Making Enterprise Change Management a Success

Each month, over 543,000 new businesses enter the already competitive market in the US. The drive to maintain an advantage through a fluid, forward-thinking and adaptive approach is important. Companies must adapt to global economic trends, occasioned by climate change, external economic factors and technological innovations to remain relevant. So, for organizations to maintain growth and edge, they need to constantly evaluate the state of their businesses while identifying opportunities for improvement. An excellent approach to maintaining competitive relevance is effective enterprise change management.

What is “enterprise change management”?

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Enterprise change management (ECM) is the practice of implementing and managing organizational change on a comprehensive level. You can also view it as a systematic utilization of change management processes, skills and tools in any organization.

The demands of organizational change management force leaders to define the process of enterprise change management. This must be done in a way that enables a common language of consistent standards across the company for optimal strategic growth and profitability.

ECM helps to minimize the negative effects of unintended changes while ensuring a standard procedure for imminent changes. The goals of enterprise change management are to ensure projects deliver people-centered returns on investment, reduce change saturation and its consequences.

This change management approach is also designed to enhance human capital utilization and the installation of organizational agility and the strategic capacity to manage change.

Importance of enterprise change management

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Anyone on the change management team understands that managing organizational change is a herculean task.

According to a 2018 global survey 86% of over 2, 000 change leaders agree they expect an increase in the number of change programs in their organizations in the future. McKinsey argued that 70% of a company’s change initiatives will not achieve their objectives due to staff resistance.

Enterprise change management simplifies the implementation of organizational change through productive communication.

It defines a roadmap that promotes change project success and ensures the application of consistent standards and guidelines across all business processes with minimal disruptions.

Enterprise change management institutionalizes a change process that enhances business agility and change capability, increases return on investment and scales up work efficiency and productivity. Enterprise change management is vital to companies because it enhances human capital utilization, strengthens their competitive edge and mitigates change saturation and consequences.

Elements of enterprise change management

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Enabling change management in any organization empowers the workforce and equips them to perform at their best while delivering on business promises. This demands a holistic approach to how organizations view, implement and achieve change management and business success.

Prosci’s research proposes an approach that is adaptable, structured and repeatable to managing change from a human angle, thereby serving as a bridge for change management at individual and organizational level. Some elements of enterprise change management comprise common processes and tools, leadership competency and strategic capability.

A common approach to processes and tools

In every department, high-performing organizations use a unified, up-to-date and evidence-based method, as well as processes and tools for change management. This entails adopting to an international standard initiated by a reputable body, such as the Association of Change Management Professionals.

This involves the application of tools, processes and management practices using a common language. Effective planning tools will enhance setting of strategic goals, achieving of project objectives and effective implementation of change management.

This thread of commonality is reflected in tools such as TimeTrack Duty Roster, an innovative and easy shift planning features which helps companies who are having difficulty with planning employee shifts. This tool will help managers personalise work locations, areas, skills and employees while saving time and facilitating the implementation of change management.

Leadership competency

For effective implementation of change management, senior executives must spearhead the strategy for organizational core competency. This necessitates that leadership competency for managing change pervade all levels of the organization. For effective management of change, the leadership should speak with one voice through their actions and commitment.

Senior leaders also need to understand effective time management through the 4Ds of time management. A good leader is always cognizant of time management and how it relates to the bottom line (profitability).

Senior leaders who should concern themselves with acquiring such competency for organizational change are frontline staff, supervisors and managers, senior executives, project leaders and professionals within the training and development and human resources departments.

Strategic capability

Effective and quick response to change management is vital for survival in today’s volatile and competitive business world. Business leaders need a competitive advantage which involves the development of structured and intentional plans, embodied in the manner of funding and resource provision.

This also involves defining the structure and laying out plans, expectations and relevant strategies. Strategic change capability also translates to effectively combining the organization’s human and material resources, tools and processes, skills and leadership to achieve a competitive edge.

Effective enterprise change management at work

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Implementation of enterprise change management requires concise coordination of human capital and resources, including time and money, to support change. When these processes lack, the results are frequently high employee turnover, loss of profits and project failure.

Create a common language

The first part of the successful implementation of organizational change is the establishment of a common language that every team member, department and unit can understand. This emphasizes the need for effective communication that prevents frustrations, misunderstandings and failed change initiatives.

Define the change management terminology clearly so that everyone understands each stage, expectations and the project management cycle. A common language amongst leaders and team members ensures that all changes and efforts are progressing toward the same, clearly defined goal, which is easy to comprehend.

As enterprise change management takes place at a large scale, creating common tools reduces employee resistance while increasing strategic performance, productivity and customer satisfaction.

Establish a roadmap and enforce accountability

Every team member, including both senior and frontline employees will play a role in the change initiative. Employee collaboration provides simple answers to questions about milestones, timelines and budgets. It is the team’s duty to determine project scalability at enterprise level and secure stakeholders’ support for present and future change.

Leadership skills in change management

Strong leadership is essential to ensuring an acceptable pace with implementation and gauging progress while ensuring the best management practices. Companies must invest in training so that teams may understand what drives change. Employees must understand the need for urgency in change management and learn essential skills. To work well, they must be knowledgeable and competent enough to engage all stakeholders as needed.

Productive communication

Improve internal productive, goal-oriented and direct communication throughout the change management process. The team’s feedback must be honest, while management ensures constant evaluation. Feedback from frontline employees and management will differ, yet both will offer valuable input. This is also true of customer feedback, which is key to rectifying oversight issues and enhancing customers’ experiences.

Productive communication also extends to employees’ time management issues. Change management is a complex process and all staff must be productive and efficient. With TimeTrack Timesheet, managers can quickly gain an overview of employees’ working hours – and where they may be lagging. With this information, you can engage in honest communication with the relevant team members to improve their efficiency.

Constant evaluation and tracking

Successful companies focus on improving the customer experience and evaluating business efficiency processes. These practices, in turn, will enhance the product lifecycle.

Tracking performance also involves effective task sequencing. This is to ensure there are no dependencies between jobs which is important to accomplish objectives. Good leaders regularly evaluate performance data and analytics to monitor the degree of change and the maturity of change management. Assessing maturity provides insight into the state of change capability and to determine specific steps for maximum agility and profitability.

Conclusion

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Enterprise change management requires the institutionalizing of standard operating procedures that guide processes with a consistent and widespread application. A key objective is to minimize employee resistance arising from disruption, while creating a roadmap for success.