenal amount of energy,” he says. “You may recognise this, for example, when you’ve driven home and can barely remember anything about the drive.”

In order to coax our brains into breaking free of these autopilot responses, we need to identify the triggers that prompt us to feel or behave in a certain way, he explains. 

 “These patterns are reinforced by feel-good chemicals. And when we step away from them, we literally experience withdrawal.” – Peter Burow, Founding Partner and Chair, Neuropower Group

“It’s about becoming aware of the link between your external world and your internal world. This unique self-awareness about how our external environment impacts our thoughts and feelings is called mindfulness. As we get better at disconnecting the autopilot, we become much better at responding rather than reacting.”

Many organisations have already recognised the importance of mindfulness in improving employee resilience. Google is a great example. It launched an internal mindfulness course for its employees in 2007 called Search Inside Yourself, which aimed to help participants develop the skills of mindfulness, empathy and emotional intelligence to create conditions for individual and collective thriving. The program was such a success that it was eventually developed into an independent non-profit educational institute called the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute.

Replacing obsessive passion with harmonious passion

When leaders roll out change initiatives, getting employees on board is often their biggest hurdle. According to Burow, employees’ responsiveness to organisational change depends on how they are motivated. 

He refers to a 2003 study involving Olympic athletes, where researchers found a correlation between the source of athletes’ motivation and their long-term success. 

The study authors coined two new terms to describe two different types of motivation. Some of the subjects had pursued a sporting career because of a genuine love of the sport and a desire to succeed (which they called ‘harmonious passion’), while others were pressured by others into competing (‘obsessive passion’).

“We saw that the medallists who were forced into competing against their personal values and who were motivated by compliance and fear took more risks and found success post-medal much harder. It’s like, unconsciously, they lost their sense of true north,” says Burow. 

“Interestingly, we find exactly the same thing in a corporate environment. A culture where compliance, or the anxiety that comes from fear of non-compliance, is the only driver drains [people’s] energy and sense of self. The intrinsic joy of work is removed.”

In order to implement change without compromising employee wellbeing, leaders must learn to foster harmonious passion.

“Harmonious passion occurs when the intrinsic values of employees align with the way they are being asked to complete the task they’re doing.”

Essentially, employers need to find and develop the links between their business objectives and their employees’ personal goals.

“People come from all different walks of life, and diversity is increasing. The key lies in building the team’s shared aspirational identity,” he says.

“Maybe, aspirationally, the team wants to be the best in the market, or the fastest, or the most innovative. Finding those common aspirations is really important because that’s the meeting point. This higher-order identity is critical if the team is to lean in when the going gets tough.”

If HR professionals can help their leaders maintain a values-driven, team-based approach to change that fosters harmonious passion in their people, they can help overcome the brain’s reluctance to embrace new ways of working. 

Although adapting to disruption is often a personal battle, leaders must do everything in their power to protect the mental health of their workforces in these exciting yet unstable times. 

This article was first published in the May 2023 edition of HRM Magazine.

Peter Burow will be talking more about how modern ways of working impact our brains at AHRI’s National Convention and Exhibition in August. Secure your ticket today!

The post How to rewire your brain for change appeared first on HRM online.

Joining forces with or acquiring another business can be a tantalising prospect. Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are invaluable tools to grow and evolve a business model, and they are tools that Australian companies are putting to good use. In fact, 2021 was a record year for merger/acquisition projects in Australia.

However, navigating a successful merger is no mean feat. According to global collated research by the Harvard Business Review, 70-90 per cent of M&As fail to accomplish their business objectives. 

The authors put this down to a number of factors, including failure to align businesses with the strategic purpose of the deal and unrealistic targets for growth after a merger or acquisition. In their words, “Almost nobody understands how to identify targets that could transform a company, how much to pay for them, and how to integrate them.”

Sandra Morrell, Strategist and former Chief Operating Officer of Entrepreneur Resorts, has navigated complex M&A projects all over the world. During her time as COO, the Entrepreneur Group’s hospitality arm acquired businesses ranging from game lodges in South Africa to resorts in Indonesia and hotels in the Czech Republic.

While Morrell has worked on a huge variety of M&A projects, there is one common thread that unites them all: the issue of blending company cultures.

“The people factor has always been the part that can hold you back, and also the part that can fast-track you,” she says.

