We’ve received a number of comments on a recent post, “Why Is Change So Difficult?“ Many of you commented that top management holds the key to overcoming resistance to change, yet company leaders sometimes don’t lead very effectively. Well, top management, here are some suggestions for overcoming resistance to change:

1. If you say “we need to change” and you don’t follow that up with a rationale, education, support, and guidance, you lose credibility with your employees. You have to lead, and not just with words. You have to show what change will look like, how it will come about, and give your people an honest, accurate cost-benefit analysis (i.e., it will take x, y, and z and may cause some short-term pain but we’ll be a stronger company in the long run).

2. Acknowledge employees’ stake in the outcome. If you think company owners are the only ones who have a stake in whether the company is successful and profitable, you’re looking at the situation too narrowly.

Your employees all have a crucial stake. If the company maintains the status quo and falls behind its competitors as a result, many employees may be out of a job. It’s in their best interest to see their company grow and change with the times.

Whether you know it or not, the majority of employees feel the company’s products are their products. Acknowledging this sense of pride in ownership will only reinforce their sense of worth and investment.

3. You value your employees’ insights. They’re involved from day to day in all the low- and mid-level processes. They see many things you don’t. Furthermore, you don’t have time to look for all the little details. Trust them to know what’s going on and invite their observations and criticisms.

4. At the same time, understand that your employees have different backgrounds and, therefore, different perspectives on your situation. They all have an interest in seeing the company change and improve, but how they read the company’s situation — and how they’d go about effecting change if they were in top management’s seat — will vary. Value the different viewpoints and use them to your advantage.

5. Understand the needs and requirements of the company at the different levels. Have you had a good talk with customer service, purchasing, or production lately? How do they see the company? What do they think the company needs to move forward? What do they need at their level to make change work?

6. You didn’t hire the best just to sit on their experience and talents, did you? You believe their personal and professional growth is in their best interests and yours, right? Well, why not make use of all that they have to offer? Show some trust in their knowledge and instincts…and in yours. It doesn’t make sense not to.

7. Everyone working together toward a common goal gives employees a sense of belonging and togetherness. “We’re in this together” isn’t just a slogan: it’s how exceptional organizations are run. It’s how companies like yours stay ahead of their competitors.

How does your company encourage change? How do you involve your employees in change? How do you get them to buy into the idea? I look forward to your comments.

As 2009 limps — bloodied and beaten — toward its conclusion, here are a few issues that are possibly weighing heavily on HR managers’ minds:

1. Salary budgets are reportedly set for modest increases, at best, but given the last couple of years, for most of us any increase – however modest – is welcome.  According to one survey, increases for this last year averaged 1.9% worldwide and are expected to rise another 2.9% in 2010.  (However, at this time last year, they called for 3% and got two, so take a grain of salt. Another thing…how much is the financial sector skewing those numbers?)
2. Of course, this is the time of year for benefits reenrollment, for the declining numbers of us who still have company benefits.  In this corner, benefits aren’t being reduced, but we’re going to pay 5-10% more for them. (There went the salary increase.)
3. Speaking of health, GINA (the Genetic Information Nondisclosure Act) has just been introduced to the USA. A number of countries (e.g., Sweden, Israel) have had genetic privacy laws on the books for some time, but the US is taking a slightly different tack, not really playing catch-up.  HR departments will have to get the word out to hiring managers…for when they get around to hiring again.
4. How does a company retain its best and brightest if it can’t give salary increases?  Training?  Guess again.  Training budgets declined an average of 14% in 2009, according to “Chief Learning Officer“ magazine.  CLO also looks for an average 4% increase in training budgets in 2010, spent mostly on “efficient” delivery methods, like e-learning.  The ASTD (American Society for Training and Development) says that retail, government, and businesses operating on narrow margins are cutting back on training or cutting it out entirely.
5. Funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) have been handed out at a glacial pace (it’s the government, after all), though it has had an immediate effect on unemployment benefits.  Stimulus funds don’t appear to be having an effect on employment rolls, according to the news on mounting job losses across the board.  Look any day, on any news site you favor — a few thousand jobs lost here, another few thousand there.  Yet, the Federal government reports more jobs being created each day.  Who’s right? In any case, HR departments don’t appear to be preparing for a return to pre-recession employment levels.
6. H-1B visas.  Always a touchy subject in the USA, the numbers have risen and fallen with the state of the economy so, of course, they’re down now.  High-tech firms, health care institutions, and educational institutions appear to profit most from H-1B workers.  The current annual cap is 65,000, according to the USCIS (excluding various exemptions).  If the job market keeps on its current unsteady course, expect the “hire American / hire H-1B” tug-of-war between labor and employers to intensify.
7. The Health Care Bill before the U.S. Congress: What will its final form be and how will it affect HR managers in the years following 2010?  Will it actually put the brakes on employment growth, as some prospective employers suggest?  What will be the ripple effect, if any, on commerce?

While we seem to be dwelling mainly on the USA, most of these issues weigh heavily on the minds of HR managers around the world, as well.  (“It’s A Glo-bal E-co-no-my / Af-ter All…”.)  These and other concerns don’t have an easy or quick resolution, either, yet we continue to be optimistic about the days ahead.  As a friend said to me just today, “We must have hope.”

HR specialists and managers out there…is there anything else that concerns you as 2010 approaches?

Bizmanualz is getting ready to ramp up our consulting services. We already provide great services for implementing quality management systems, putting policies and procedures in place, assisting companies with their sales and marketing efforts, and much more.

But we’ve seen throughout our many consulting engagements that something has been missing. While many of our clients have great intentions by trying to comply with an ISO standard or something of the like, the strategy and vision to back that up can be lacking.

“Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.” – Jack Welch

It all starts with a vision you have for your company or department. Is that vision being accurately and concisely communicated throughout the company? If not, the outcome can be far from what you envisioned.

For example, say your vision is to launch a social media marketing campaign to appeal to a broader, younger, Internet-savvy audience. What does that mean for your marketing team that is unfamiliar with social media networks? What does it mean for your sales team that has no experience with that type of lead? And most importantly, does your product make sense for that audience?

These are all questions you need to answer with a clear strategy before you launch a campaign that could end up costing your company. Our business experts are eager to help formulate your company’s strategy into clear steps that will lead to success. Contact us to learn more, and stay tuned for our brand new website just for our services clients.