Managing a business is essential for its long-term success. Over time, it may be necessary to change management policies in order to adapt to the needs of employees, to changes in the labor market or to improve the overall efficiency of your company. Here we will give you advice to best support the change of managerial policy within your organization.
Upstream of change: prepare effectively
The first thing you need to do is think carefully before deciding on a change in management policy.
Reasons that can justify a change in management
First of all, it is necessary to determine whether the change in management policy is useful or not. Here are the reasons that can justify such a mutation:
- Current management practices are no longer in line with new technologies or industry trends.
- The type of management practiced is not effective or does not suit the needs of the company.
- Current practices are out of step with company values as well as with the expectations of employees or customers.
- The management policy is not suitable for employees. This has an impact on their motivation and commitment. In turn, productivity is also low.
Identifying the reasons why you are changing your management style is important to understand where you are going.
Develop an action plan
Once you are certain that a management change needs to be organized, it is important to develop a transition plan. It's a roadmap that helps you make the changes you want. It should include:
- Your goals. They should be clear and achievable. They help determine the purpose of your process.
- A schedule. It allows you to have a vision of what you want to achieve over time.
- A budget. It is essential to provide both financial and human resources to support your policy change. This makes it possible to communicate, train, recruit, etc.
- The sharing of responsibilities. It is important to name the people involved in the transition process and to give them responsibilities. If not, there is a good chance that it will be a failure.
- A communication plan. We will come back to this, but we must be aware that communication is an essential factor in effectively supporting any change in business.
Fully involve employees in management change
A change in management policy can only be successful if it fully involves all employees in the process.
Communicate with your staff
A change in management can have consequences for all employees in a company. It is therefore essential that everyone has sufficient information about the nature of the changes and their purposes.
The nature of communications can vary: sending emails, organizing meetings, working in groups, etc. The more clear and transparent the information provided is, the more likely employees are to accept it. It also promotes engagement, as they feel that they are fully considered in the change process.
Train employees
Once management policies are in place within the organization, it is important that all employees are trained.
Some processes (especially decision-making processes) are new, so it is essential to give them the keys to make the right choices. Some missions may also require skills that they have never had the opportunity to develop before. In order not to put them in a situation of failure, it is essential to offer them the tools they need to fully succeed in their tasks.
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Anticipating resistance to change
Finally, by modifying the management policy, you will necessarily be confronted, more or less strongly, with mechanisms of resistance to change.
Be prepared as best as possible
It is inevitable: any change, whatever it may be, causes reluctance. If it is not possible to control the reactions, you can mitigate them by anticipating them as much as possible.
List the objections you may encounter, and don't wait for them to be formulated by your collaborators to provide answers. Your employees will realize that you have thought about their concerns and that you are offering adapted solutions. It's a show of empathy that will help them trust you.
Evaluate and communicate results
Once managerial change has been implemented, it is important to assess the results. To do this, define in advance the performance indicators that you will observe. Increasing productivity or reducing costs are generally attractive indicators. You can also Calculate the engagement rate through various methods.
Regular evaluation of results makes it possible to validate the usefulness of management change. It is interesting to transmit the figures to employees: they are the first to be affected. This allows them to see firsthand the positive impact of changes.
Attention: it is very likely that the positive impact of a new management style is not directly positive. Sometimes it takes several weeks or even several months for this to be the case. This is explained by a more or less long transition period: everyone has to adapt to new working methods. It is only logical that some adjustment time is necessary.
Changing management policies in companies can be complex, but it is sometimes essential to ensure sustainability and growth. For example, the establishment of bottom-up management is often associated with a strong increase in the rate of employee engagement. This is essential to ensure the performance of an organization. To succeed in your managerial change, rely on communication and involve your employees as much as possible in the process. The more information they have, the more they understand the value of the mutation. Be sure to anticipate their reticence as best as possible in order to respond effectively. Finally, tools such as a crowdfunding platform can help you to effectively and sustainably implement a participatory management policy.
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