“It’s very difficult – almost impossible – to change a culture. So it’s important that [a merged business] has a new culture to work towards.”

In order to do this, organisations need to have clear and common goals to work towards during an M&A project. Morrell offers HRM best-practice tips for setting and reaching these goals.

1. Think like a GENIUS

A culture must be clearly defined and visible in order for it to be successfully adapted to fit different organisations, says Morrell. 

The approach she applied in her merger projects utilised what the Entrepreneur Group called the ‘GENIUS model’, with six key characteristics to embody:

G – Global

E – Entrepreneurial

N – Natural

I – Inspirational

U – Unique

S – Smart.

Global and entrepreneurial thinking were crucial to initiating the acquisitions, but once the process had begun, Morrell’s focus was on the human elements of the framework.

“It was natural because we weren’t going too fast,” she says. “I was focused on [the inspiration aspect]; I was always looking at how we could do things differently and in an inspiring way.”

While the framework offers a sense of structure to the process of blending your culture with that of another business, Morrell says it is intended to be adapted based on what the organisation’s culture looked like pre-acquisition – this is where the ‘unique’ factor kicks in.

“Everywhere we worked, whenever people came in, we said, ‘This is our culture, but how would you in your, for example, safari park, attach that culture to what you’re doing?’ So they put their own slant on the culture and made it really unique to them.”

2. Collaborate on change management

When going through a merger, employees on both sides of the deal might experience anxiety or trepidation, whether it’s related to their sense of job security or their desire to preserve the culture of their existing team.

If leaders don’t proactively initiate conversations about how employees want and expect the blended culture to look, they risk an ‘us-versus-them’ mentality creeping into the newly merged workplace.

“When you’re bringing two companies together, you’ve probably got different age groups in there and different experiences,” says Morrell. “We need to position upfront that there’s going to be some compromise and that there’s going to be some change.”

“Culture is not something that you just bring out and dance around. It’s something that has to be lived every day.” – Sandra Morrell

She suggests hosting one or more ‘culture creation sessions’ where employees are encouraged to express their wants and expectations, and reach a clearly defined middle ground between the two parties.

“Culture is not something you just bring out and dance around. It’s something that has to be lived every day.

“So we ask: ‘How do you want to feel when you show up to work? Do you want to feel like you’re part of a family, or do you want to feel that it’s very professional? Do you want to see everyone dressed formally, or everyone wearing jeans?’ If everyone is verbalising these things, you can come to a clear agreement.”

3. Use a merger as a chance to improve

While employees and leaders can often feel protective of their cultures and ways of working, Morrell says merging with another company should be seen as an opportunity to combine your strongest elements and trim the fat from less efficient processes.

“You’re not just looking at the teams, you’re looking at the technology, the accounting systems, the CRM – every little part of it. And we might say, ‘Hey, you guys have got a better system than us. We’re going to keep yours.’

“It [also] gives you a chance to easily identify and potentially move out team members who aren’t performing as well.”

The process itself can also have a marked impact on the performance of existing employees, she says.

“When they get some competition coming in, team members that have had performance challenges can step up,” she says. “You see some team members start to shine  because they’re seeing someone come in from another organisation and work faster and more efficiently, or with better ideas.” 

As with many aspects of change management, successfully turning multiple businesses into one stronger entity comes down to attracting and retaining the right people. 

“When you hire, don’t just hire on skill, hire on cultural [alignment],” says Morrell. “You’re better off hiring on cultural [alignment] with less skill, and knowing that you can upskill them. The mindset is more important than anything else.

“People are walking out now and finding another job very easily. We need to make sure there is a great culture that they’ll stay for and that they will love working within. So create one, and take ownership of it to make sure it’s maintained.”

Need help navigating workplace change? AHRI’s short course will arm you with the skills to understand change dynamics at an individual, team and organisational level.

The post Better together: 3 ways to preserve culture during a merger appeared first on HRM online.

If your organisation is introducing any major workplace changes that are likely to impact your workforce, chances are you will have a legal obligation to consult with all affected workers before making the change, under your relevant modern award or enterprise agreement.

