If we are being completely honest, no one will admit to liking change. Change can be frightening and stressful for everyone with the largest toll being taken on the employees. Learning a new system or a new way to do things that they might have been doing for years can be intimidating. However, in order to remain a viable competitor in today’s ever-increasingly competitive market, a company must be able to embrace change because it is a core competency of leadership. If managed correctly, change is well worth the effort because productivity and profits will inevitably grow. Despite how well a company may believe they have planned for and communicated the upcoming changes, resistance to the change will likely manifest within your company. Hopefully, these tips will come in handy when resistance to change occurs in your organization:

To Do BEFORE Change Occurs

1. Provide Consistent Leadership. This might be a given or something you believe your company does well, but when announcements regarding change occur; it is imperative that the company leadership team is unified and consistent. During change, everyone will look to the leadership team for guidance. Make sure they know exactly what to do and that they are unified, confident, and consistent.

2. Open Communication. Be upfront and clear with your employees. Make sure everyone is on the same page and communicate often.  Make sure you clearly outline what you are expecting to occur during the upcoming changes and clearly establish the vision of change. Let your employees know the strategy of what is about to occur and what is expected of them at each step of the process. When your leadership team clearly outlines what is to be expected, it will be easier for the rest of the company to follow suit and make the stipulated changes easier.

3. Delegate. Assigning different responsibilities for implementing change to other employees can help the process move along quicker. If one person is solely responsible for making sure everything is implemented, it can take longer for the company to make changes and wrong doings could potentially be overlooked or missed. If there is an employee responsible for each aspect of the changes, then it will more likely than not, allow for change to seamlessly occur. It will also allow the delegated employees to take on personal responsibility and will allow for more employees to feel involved and onboard for the changes that will take place.

Tips for Addressing Resistance 

First things first, look for any potential problems and address them as quickly as possible. The longer the problems go on, the harder it will become for the change to be successfully implemented.

• Address those naysayers by being clear about the need for change. Make sure the leadership team is speaking clearly and with transparent honesty to the employees. It is important to listen and hear their voices, but also very important to show why this change is needed and why it will ultimately benefit them and the company as a whole.

• Be on the lookout for signs like reduced productivity, conflicts, and even absenteeism. Some employees might not speak up about their feelings and instead will non-verbally show their dissatisfaction. If left unaddressed, these issues can turn into bad habits that will greatly slow change adoption and will limit everyone else’s positive views of the change process.

Bringing in a partner to help with the process of new changes can eliminate a large portion of the stress from your management team. Godlan is a leading professional manufacturing services company that has been implementing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) focused, integrated technology solutions since 1984. These solutions are offered in the latest technology platforms and support the implementation of world-class processes and practices throughout a manufacturing organization.

In addition to their ERP sales, implementation, and consulting services, Godlan has formed another business group, Prophecy IoT®. Godlan’s Prophecy IoT® team consists of highly-skilled and experienced business and technology professionals. This group has over 35 years of experience in the manufacturing realm and in-depth knowledge and expertise in MES, SCADA, and Industrial Automation. They understand that each customer is making a significant investment with critical company resources, the involvement of their employees. They take these investments seriously and, consequently, are committed to an Implementation Philosophy that is customer centric, objectives based, metrics driven, and  success focused.

In addition, Godlan offers an easy platform for digital transformation and automation, as well as Managed Hosting Services, Managed IT Services and Managed Security Services. For more information about how Godlan can help you, please visit www.godlan.com or call us today at: 586.464.4400