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Over the past year, our company has evolved significantly, expanding our services and integrating new internal systems. It has been a time of retraining and adaptation.
In the past, a company would implement a major change every five or ten years. But with advances in artificial intelligence, economic uncertainty and digital transformation, companies now need to pivot and adapt much more frequently. Global spending on digital transformation is expected to reach $3.4 trillion by 2026, and 64% of companies say they need to build new digital business units to remain competitive in 2024 and beyond.
We often hear entrepreneurs and business leaders talk about working “on” the business rather than “in” the business, but there are significant benefits to understanding your business from the ground up. Today I’m the President and CEO of my company, but throughout my career I’ve worked in every area of my field, from warehouse to truck driver, so that has given me an invaluable perspective on change management.
Related: 3 Ways Change Leaders Prevent, Minimize and Manage (or Create) Resistance to Change
Try to understand workflows before youexchange
Early in my career, I worked for a company that hired external consultants to adapt its operations to the new customs regulations. More than 75% of the employees at the time were field workers and unfortunately were not consulted in this process.
When it came to rolling out the new structure, to say it was a chaotic implementation would be an understatement. Oversights resulted in significant storage charges and operational issues that caused projects to spiral out of control and employee morale to plummet. Ultimately, the lack of internal advice cost the company a lot of money and hassle.
When it comes to implementing big changes, it’s crucial to involve the frontline workers in your organization. According to Beekeeper, frontline workers often struggle with leadership: only 23% feel included in change-related decisions. This exclusion fosters resistance and disinterest, with 74% of employees saying that leaders need to understand why people resist change in order to encourage collaboration.
If you truly understand the daily tasks of your production staff and how the change will impact them, you are more likely to get their buy-in and internal support and make necessary adjustments to the plan.
I’ve seen too many companies make the critical mistake of pushing a change through from the top down rather than consulting their teams to get feedback on critical decisions. In these cases, it almost always leads to staff and customer turnover, which negatively impacts culture and morale.
Related: Rapid business expansion can be a good thing – but it also brings challenges. Here’s how to make that growth sustainable.
Your frontline employees determine your bottom line
In most cases, implementing change in a company is an attempt to improve profit margins. However, all too often, company leaders fail to understand how much of their profits are determined by their inexperienced employees. For example, high turnover of inexperienced employees costs Amazon $8 billion annually.
To successfully implement change, it is crucial that representatives from every department in your company are involved in the discussions. This should not just be limited to team leaders and managers; it is equally important that frontline staff are involved too.
Personally, I like to include vocal naysayers in the mix—team members who are known to influence the culture, and not always in a positive way. This serves two purposes: First, the naysayers sometimes have valuable feedback that other team members are too shy to voice. Second, if you can convince a vocal naysayer that a change is positive, they often become your best internal advocate.
Focus on training and continuing education
I remember one time when we promoted an employee from customer service to a management position. She was not a favorite for the position. In fact, she had started her career by being a vocal critic of our operations, especially of other departments.
What ultimately earned her the promotion was the leadership skills she developed through change management education and training. She embraced the training and ended up becoming a champion for the departments she had once criticized, committing to helping them improve and do things better.
When we train and teach our teams how to embrace and implement change, we create stronger leaders. Studies show that employees who receive appropriate training are more likely to stay with the company, which directly impacts the bottom line through lower turnover and higher productivity.
This applies at all levels. Whenever we run training sessions in our company, I try to attend, even if I have attended them myself. As leaders, we often have no connection to the practical implications of what we are asking our teams to do. Attending company training can be a good reminder of this. It also shows your team that you are not afraid to learn and that you are going through change too.
Change is difficult. But if we develop the skills to prepare and adapt to it, we can build stronger companies with more resilient teams. To do this effectively, it’s critical for leaders to collaborate with team members at all levels. The insights and perspectives we gain from advising frontline employees often make or break a company.
