Why is change management important?

In recent years, companies are seeing change management play an important role during the implementation of new technology. Many people fear that as technology develops, it will take over the workplace. This often causes resistance to change in firms looking to implement new technology. By helping employees better understand change, you create a workplace that is more open-minded and open to change. Change management can help ease this tension and create a smooth process.

Change management is a process that helps ease any organisational transition. It helps employees to understand, commit to, accept, and embrace changes in their current business environment. Change management is a formal way of communicating with employees. It tells them why change is happening, what it will look like for them, and how it will ultimately benefit them in the end. Keeping employees informed from the start helps smooth the transition and shorten the time. Also, if employees are more open to change, they will be more engaged in the process of making it happen. When employees are more engaged, the transition can happen more quickly and ultimately save your organization time and resources.

By opening this line of communication in your organisation, you set a standard. Over time this will increase the trust your employees have in the firm and the decisions top management is making. Ultimately, people fear the unknown. Having a strategy in place can help to lessen if not eliminate that fear. Setting a standard for change early on and maintaining consistency can help create a more adaptable and innovative workplace.

How change management help companies?

According to Google, those who consider their change management programme to be excellent and sophisticated see an average return on investment of 135%, compared with just 105% for those organisations with a poor or non-existent programme.

Change management will help increase user adoption, utilisation, and proficiency. Activities such as training will help employees get a better understanding of the changes that are taking place at the office. This will, in turn, reduce the risk related to acceptance by users. Consequently, it will lower costs related to unplanned disruptions to business operations. When everyone is clear on their roles and responsibilities after deployment, your business will run smoothly without any hiccups.

The end result is that individuals embrace change more quickly and effectively, and organisations are able to respond quickly to market changes, embrace strategic initiatives, and adopt new technology more quickly and with less productivity impact.

That’s the case for the employees from Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) in Singapore. Around 4,000 employees of SPH News Centre, Print Centre and Media Centre went through a massive transition from Lotus Notes and Microsoft environment to G Suite. The training sessions were divided into five groups – VIP, core IT, Google Guides, early adopters and end users. There were four different advanced workshops for Google Guides which includes hands-on sessions and activities. During training, employees were exposed to the G Suite application. This enables them to relate on how the apps can be useful in their daily tasks.

After a few months, the change management process starts to bear fruit. Employees are starting to collaborate more with one another on Google Docs. Daily tasks are able to be completed easily and quickly thanks to the tips and tricks that the employees have learned from the training. This translates to higher productivity and indirectly bonding coworkers together.