If you ignore the obligation, you could face legal exposure for unfair dismissal claims, as well as a potential fine. For example, in August 2021, an aviation organisation was ordered to pay a $72,500 penalty for failing to consult air traffic controllers about roster changes, which was in breach of its enterprise agreement consultation obligation.

Consultation is not simply informing employees of a decision. Rather, it requires giving employees an opportunity to consider and influence a decision that has been proposed, especially if it would affect their employment in any way. 

What counts as major workplace changes?

Any change that will likely have a significant impact on more than one employee – on their job security or promotion opportunities, for example – will usually require consultation. However, it is now fairly accepted that one-off redundancies will not usually require consultation.

Whether a workplace change is ‘major’ is not determined simply by the workforce proportion that is affected. A change that has an adverse impact on a small number of senior or critical employees may be considered a major change, for example.

Learn best-practice models for workplace changes, plus how to determine and measure success factors, with this short course from AHRI.
Sign up to the next course on 8 February.

Modern awards also require employers to consult about changes to regular rosters or ordinary hours of work. Under the Fair Work Act, obligations to consult also arise when an employer makes a decision that will have a significant effect on the status, pay or location of a parental leave employee’s pre-parental leave position.  

A dismissal on redundancy grounds will only be exempt from unfair dismissal laws if the employer complied with all its obligations under a modern award or EBA that required it to consult about the redundancy (provided the number of redundancies is, generally, greater than one).

How to maintain compliance

To give you a simple run down of the consultation process, it usually involves three stages: 

1) Informing employees about the change

 2) Giving employees the opportunity for input 

3) Considering this feedback before making any decisions 

The information needs to be provided to staff in writing and it should explain the nature of the change, the expected impact on employees and any other matters likely to affect the employees.  

You don’t have to provide confidential or commercially sensitive information, but you do have to recognise that employees are entitled to be represented by unions or other parties in the consultation process.

The opportunity for input is usually facilitated by face-to-face or online discussions. 

It’s important that you keep an open mind in these meetings. You might have a view as to what is likely to happen, but you need to afford employees a genuine opportunity to change your mind.

Importantly, consultation does not mean giving employees or unions a right to veto. It’s a means to ensure those employees who bear the brunt of the change have a genuine opportunity to raise any concerns they may have. Provided you take this feedback into account, you can proceed to implement the required change. 

For more information, refer to the consultation and dispute resolution clause set out in your award or registered agreement. This is usually found in Part 2 of an award. You can also use the Fair Work Ombudsman’s ‘Find my award’ tool to see which applies to you.

This article first appeared in the December/January 2021 edition of HRM magazine. The advice in this article is general in nature. Legal advice should be sought for your specific circumstances.

Charles Power is a Partner and Stefania Silvestro is a lawyer at Holding Redlich lawyers.

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It’s simply not true that most change initiatives fail, or at least, there is no fundamental reason for the failure rate. If there were, when millions of organisations around the world transitioned to remote working at the beginning of the pandemic, the majority would have had to shut down completely.

Instead, CEOs, HR and employees were astounded by their success.

What drove that success? A lot of things, but one factor in particular shouldn’t be overlooked. Employees had to be categorised, contracts adjusted, equipment sourced, and the right information had to be going to the right people. This was followed by a requirement to track a host of data points, from employee performance and productivity to wellbeing and engagement.Whether rudimentary or sophisticated, the HR function and people analytics were critical. 

Leveraging HR data and analytics will improve the outcome of any and all change processes, so long as you follow a few key concepts from ELMO’s whitepaper on how HR data can inform change outcomes.

Select the right data

Working out which metrics will be used and how they will be gathered should be done at the outset of any change initiative. Metrics can come from internal or external sources, and may include demographic, engagement, payroll and industry benchmark data. The key is making sure the data you gather will help your organisation plan and adjust. It should provide clear answers as to where the gaps are and who is a key stakeholder. Ultimately, these metrics will help build predictive models to enable organisations to analyse the situation, set goals and make predictions.

ELMO’s 2021 HR Industry Benchmark Report found the most frequently used data sources to track organisational performance were: 

• Employee turnover
• Employee engagement
• Employee absenteeism
• Length of service
• Time to hire

These are broad metrics, but their usefulness is not in doubt. For example, if you were planning to dramatically expand your company’s IT department, you would want to get a picture of who your current best, long-term performers are in order to build a model of the ideal employee. This would mean looking at your absenteeism, turnover, and length of service data and seeing how they tracked against engagement and performance metrics.

