The last 6 months have seen me fully ensconced in a change management project – working with a team to transition work and jobs to an overseas location. A big project with big people and change implications (not the least of which is lost jobs).

Here’s what I’ve found to be critical to maintaining morale and gaining buy-in to a potentially unpopular strategy:

Be upfront and honest about what you tell people

Right from the start we’ve been completely open about what this strategy means. Keeping secrets from employees is the best way to disengage them and reinforce the “management – employee” dichotomy.

Tell people what you know, as soon as you know it.

Even if the news is “bad”, people feel as though they are fully informed if they believe and know you are communicating everything as it happens. In this project, we committed to keeping people informed as soon as any decisions were made, or as soon as the work led us to conclusions. Because of our commitment in Point 1, we even told poeple when we had no news. Again, this reinforced our credibility with the workforce, and helped them believe that we wouldn’t hold back information.

Give line managers the job of communciating to employees 

People prefer to hear things from those they trust and know. In most cases this will be their direct manager and /or the next manager up. The project team is remote, and in some circumstances, can be seen as “the bad guy”.

Always communicate significant stuff in person

Anything that provides informaiton on people’s roles and when/how they will be affected just has to be done in person.  People need to know you place the same significance on this as they do, and that you are making the time and investment to consider them individually, and understand their personal positions.

Frequency of communications

More more more. Use many different channels – but do it often. More than you think you should. And always meet any commitments you make around communicating within specific timeframes.

Support people in understanding their reactions

Validating people’s feelings and reactions is an important component of helping them come to terms with big changes. Providing support that explains how people move through change can help some poeple move faster. Of course, people will move at their own pace, and some may never get past the anger stage. This too, is completely normal and should be expected and planned for.

Get people to participate in the change

If possible, getting people involved can help them feel valued and useful, even though the change may be affecting their own jobs. If you have been a decent employer (or people manager), people will often take pride in working professionally through a difficult time. Alternatively, they may learn a bunch of new skills that could be useful later. 

Acknowledge the difficult environment – and thank people

Ignoring the fact that a change is happening at your preil. You need to spend some time validating how people feel (challenged, unvalued, stressed), and them thanking them for their attitude/efforts or whatever is relevant.

Of course there’s more – a lot more. But if you’re doing these things then I believe your approach to the change is the right one:

• Care about people and what they are going through, and
• Keep them as informed as you are