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When it’s time to make a significant facility change for your business, whether it’s remodeling or re-locating, setting expectations and controlling perception is key to employee satisfaction with the new environment. Engaging in a detailed information-gathering process that includes listening sessions with employees is a great start to facilitating change and making employees feel valued. Embrace input from employees—your staff knows what is needed to achieve great results. Engaging your staff early in the planning process is critical to helping them be more accepting of upcoming changes as they transition to a new environment.
Change doesn’t come easy. Humans are creatures of habit and our environment is an important element in our daily routine. A lot of our time is spent at work, an environment we become very familiar with, where we know what to expect. We also know the best route to take to get to work, the time it takes, and where we make stops along the way to manage our life. If you’re relocating, this all changes and creates understandable stress.
Address employee concerns
It’s helpful to work with a consultant that’s experienced in various methods to understand the attitudes and readiness for change within your company. These methods include, among other things, understanding the company vision and mission, employee surveys, an evaluation of current conditions, and pilot programs to test new strategies. The consultant assists in creating an action plan that includes addressing concerns, anxieties and expectations of the people affected. It’s important to focus on what employees gain, not what they will give up. A comprehensive communication plan should be specific and have an honest tone in messaging. It needs to answer who, what, when, where, why, and how.
This is a group effort. You will want to use the influencers within your own organization to help convey the message. Meet with them, explain what you’re trying to accomplish, and ask for help. Company leaders need to model new work behaviors desired in the new environment.
Create an action plan
When it’s time to get ready for a move, you need a comprehensive move plan that addresses phasing and logistics. You will need to identify move champions and coordinate team meetings to define things like how to purge, how to clean, how to pack, and the schedule for everything, including the actual move. It’s important to know the building rules and regulations and check the lease expiration for office equipment and services. There may be long-term storage, disposal or de-commissioning needs as well.
An experienced consultant will provide your team with valuable insight and checklists to guide them through the process and take some of the pressure off key members of your organization, minimizing disruption to normal workflow. The consultant’s expertise will help you increase employee satisfaction, maximizing the return on investment you’ve made for workplace change.
To learn more visit www.creativebusinessinteriors.com and request an introductory meeting with one of our consultants.
Sources
- Communicating Workplace Change: Starting with the basics ,Knoll Diane Stegmeier
- Managing Workplace change: Three keys to successful change readiness surveys, Knoll
- Workplace Change: Supporting a positive change experience, Knoll
- Managing Workplace Change: A people-based perspective, Knoll Dr. Michael O’Neill
- Shaping the Modern Workplace, Knoll
