Change is hard.
In Tribe’s national research with employees of large companies, 84 percent say change
management communications in their companies are handled poorly. Employees seem to know
when corporate is putting a spin on the story or to be sidestepping issues, and that’s one of the
quickest ways to break down trust in leadership.
Before we point to some best practices in change communications, let’s take a look at what can
be learned from the worst possible change management practices:
84 percent say change management communications in their companies are handled poorly .
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1. Don’t announce the change until everything is final. It’s often a struggle
to balance moving quickly to share information and getting leadership
to approve communications before they go out. Encourage company
management to share whatever information can be shared as quickly as
possible. Employees will appreciate being told that a change is afoot, and
will be able to understand that all related information isn’t yet available.
2. Assume employees get all their news about the company from the
company itself. Employees have many other resources for information
beyond internal communications, so don’t fool yourself into thinking they’ll
only know what and when you decide to tell them. One of the fastest ways
to erode trust is to let them hear about a major change — on social media,
in industry news or from clients or colleagues — before they hear it from
corporate.
3. If it’s bad news, don’t talk about it. Whether the news is impending
layoffs or a fatality in a company facility, the news will spread quickly.
Employees will be watching to see how corporate handles sharing that news.
Some issues may need to be communicated with great care, but don’t shy
away from addressing them because you don’t want to call attention to bad
news. Employees are already talking, and it’s important that corporate be
part of the conversation.
4. Promise employees you’re being completely transparent. Don’t promise
something you can’t deliver. There’s a difference between being honest
and being transparent. In most change situations, there are details that can
be shared and those that can’t. Being honest is what counts the most to
employees.
5. Don’t ever stop. Eventually, it’s time to quite talking about the change
and move on. Shift the internal communications focus to what’s next, and
engage employees in the new reality of the company and the vision for its
future. Meanwhile, make sure you close the chapter by removing change-
related communications, whether that means removing intranet pages
or taking down posters and signage. As long as you’re talking about the
change, you’re not moving forward.