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In the past year, our company has evolved significantly, expanding our services and integrating new internal systems. It’s been a period of retraining and adaptation.
Implementing a major change to a business used to happen once every five or ten years, but with advancements in artificial intelligence coupled with economic uncertainty and digital transformation, businesses are having to pivot and adapt much more frequently. Global spending on digital transformation is expected to hit $3.4 trillion by 2026, and 64% of organizations report needing to build new digital businesses to stay competitive in 2024 and beyond.
We often hear entrepreneurs and business leaders talk about working “on” the business rather than “in” the business but understanding your company from the bottom up has significant benefits. Today, I am the president and CEO of my company, but throughout my career, I’ve worked in every area of my field, from the warehouse to driving a truck. Here’s how it’s given me an invaluable perspective when it comes to change management.
Related: 3 Ways Change Leaders Prevent, Minimize and Manage (or Create) Resistance to Change
Seek to understand workflows before you transform
Earlier in my career, I worked for a company that hired outside consultants to revamp its operations to comply with new customs regulations. More than 75% of its employees at the time were frontline workers, and unfortunately, they weren’t consulted in the process.
When it came time to roll out the new structure, to say the implementation was messy, is an understatement. Oversights led to significant storage fees and operations issues that caused projects to fall off track and employee morale to drop. In the end, the lack of internal consultation caused the company a lot of money and pain.
When it comes to implementing any big change, it’s critical to involve the people working on the frontlines of your business. According to Beekeeper, employees on the front lines often face a disconnect with leadership, with only 23% feeling included in change-related decisions. This exclusion fuels resistance and disengagement, as 74% of employees believe leaders need to understand why people resist change to foster collaboration.
By really grasping the day-to-day responsibilities of your frontline workers and understanding how the change will impact them, you’re more likely to get buy-in and internal advocacy and make necessary adjustments to the plan.
I’ve seen too many businesses make the vital mistake of pushing down a change from top to bottom rather than consulting with their teams to get feedback on critical decisions. In these cases, it almost always leads to staff and client turnover, which has a spiraling effect on culture and morale.
Related: Rapid Business Expansion Can Be a Good Thing — But It Comes With Challenges. Here’s How to Make This Growth Sustainable.
Your frontline employees drive your bottom line
More often than not, implementing a change in a business is an attempt to improve profit margins. However, too often, company leaders fail to understand how much of their bottom line is being driven by their entry-level workers. For example, a high turnover of entry-level staff reportedly costs Amazon $8 billion annually.
To successfully implement a change, it’s crucial to have representation from every department in your organization involved in the discussions. This shouldn’t be limited to team leads and managers; it’s equally important to have representation from frontline employees involved.
Among this mix, I personally like to include vocal naysayers—the team members who are known to influence the culture and not always in a positive way. This serves two purposes: the first is that sometimes the naysayers have valuable feedback that other team members are too coy to vocalize. The second is that if you can convince a vocal naysayer that a change is positive, they often become your best internal advocate.
Double down on education and training
I remember a time when we promoted a frontline employee into a leadership role. She wasn’t a frontrunner for the position. In fact, she had started her career being vocally critical of our operations, particularly of other departments.
In the end, what won her the promotion was the leadership skills she developed through change management education and training. She embraced the training and ended up becoming a champion for the departments she once critiqued, committing to helping them improve and do things better.
When we educate and train our teams on how to embrace and adopt change, we create stronger leaders. Research shows employees who receive proper training are more likely to stay with the company, directly impacting the bottom line through reduced turnover and increased productivity.
This is true at any level. Anytime we host training at work, even if I’ve already gone through it, I try to make a point to attend. As leaders, we are often removed from the practical implications of what we ask of our teams. Attending company training can be a great reminder. It also shows your team you’re not above learning and that you’re going through the change, too.
Change is hard. But when we develop the skills to prepare and adapt for it, we can build stronger businesses with more resilient teams. To do this effectively, it’s crucial for leaders to engage with team members at all levels. The insights and perspectives gained from consulting frontline employees are often what make or break a company.