During times of change in an organization, there can be many conflicting priorities, but one of the most important things for business leaders to focus on is ensuring employees are engaged. Without fully engaged employees, the enterprise is sure to fail.
Employee engagement levels can be especially difficult to maintain during times of change, but communicating with employees in a continuous and genuine way about expectations will help build engagement over time.
Building out a company culture based on an empowered workforce will also enable staff to get the best advantage of the transformation.
In addition to low levels of staff engagement, a list of potential roadblocks on the path to success include the volume of change, perception of complexity, and ingrained habits that may make adoption difficult.
The answer to each of these problems is fundamentally the same: communication. Effective communication and training that targets the fundamental “why” of transformation efforts is good for the staff and answers the “what’s in it for me” question in a good way. Leaders should communicate early, provide for visible executive support and sponsorship, and prepare a targeted message for impacted staff.
Effective early training and communication for thought leaders is also key. Information should be delivered regularly, in a consistent and easy to consume manner.
When employees are kept in the loop, they become vital partners in helping a business survive and thrive. Click To Tweet
Cask can help you on your path to transformation by building a plan to keep employees engaged, responsive and feeling like part of the team when changes happen. It’s crucial to build a strategy for not only deciphering what employees need to be told but also how to reach them, especially if the workforce is spread out over different sites or if they’re working remotely.
Transformation can be difficult, but with the right strategy and communication plan in place, businesses can realize higher levels of engagement, which can lead to better uptake of the new technologies, higher levels of staff satisfaction, and greater return on investment for business.
Senior Advisor
Patrick is a Senior Advisor at Cask and has 30 years of involvement with corporate and personal technology infrastructure, driving best of breed decision-making, systems analysis and refinement, production assurance, and risk mitigation. From rebuilding essential finance infrastructure, to foundational work in corporate Incident, Problem, Change and Release management and beyond, he is always driving excellence and resiliency in IT Service Management to ensure the right amount of rigor for the services being impacted.
