Change in the Workplace

I am doing an independent study on an issue among companies that is as hard to recognize as it is to fix. The resistance to change is an ongoing battle, in the workplace. Simply put, times are constantly changing and employees don't like it, therefore there will always be battle between the workers and the management. Management knows that the company must keep up with the everyday changing world. There are many of changes that could trigger resistance. It could be technology, younger employees, or simply updating the workplace facilities.

I stated that the problem could be as hard to recognize as it is to fix. Since that is the first step to fixing the issue, then that is where we need to start. Some of the older more seasoned employee is usually the ones that are going to rebel against whatever change that you may be doing. However they may not rebel in a way that puts their job in jeopardy. This is what will make it hard to spot at first. Knowing this is half the battle. Sometime it will be a more clear form of resistance that may require some sort of reprimand or even termination. However I would not get caught only thinking that change resistance will come from older employees. Change threatens all ages and genders. A job is the lively hood of a person. What I mean is, this is the rock that they hold onto every day, they pour there heart and soul into it each and every day of their lives. Once they see change coming they will immediately be threatened and take offense. If a company decides to do large scale change in the workplace, chances are they are going to feel as though they were not doing well enough at what they were doing to warrant change. This is the same job that they have been pouring their heart and soul into every day of their lives. Even if the reason for the change was only brought on by the changing times and the direction the company needed to go in.

To help the employees deal with whatever change that is coming into the workplace, I would like to break it out into steps. I believe this will allow the managers who are in charge at the time to put the exercises into place as needed. This will keep the confusion down between the employee and the managers.

Even though the actual first step is recognizing that you are getting resistance from your workforce. We are going to assume that any change in the workplace will be met with some sort of resistance. Therefore the first step would be to call a staff meeting. A lot of time when companies are changing they make the mistake of only notifying the ones that are coming directly on contact with the change, or the ones that will be affected by it the greatest. If you bring them all together at once there is less confusion and you will not have to worry about the "he said, she said" drama. Once you have them all together you can inform them of the reasoning for the change. For example, if there is going to be a new hire of five young males that have recently graduated from Harvard University. This could threaten many people. However, if you could explain the number of people that are scheduled to retire in the coming years and the positions will need to be filled from within the company. This means that you will be getting promotions and the new hires will have on the job experience to fill your spots in the coming years. I used the example of hiring employees; however, calling a staff meeting will still help with any change. This is just one example of many where communication will help the moral in the company.

Next I would use individualization. What I mean by this is I would talk to the employees that I feel will be impacted the greatest by the change. I think that it takes the communication to another level. There may still be resistance before talking to them one on one. Not only does it ease their minds it also helps in the change process. When there is change in the workplace somebody has got be doing the changing. So talking to them one on one helps with the planning and what to expect day to day.

With the third step, I would create special task or exercises