Engaging Employees Through Change

Welcome to Transformation Professionals, the podcast for managers, leaders and consultants driving transformation and AI adoption in medium to large organizations. Brought to you by cxotransform. This show is designed to help you elevate your impact, harness AI driven insights, lead with confidence, and create real business value. Now over to business transformation and AI expert Rob Llewellyn.

Did you know that 70% of transformation initiatives fail? And one of the biggest reasons is low employee engagement? When major changes happen, whether it's restructuring, a new technology, or a shift in company strategy, employees often feel uncertain, resistant, or even disconnected. And here's the challenge. If people disengage, change will fail. But when you get employee engagement right, change becomes an opportunity, not a threat. So in this video, I'll take you through a practical framework for keeping employees engaged throughout major change. You're going to learn why disengagement happens and more importantly, how to prevent it. The key to maintaining engagement during change is to focus on three pillars. Leadership, providing direction, reassurance, and trust. Next is communication, keeping employees informed and involved, and support, ensuring employees feel equipped for the change ahead. If you only focus on processes and forget the human side, people check out emotionally, even if they're physically still at work. The best transformations happen when employees feel like they're really part of the journey, not just passengers along for the ride. You probably know that change is emotional, and employees go through four key stages when faced with transformation. The first one is denial. This won't affect us. The second is resistance, which is where they're thinking or saying, this is too hard. Why do we need to change? The third is exploration, where they're thinking, maybe this could work if we approach it differently. And fourth is commitment, which is when they get to the stage saying, I see the value in this. Let's make it successful. Most resistance happens in stage two, and that's where many organizations struggle. But if you support employees through resistance, they move to commitment much faster. Now, during change, employees feel like they're in stormy waters, unsure about what's coming next. So leaders need to be a lighthouse, guiding them through uncertainty. And this means being visible and approachable. If leaders disappear behind closed doors, people will lose trust. Next is being honest about challenges. Employees respect transparency even when the news isn't perfect, and providing clarity. You need to reassure employees about the vision and their role in it. If leadership feels uncertain or disconnected, engagement will drop instantly. People need stability and direction to stay engaged. Unclear communication fuels confusion, frustration, and disengagement. So to keep employees engaged, follow the communication pyramid, which is vision. That's where you clarify why this change is happening and the bigger picture. Key messages, which is where you explain what exactly is changing and its impact on employees. Channels, which is where you determine how communication will take place. That could be emails, meetings, town halls, etc. And feedback loops, which is where you ensure employees can ask questions and share concerns. Communication should be two way. Listening is just as important as talking. Now, one of the biggest mistakes organizations make is doing change to people instead of with them. Employees exist on an engagement spectrum. Low engagement is when employees feel like passive recipients of change. High engagement is when they feel like active participants and contributors. The more ownership employees have in the process, the more committed they'll be to making it work. Now, a few ways to involve employees are to ask for their input, create working groups and recognize their contributions. Listen. Resistance is nothing unusual. It's quite natural. And it's certainly not a sign of failure. It's just a sign of uncertainty. People resist change for different reasons. Fear of job loss creates uncertainty, leading to thoughts like will I still have a role here? Lack of trust raises concerns, making employees wonder, do the leaders really care about us? And overload, which leads to frustration as people feel this is too much change on top of everything else. Now, the key is to identify and address resistance early through conversations, listening and reassurance. Now, a major cause of disengagement is feeling unprepared for the new ways of working. Think of training as a cycle. First, you assess the skills gap, starting by figuring out what employees need to succeed and ask yourself what skills are missing. Second, provide training opportunities. Once you know the gaps, offer training, coaching and resources to help them grow. The key question here, how can they develop the skills they need and help employees apply new skills? Because training alone isn't enough. They need chances to use what they've learned. So ask yourself, where can they put these new skills into action and give feedback and support? Reinforce learning with ongoing feedback and support. Think about, how can we help them keep improving? You know, upskilling isn't just about new tools. It's about building confidence in the future. Big, complex transformations take time. And if employees don't see progress, they'll lose motivation. That's why you need to break the journey into milestones and celebrate small wins, such as a successful pilot project, a positive customer outcome, or a small process improvement. Recognition doesn't have to be grand and huge. A simple thank you in a meeting can make all the difference. Keep in mind you can't improve engagement if you don't measure it and a few ways you can track engagement are employee surveys. This is where you can ask your employees directly how do you feel about this change participation rates this is where you should be looking at attendance and be asking are people showing up to the meetings and training and turnover rates. Which is where you need to watch for trends and ask are key employees staying or are they leaving? The key takeaway here is if engagement is dropping, it's a sign that something needs to change. So ask for feedback, refine your communication and make employees feel heard.

Now.

Once the dust settles, engagement often drops. Employees fall back into old habits unless engagement is built into the culture. The sustainability wheel includes ongoing leadership support, continuous learning and development, recognition of progress and success, and open, transparent communication. Change isn't a one time event. It's a continuous process and the goal is to build a change ready organization that really thrives in transformation. Change doesn't fail because of technology, strategy or processes. It fails because of disengaged people. But when employees are engaged, change succeeds.

Thank you for listening to this episode of Transformation Professionals. We hope today's insights have provided valuable guidance for your professional development. For more resources to enhance your capabilities, visit Rob Llewellyn's Enterprise Transformation and AI channel on YouTube or explore Cxotransform.com to learn more about our range of online courses.