Five crucial questions

The metrics used will depend on the organisation and the intended change. Boston Consulting Group listed what it describes as five “fundamental” HR analytics questions that lead to change management success1. 

1. Is the target organisation design sufficiently simple, lean and customer-focused?

The simplest method for assessing organisational structure is figuring out the ratio between managers and direct reports. Flatter organisations, with fewer layers of leadership and fewer leadership positions, tend to be more agile and able to adapt to industry and market changes.

2. Are leadership roles well designed and staffed, with sufficient attention to the diversity of the leadership team and overall employee engagement?

To give you your best chance at success – and long-term buy-in from all employees – have your change champions come from multiple departments, levels of seniority and backgrounds. 

Metrics around diversity and inclusion are essential for this. Leadership should reflect the company it’s part of and only hard data offers an unbiased look at this.

3. Will the transformation help create the desired behaviours and ways of working, and are those behaviours and ways clearly articulated?

Here you want to find case studies both within and outside your organisation. Look for examples of where the changes you are contemplating have been implemented (or already existed in the first place) and measure the effect they had. Engagement and performance metrics are important here. 

4. Are organisation activity metrics, such as attrition rates and internal job rotation frequency, being used to support the transformation?

 Maintaining stable attrition rates and ensuring role transitions are seamless from a customer experience perspective are key to driving organisational efficiency, productivity and increases in employee & customer satisfaction.

5. For the most critical parts of the business, what are the key people levers that most influence performance?

You want to simplify your analytics as much as possible by figuring out what the key levers are in your organisation. Do high performing employees have specific qualities or traits in common? Do certain managers seem to consistently get the most out of their team? Drilling down into what is already working is a great way to map out the future. 

Regardless of the type of change being undertaken, the focus on employee sentiment should remain: How do people feel about the change? How will they fit in with the change? Do they have any suggestions for making the change better or more effective?

To read more about how HR data can inform change outcomes, download ELMO’s whitepaper here.

ELMO Software offers people, process and pay solutions in an all-in-one cloud-based platform. This includes recruitment, learning, performance management, payroll, expenses, and more. For further information, contact us.

The post Enhance change management using HR analytics appeared first on HRM online.

The ins and outs of onboarding are well known to most HR professionals: show the new employee their desk, introduce them to their colleagues, make sure they’ve got all the tools they’ll need and, most importantly, tell them where they can find the best coffee spot. 

But what should you do when the person you’re onboarding has already worked for you before? Maybe they are returning after a few months off on long service leave. Maybe they’ve taken a year off to have a baby. Perhaps they’re a boomerang employee you’re rehiring.

They’ve got the lay of the land down pat. They know where to snag the best cup of coffee. And they’ve got their code for the printer. So you don’t need to onboard them again, right? Well, not exactly. But they may benefit from a reboarding experience.

What’s reboarding?

Reboarding should happen for any employee who has been away from the workplace for more than 12 weeks, says Elizabeth Kingston, CEO and founder of Kingston Human Capital. Some organisations will even reboard employees after eight weeks, she adds. 

“Our organisations can change in short periods of time. Whether that’s our technologies, our objectives, our priorities, or who’s in what role,” she says. “Often we don’t even notice the changes, so when someone returns after an extended period of time away, we completely underestimate what they need to be brought up to speed on.”

From a productivity standpoint, reboarding helps returning employees get up to speed faster. It can also help them reintegrate into the current workplace culture more smoothly. And, according to Kingston, it offers them a level of psychological safety as they transition back.

“Reboarding is a plan that reminds you to check in with the employee and creates a structure around their return, so they’re not just thrown in the deep end.”

Before they come back

Reboarding should begin before the employee’s return date. Kingston starts the process six to eight weeks out. 

At this point you could begin looping them into team emails or group chats, or you could record team meetings so the returning employee can watch them, if they’d like to, at a time that’s convenient to them.

“I have a client who recorded these ‘dear diary’ type [videos] updates fortnightly that he sent to an employee coming back from maternity leave,” says Kingston.

In these videos the organisation’s CEO explained what had changed in the organisation over the last week, sharing information on anything from new hires to project updates. 

