Change is a part of doing business. It is what drives growth and improves how companies do business. So how do you guide your business through change management to ensure your team stays on course and continues to move toward business and profit growth?
The recent pandemic caught many business owners off guard when they were suddenly required to adapt to a change in supply chain lines, daily sales, and a reduction in staff due to restrictions or illness. Businesses were forced to adapt their change management strategy on the fly or in some cases, build a change management plan as they adapt to this new scenario.
Businesses have learned that it is important to have a change management plan in place to respond to any sudden shifts at work whether it is controllable or sudden.
What is change management?
Change management can come in many forms, from losing employees to having to adapt to bring in new employees in response to a sudden growth in business. Managing this change comes down to long-term planning that helps you define your business and human resources needs, so you can quickly adapt to change and pivot to ensure business continuity.
How to Plan for Change Management
Creating a change management plan is the first step to ensure your business is prepared to adapt to sudden employee, production, or supply chain issues that may affect how you do business. A change management plan that clearly defines your business strategy in the event of these issues can play a significant role in maintaining your business goals.
Define Changes That Can Affect Your Business
Not every business is impacted the same way by organizational change. A review of your business goals and long-term business development plan can help you identify areas of weakness in your change management plan. This may include financial, human resources, and production. Review with both management and your team where value can be determined to have a plan in place that will allow your business to pivot in the event of a shift.
Plan For The Financial and Structural Effects
It is difficult to know change management will affect how you do business. By reviewing your organizational structure, you can plan for any sudden changes and create areas of redundancy when necessary. Conduct a review of business procedures and staffing to determine areas where you can better prepare in the event of a sudden change to reduce both the financial and human resources effects to ensure the highest level of business continuity.
Put a communications plan together
Once you have determined how your business will react in times of change, it is important to set up a communications strategy that keeps both management and employees informed. Will you be communicating via phone, email, or team meetings? Do you need to develop a feedback strategy so employees can share their concerns with your management team? Do you have a customer communication strategy in place? In the event of a change, you need to ensure that your customers are kept informed of any changes to how you are doing business. Developing a communications plan will keep the lines of conversation open through your business shift allowing you to ensure key messages are delivered.
Prepare your team for change
Sudden change is difficult for an organization if your team is not prepared. Set up the necessary training for your staff to ensure there is an easy and effective transfer of skill and knowledge to maintain business continuity. Training can be done virtually, in person, or on the job to ensure that the skills necessary to keep your business moving forward are being incorporated into your new business structure. If necessary, develop a succession plan to create a direct and unquestionable path when a sudden change happens.
Conduct regular reviews of your change management plan
Business growth means constant change. Take the time to review your change management plan on an annual basis to identify areas that may no longer fit into your long-term business strategy. Work with your team on an ongoing basis to develop new ways to adapt to change and create redundancies to ensure that change does not have an unnecessarily negative impact on how you do business. This will ensure that your business can adapt to changes in management or operations smoothly.
Saudi Technologies can offer your business the right management consultancy and development services to keep your business strategy on track during and help you develop the tools you need to ensure business continuity.
