Company Reorganization, Part Two: Helping Employees Embrace Change

As discussed in Part One, Keep Your Employees Involved, it’s important for employers to help their employees embrace changes that are being made during a reorganization. 

Generation Y is, among other things, a relatively positive generation. We tend to see almost everything that happens as an opportunity of some kind and try to keep a positive outlook on life. 

Organizational changes can be—and usually are—positive changes. But employees involved in the changes might not see it this way at first…unless you ease their minds by showing them how to embrace change. 

Someone once told me that, in life, “attitude is everything.” Attitude is an important part of how to deal with your day-to-day life, and it’s going to be the main determiner of how your employees react to the reorganization at your company. 

There will always be employees who react negatively to changes, but by taking a few steps, you can help most of your employees react more positively and view change as an opportunity. 

Before you can get your employees to view change as an opportunity, however, you have to first understand why they have a hard time viewing change this way. 

According to the article, Dealing with Change and Uncertainty, by Bob Reed, people deeply dislike being forced to deal with change because:

• They fear the unknown
• They fear they will lose something because of it
• Change implies a possibility of failure

“Change is inevitable,” Reed says. “More importantly, change is necessary for businesses and people to survive. In the race for quality, there is no finish line. As we struggle to cope with the challenges that face us daily, we learn to overcome these struggles and eventually become stronger.” 

Here are 3 steps to help your employees adapt positively to change: 

1. Teach Them to Accept Uncertainty—People who fear uncertainty are usually worriers who would rather know what’s going to happen right away then wait in agony to find out later. Worrying is often viewed as a way of attempting to predict life so there are no surprises, but in reality, worrying never makes anything more predictable or more certain, it just causes stress.
   
   Uncertainty is a part of life; there’s no way around it. So help your employees accept uncertainty by getting them to focus on the present, rather than on the future. And you can do this by keeping them informed and keeping the lines of communication open. If your employees remain focused on the present and on what’s happening now, then uncertainty about the future won’t bother them as much.
   
2. Give Them Something to Look Forward To—After your employees are better at dealing with uncertainty, help them feel even more at ease by giving them something to look forward to. As I mentioned in part one of this post, employers usually have a pretty good idea of what direction they’re going in with a reorganization, so instead of keeping it a secret, share it with your employees.
   
   Give a presentation to them about what the changes will be, why you’ve decided to make these changes and how it will affect them and your organization. Be sure to leave room for a question-and-answer session at the end of the presentation so employees can ask questions or get clarification on something.
   
   The more comfortable and involved you make them feel, the more likely they are to embrace the changes with a positive attitude.
   
3. Keep the Lines of Communication Open—Reorganizations can take months to be completed, so in order to make sure your employees continue to embrace the changes and remain positive and productive, the lines of communication between you and them need to stay open.
   
   Encourage them to come see you whenever they have a question and be ready to give them a response or to find out more information and get back to them soon after.
   
   By keeping the lines of communication open, you’re showing your employees that you care about them, how they feel and how they are dealing with all the change that’s happening.

In order for organizational change to be successful, it’s important for all individuals involved to buy into the changes. Buying in means the organization as a whole understands the changes that need to be made are ultimately beneficial to both the individual and the organization, according to Tech-FAQ.com.

By helping your employees embrace change, you are helping your company move into the future.

As discussed in Part One, Keep Your Employees Involved, it’s important for employers to help their employees embrace changes that are being made during a reorganization.