Change management is about supporting people through major change projects, and any resulting impacts. With the current remote work environment, it has become more difficult to manage this people side of projects, but at the same time it is more important than ever.
It is crucial for employees to feel that their needs are being listened to and taken into consideration when designing a change. This is much more challenging to do when you are not working in person. You can’t pick up on the conversation in the office, walk around to see how people are doing, or read body language in a conference room.
At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, many organizations felt that remote work would be a temporary situation, a matter of weeks or months. However, 16+ months later, it is becoming clear that fully-remote and hybrid models may become the norm. The Delta variant of COVID-19 and other new variants have cast doubt on the safety of a full return to the office in the near future.
Remote work may be safer, and even more convenient, but it can make transitions more difficult. There are people who already feel disconnected and less supported than they were in the office, and major changes can heighten those feelings. Even those who are thriving in a remote work environment may find that major changes threaten their equilibrium. It takes a much more innovative approach to change management to make sure these implementations are effective and that employees feel empowered.
Studies have shown that projects which practice effective change management are more successful. So how do we do that in this remote environment? We’ve prepared a few tips to help you successfully manage the people side of your projects.
Tips for Successful Remote Change Management
Engagement – Involving employees to help create the change is a great way to build ownership. It’s harder to find the energy and connection that typically comes through engagement when you’re not meeting in person. Consider these techniques to make your remote meetings more dynamic.
-Encourage the use of video, while recognizing that some employees may not be comfortable showing their home, or may not have the literal bandwidth, especially if they are sharing their connection with others who are doing remote work or school.
-Start meetings with an ice breaker or warm-up. Depending on the company culture, this could look like simply asking everyone to share their name, pronouns, title, and what they hope to get out of the meeting, or it could involve everyone sharing a fun fact about themselves or responding to a trivia question.
-Create opportunities for active participation via the use of online polls, or working in collaborative environments such as Mural or Miro.
Training – Traditional classroom-based training is not an option when working remotely. Nor is it possible to simply teach online in the same way you taught in person. Keep these considerations in mind when planning training sessions.
-Break training down into smaller modules and make sure there are frequent breaks to improve training results. Sitting in online training classes that are more than 2 hours is more difficult for participants to maintain focus.
-Use technology that allows you to view participants’ screens. This can help you identify who is struggling, or if there’s a concept that the majority of the class has not fully grasped.
-Use breakout rooms within online meeting platforms to provide one-on-one support, or to give everyone the opportunity to discuss what they’ve learned in a small group.
-Remember that it can be difficult for participants to get your attention if they have questions. Build time into your class for Q&A breaks, and encourage everyone to use either the hand-raising function or the chat feature within the meeting platform to share their questions.
-Send out a follow-up email recapping the main takeaways of the training and addressing any questions that came up during the Q&A or breakout rooms.
Support – It’s important to give people access to additional learning support post-training, in case they didn’t absorb everything during the training. There are many tools you can use to make it easy for people to ask questions, receive clarifications, and provide feedback.
-Create a survey for employees to fill out after each training to provide feedback on the training and ask any lingering questions.
-Utilize technology such as Teams or Zoom for employees to drop in on meetings for support or further learning.
-Provide employees with the opportunity to ask for clarification via email, discussion groups, or one-on-one breakout sessions.
-Record training sessions with searchable titles/topics. Make it easy for employees to refresh their memory or review difficult training topics.
-Maintain an easy-to-find FAQ page which is regularly updated based on the questions which participants have asked in follow-ups.
-Create a list of self-help resources that employees can review on their own time if they wish to dig deeper into a topic.
-Ensure that all resources for further learning and clarification are well-organized and easy to use. Some people may hesitate to ask for help because they don’t want to take up your time, or they may simply prefer to find answers on their own.
Rising to the Challenge
Remote work is just one of the many changes that COVID-19 has wrought on industries and employers around the world. Your organization is likely facing its own unique challenges. Major implementations will need to be approached with extra care. Keep these change management principles in mind and check in regularly with your teams to ensure they feel they are being listened to and that their needs will be met by the organization.