“By the time she came back, she had a years’ worth of these three-minute updates and felt like she had never left.”

Kingston acknowledges not every organisation has the time or resources to do this, but when it is possible, she suggests you start early and get the employee’s perspective on what would help them to reintegrate into the workforce. 

For example, when an employee announces their pregnancy, you might sit them down and plan out their return-to-work plan with them. You could ask them when they’d like to be looped into conversations (i.e. They might want to be notified of any new clients/big projects added to their portfolio) and ask about any fears they might have around missing out on important information. This way you can address those concerns upfront and ease their mind before they go on extended leave. 

A trap many organisations fall into is assuming the returning employee will be exactly the same as when they left the organisation, says Kingston.

“You’re not the same organisation. They’re not the same person. I think it’s good to recognise that from the beginning,” she says.

Time away from work can really give people a new perspective, says Kingston, so it’s worth talking through how their needs and priorities have changed.

On the organisation side, she suggests you overestimate how many changes have occurred in the workplace. (The checklist at the end of this article should help with that.)

Making reboarding successful

Once you’ve begun the reboarding process, Kingston has five things you should keep in mind.

1. Ask your last returning employee for advice

Almost every organisation underestimates how much can change in a short period of time, says Kingston. 

Some organisations don’t organise software training for employees they’re reboarding, especially if they’ve used the technology before, she says. But sometimes, even if you’re using the same software, updates can change the user experience.

Think about when you update your phone’s iOS only to find all your apps have moved and now you’re not even sure how to turn the flashlight on. 

To avoid this, leverage the learnings from the last employee who returned after an extended period of time off, or a new employee. They might open your eyes to something you hadn’t noticed.

However, be aware that every reboarding experience will be different, so not all lessons will be immediately transferable. It’s just a good place to start.

2. Keep an eye on their emotional state

Just like a company can change, so too can an employee. When returning from a long period of time off, employees might be different (especially if they’ve just become a parent), so they might respond or react to things in a different way than you’re used to.

Kingston uses the John Fisher personal transition curve to help reboarding employees articulate their emotional state.

The curve suggests that people go through a similar range of emotions as they deal with change. Asking an employee to point to where they are on the curve can help an employer respond effectively to their needs.

Image: John Fisher personal transition curve via Businessballs.

“Returning to the workplace can be a really emotional experience, so you need to be checking with their feelings and making sure they feel comfortable to speak up if they’re struggling,” she says. 

Employees will often start reboarding feeling optimistic about returning to work and the challenge ahead, she says, but as they continue they may begin to feel lost in what should be a familiar environment. The reboarded employee may need additional support at this time, so it’s important leaders have regular check-ins with them and are keeping an eye on their emotional state.

3. Acknowledge redefinition of roles

Another issue a returning employee can face is finding out a former coworker (possibly a former subordinate) is now their manager or has risen in the ranks in some way. 

“In these instances, I would encourage the new manager to sit down with the employee and say, ‘OK, I’m in a position where I need to give you direction and constructive feedback. How do I do this while preserving our friendship and making you feel respected?’” says Kingston.

You should also share this information with the returning employee ahead of time – perhaps by sending an updated organisational chart – so they’re not caught off guard.

4. Make task ownership clear

When the employee returns, make it clear which tasks have been returned to them. 

“Be very deliberate with this by saying, ‘Jane, this is your task to manage from start to finish’. This is to avoid that awkward handover where two people are assigned to a task and no one really knows who’s doing what.”

There will also need to be a conversation with the employee who has been covering for the person on leave, says Kingston. It’s understandable they might want to finish a project they’ve already begun while the returning employee might want to jump back into their old role right away. It will be up to HR and management to make it clear to both employees who owns what.

5. Create an opportunity to socialise

Returning employees need an opportunity to reconnect with their colleagues, says Kingston, this means giving them a chance to catch up without their managers.

“One of the strongest things you can do to help the employee rebuild their connection with coworkers is tell your team, ‘I want you all to go out for lunch without me,’” says Kingston.

Teams need a chance to catch up, debrief and share the latest office gossip without worrying about what their manager might think. It’s a vital part of solidifying those team connections and helping the returning employee to feel part of the bigger picture. 

