Why successful transformation needs employee buy-in

Pallavi Srivastava, the Asia-Pacific and Greater China Talent Leader at IBM Global Technology Services, recently spoke to HRM Magazine Asia about just how important it is for organisations to get their employees on-board with any planned transformation.

What are the potential risks to charging ahead with transformation, even without employee buy-in?

I believe the most important organisational aspect that gets impacted when employee voice is not taken into account for any change initiative, is Trust.

This simple value is at the core of how the organisational culture is shaped, what kind of employees drive the company’s growth, who gets rewarded, and how we turn up in front of customers.

In today’s world of social media ubiquity, employees have several platforms available for them to voice their opinions.

If organisations do not amplify their voice internally and seek their buy-in for change, chances are those opinions will still get expressed, but in ways that may not reflect well for the company’s brand image or overall culture.

Trusting our own employees, seeking their opinions, and formulating a transformation strategy that aligns to the majority’s viewpoint – these are all critical to:

• Enhancing trust in the offering or solution,
• Creating a sense of ownership and stewardship among employees, and
• Leading to faster adoption of the changes being sought.

When employee buy-in is overlooked or compromised, employees do not trust the decisions. It reflects negatively not just on the change efforts, but on all aspects of organisational work practices.

How can organisations ensure their employees are interested and invested in the success of any coming change?

There are several ways to listen to employee’s viewpoints that organisations can explore: focus group interviews, employee jams, internal community blogs, leadership town halls.

However, the most powerful way to get employee buy-in is to allow them to co-create and design the change initiatives.

Involving employees in the transformation through approaches such as design thinking workshops or co-creation labs have proved to be highly effective in ensuring buy in from employees.

Every transformation initiative usually has promoters and detractors within the organisation. By giving opportunities for the promoters to come on-board, and also a platform for the detractors to voice their concerns, organisations can help to mitigate resistance to change.

These co-creation labs can also lead to some very innovative thinking that can positively impact change efforts.

How important is communication to the overall transformation and employee buy-in strategy?

A communication strategy is a most critical aspect of seeking employee buy-in.

Referring back to [the concept of] promoters and detractors, one cannot afford to talk only to the promoters of change.

It is equally important to bring the detractors into the conversation, and for such employees, there has to be a specific communication approach designed to address their concerns.

If the detractors have a strong following in the unit, they can derail the entire change agenda.

The communication strategy therefore must identify the target audience, outline the timing, the messages, the leadership involvement, as well as leverage all the technology and tools that help to amplify listening, and provide a platform to address any concerns.

It is then equally important to communicate to the larger employee base about the involvement of key leaders and role models in the change effort.

Blogs and mails from such leaders help to reassure employees about their concerns if any, and leads to alignment with change strategies.