Change: no one can escape it. Digitization, disruption, and robotization are causing tsunamis crashing down on us, on top of the regular waves of change. Many jobs are disappearing and many new ones are emerging. From permanent to temporary jobs, from mail carrier to drone operator, from teacher to MOOC producer, from trainer to game designer, and from garbage collector to waste coach. Well, change managers are heading for a golden age. At least, if they themselves (fully) understand the change.
“A garbage collector becomes a waste coach: how can we predict whether someone can handle change?”
New jobs without data
One question that soon comes to mind: can employees, self-employed, flex workers handle this change? How do we find out that they can successfully fill that new job? Because of all these new features, we have no performance data. And with the performance data of functions disappearing, we can no longer do anything.
And organizations, how do they migrate from old to new? More than ever, it is essential for organizations to get moving and gain traction quickly. Implementing change will require additional managerial skills. How do you get all employees, freelancers, and flex workers moving? And to the right place? What migration path should you offer them?
“Without performance data, it is very difficult to establish standards and evaluate new employees.”
Change based on an employee journey
The recruitment marketing concept of the candidate journey can provide guidance when organizing change. Thinking in terms of a journey can be inspiring when leading major organizational change in the right direction. A simple employee journey could look like this:
Understand – Feel – Help – Act
Understand change
As an employee, freelancer, or flex worker, you want to understand why the proposed change is being implemented. The transition narrative must be logical, relevant, and credible. As a director, can you explain the transition narrative in a way that helps your employees understand the why and see it for themselves? And inspiring, please. That would be wonderful, of course.
Feel the change
Without urgency, no traction is created. Urgency is something you have to feel. And that can be done by sharing negative experiences about how we do things now with colleagues, managers, executives, etc. That’s much more effective than trying to convince employees with facts, figures, and PowerPoint presentations to sell the benefits of change. If you want to learn more about feeling urgency, check out John Kotter ‘ s 8 steps of change or this video by Ben van de Tiggelaar.
Feeling urgency, as part of the employee journey, arises not only from facts and benefits but also (and primarily) from negative experiences. For example, by allowing employees to submit a complaint about a product themselves, or by having a salesperson spend a day working in production planning. In short, by simply putting yourself in the shoes of your internal or external customer/supplier and experiencing all the shortcomings of the current way of working for yourself.
Help to keep up with the change
When employees understand the change and feel its urgency, traction is created. New barriers to moving smoothly with the change then emerge:
- “I don’t want to.” Often what is meant here is “I don’t want it now.” Obstacles then come into play, at work or perhaps privately. Driving and inhibiting forces play a role in behavior change (Kurt Lewin, 1890-1947). The behavior exhibited is a balance between these 2 forces. Effective behavior change occurs by removing inhibiting forces rather than pushing the driving forces. If you, as an employer, can help remove obstacles and then make them feel urgency, these employees will also get moving.
- “I don’t know how.” If this is the cause, coaching or peer review comes around the corner. Learning from peers or learning from a job coach can help employees get up to speed quickly.
- “I can’t.” Does your employee have the potential to learn? That question must be answered first, so people are not frustrated later by a new position they cannot fulfill to their potential. With an assessment (from a short online to a comprehensive development assessment), you can get answers to this, avoid disappointment, and minimize the risk of failure. With an assessment, you collect psychological data that can be used to predict functioning.
- “I don’t dare.” Then there may be limiting beliefs, employee needs that do not align with organizational culture, etc. This is where an assessment, focusing on drives, personality and temperament, can provide more insight.
“With an assessment, you collect psychological data that allows you to predict functioning. Then you don’t instantly need performance data.”
Do
If the help is good, and the ability, willingness and courage not a threshold, the doing follows naturally. Encouragement is the credo here, then doing becomes automatic. The other way around, of course, is also true: Have you dropped stitches in the previous steps, a rearguard action will take place here. This takes a lot of energy and strength and produces few results, in short, very tiring.
Is it possible for a transition process to occur without psychological data?
Of course, it’s up to you. But my answer to this question is no. And to be more specific: the greater the change, the greater the need to use psychometric data to ensure its success. If employees are migrating to (completely) new positions, you need to understand their potential. Especially if you don’t have relevant performance data to fall back on. If employees are afraid of change, or if you want to help them overcome obstacles, insight into their motivations, personalities, and resilience can enhance the effectiveness of the change process. With psychological data, an organization can navigate change processes faster, more effectively, and more targetedly. Then an ROI calculation is quickly made.