Checklist

Lastly, Kingston has a series of questions that can help you decide what needs to be covered during the reboarding process:

• How have their priorities changed? (i.e. are they still gunning for a promotion and therefore will need specific upskilling opportunities, or are they happy where they are?).
• Which projects have been completed and which have started since they left?
• Does the company have new objectives? (i.e. perhaps it’s trying to capture a new market or maybe it’s looking for growth in a certain department).
• What technology changes and upgrades have occurred during their time off? (Kingston suggests looping IT in for this one).

Returning to a workplace after time off can be daunting for the employee, but by putting a structure in place and acknowledging how the organisation and the employee have changed you can make the process much smoother. 

Change can be difficult, but if you have the right tools you’ll be better placed to handle it. Take AHRI’s short course to learn more.

The post A guide to reboarding an employee appeared first on HRM online.

Job insecurity, pandemic-related stress and worries about the economy have dropped employees’ capacity to absorb change by 50 per cent in 2020 compared to 2019, according to Gartner.

At a time when more change is precisely what organisations need in order to reset, the amount of change employees can absorb without fatigue – negative reactions to change such as burnout, frustration, or apathy – has plummeted significantly, says Jessica Knight, vice president in the Gartner HR practice.

Day-to-day changes are the most damaging when it comes to change fatigue. 

To improve employee’s ability to adapt to change, organisations need to ensure that employees are actively involved in change decisions, according to Gartner. 

Engagement, trust and team cohesion

Organisations that use an open source approach to change management were found to increase the probability of change success by 23 per cent points. In an open source environment, employees actively participate in shaping change decisions, they create personal change implementation plans, and talk openly about the change, says Gartner.

Two other factors that influence employees’ change capacity are trust and team cohesion. The extent to which employees believe that key organisational stakeholders have their interests in mind and do what they say they are going to do impacts their ability to absorb change. Employees who report low trust have a reduced ability to absorb change. As against this, those with high trust have an average capacity for change that is 2.6 times greater.

“Trust and team cohesion each represent a significant opportunity for HR leaders because they’re factors that can be influenced across the entire workforce,” says Knight. 

“While trust and team cohesion are particularly relevant right now when many employees are remote and dispersed, the impact of improving trust and team cohesion is similar even in more typical circumstances.”

A human-centered approach

Dr Shari Read, Corporate Educator and Practice Lead in Human-Centred Transformation, QUTeX Professional and Executive Education says a human-centered approach to change and transformation can contribute towards reducing change fatigue. 

The human-centered approach means you ensure that any changes made to organisations – the way the organisations interact with the communities – are based on understanding what people in that community, the stakeholders, need. “Are our businesses, organisations and institutions geared to meet those needs?.” 

The pandemic has led to radical changes in the way organisations operate. 

When you are talking about radical, system-wide changes, we need to start from a perspective of empathy, says Read. It’s important to understand how the changes impact the end user as well as the internal stakeholders, the employees. Read suggests five steps leaders can take to reduce employee change fatigue:

• Pause – Leaders should have their own vision but they should stop and think about what they are trying to achieve. What are the signposts? They should start with the end in mind. 
• Listen – Now that you have got a sense of what you are trying to achieve, go and listen to your team. Listen, listen and listen more. Collect stories and understand pain points. 
• Empower – Ask your employees to recognise and act upon pain points. Enable and empower your team to come up with solutions. When employees are involved in the process, they are more receptive to change.
• Co-create and collaborate – Co-create and collaborate a vision with your team. The key to this is understanding the difference between cooperation and collaboration. When you collaborate, you work together on a shared goal and there is mutual benefit but when you cooperate, just one party benefits. As against this, when you co-create, you work together on an idea and an outcome emerges. Co-creation and collaboration brings diversity of thoughts, perspectives and understanding, leading to a value-based outcome. 
• Reiterate – This is about building an effective feedback loop. Pay attention and reflect on feedback with the intention of optimising it. Building that reflective practice and feedback loop into your process of reiteration helps to ensure your organisation becomes a responsive organisation. 

The best approach to managing change and reducing change fatigue, according to Gartner, is to focus on how employees experience change, not just the outcomes of changed behaviours. 

“Empowering different levels of leaders and teams to shape the change experience ensures small-scale changes get attention; it also builds greater cohesion by enabling teams to define the desired experience for changes they are implementing,” says Knight.

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