Today’s ever changing economy means one thing – lots of change in the workplace. As a manager, you’ll be responsible for communicating changes within your organisation to your employees but you have a problem. The rumor mill is already running and most of your employees have already gotten themselves caught up in the buzz and may be worried about their jobs. So what can you do to help them stay calm and deal with change on a daily basis?
Explain Why the Organisation is Changing
Employees who understand why things are changing are more likely to accept change without high levels of anxiety. It doesn’t matter if you’re making a small change in procedure, if you plan to move your office location, or if you’re going to be part of a merger. Change is inevitable and the more we know and understand the easier it is to handle – regardless of where we are on the management food chain.
Remain Positive
No matter what type of news you deliver, remain as positive as possible. If you are a lower or mid-level manager you should never, under any circumstances, criticize upper management. The more respect you show for upper management the more respect your employees will show.
Remain Available
Make sure you stay available to your employees as much as possible, adopting an open door policy that will allow them to come to you with their questions or concerns. If your policy suddenly shifts from open-door to closed-door your employees will become nervous and upset and their work patterns will become disruptive.
Communicate with your employees as much as possible. The more information you can give, the better. The more secretive you are, the higher your odds of losing employees as they “jump ship” to find a more stable environment.
Courtesy MTD
