Once organizations go live with a new Technology whether in Operations, HR, IT or Accounting the excitement is all there – new system, better than what they had before, better data, etc. However, most companies do not think about a change management process until rumblings about the new system start to bubble up.
Let’s start with the obvious:
It is about addressing your customer’s needs and making technology easier for your external customers and internal clients (employees using the new technology).
Here’s a shocker – Not everyone will be happy with the change. While they are initially not happy, it will be up to the person leading the change process to turn them around. I will address the “how-to” in converting the non-believers.
Be honest when explaining how the change will take place. Honesty in the change process goes a long way.
Manage expectations with all stakeholders BEFORE you start the implementation process.
Never Stop Communicating around the project’s progress, changes in expectations or system functionality and potential delays. The more open you are, the less the number of surprises arise and easier facilitation of change
Below are some tips for all project managers and executive sponsors as you plan or about to implement new and innovative technology that will help you be more efficient.
Tim Creasy of Prosci says, “To position change management as a priority, you have to start first with what senior leaders and project leaders care about: achieving organizational benefits and project objectives. With these five questions you will change the conversation from “What resources do we need for change management?” to “What resources do we need to capture the 50%, 80%, or 100% of our project’s objectives that depend on people?”
So where do we start?
The key to ensuring your change management process starts off on the right foot is by asking the following four questions to your stakeholders, preferably BEFORE you begin. For the sake of consistency, let us say you are changing Applicant Tracking Systems.
Why is the change necessary? The current tool was not able to keep up with the demand for new positions and integrate with other tools – HRIS, Background Check, Drug Vendor, and Assessments. Everything today is completed by paper and need to automate. Our goal is to attract/source/process candidates quickly than we do today so you can make better hiring decisions and have new hires start sooner rather than later.
Why is the change happening now? We needed to implement sooner rather than later to keep up with the demand for new positions, and this is the best time to implement before you get into your busy season.
What is wrong with what we are doing today? There is nothing specifically wrong, but we want to have integrated systems to assist hiring managers in managing our candidates with an improved candidate experience, allows for better process flow and we can onboard them using one tool. Also, HR can manage learning, employee information, performance and compensation in one system that will help you track your employees without having to go to multiple systems.
What happens if we don’t change now? Our ability to recruiter more efficiently will cause us to lose candidates and continue to create more administrative work. More importantly, it will take us longer to get you candidates which delays you (the hiring manager) in finding the best candidate.
Notice that the answers to those questions benefit the stakeholder. Your answers place hiring managers (in this case) at ease because you are considering their needs as well as yours. While there are plenty of questions needed to be answered, these four questions are key in starting the change management process around new technology discussions.
So you have put your people first by asking the right questions. Hopefully, you have the answers you need to identify your “change champions” who in turn will help you turn resisters into believers.
Implementing new HR Technology? Contact Michael about the key steps you need to take during the technology-related change management process?
About Michael Goldberg: Michael is an experienced Talent Acquisition Leader with 15 years of recruiting experience in Operations, Logistics, Distribution, Non-profit, Sales, and Event Management. His organization, The Recruiting Concierge, provides executive search and talent acquisition advisory services to organizations. He has led effective implementations on multiple CRM, ATS and Video Interviewing platforms with several $1B companies. Visit his website to learn more about his success turning underperforming recruiting departments to highly functioning recruiting teams or contact Michael to discuss how he can help your team.
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