Effectively communicating change to employees is important for the long-term growth and stability of your business or organization. Take into account that there is really no easy way to communicate important changes, especially to long-term employees who are comfortable in their habits and behavior patterns.
Instructions
1. Collect information about what you want to change at your organization. Evaluate past procedures to find out what worked and what was unproductive.
2. Elicit feedback from middle managers, staff members and your key audience. Adapt your communications strategies geared toward the overall group or staff members. If you are uniformed, or approach employees the wrong way, the process will be uncomfortable and ineffective.
3. Have a clear understanding about what the specific change will be and why. Communicate this in a way that's easy for staff members to understand. Employees have a need for substantive communication, and will not respond well to jargon or the "corporate line."
4. Connect with your audience. Communicate the organizational change by relating to your employees' day-to-day job functions. Evaluate the reality of your staff members' situations by conducting face-to-face research with key communicators and holding staff meetings.
5. Identify what your expectations are through the program change or communications plan. Know what the call to action is for the modification. Many times corporations want to make a change, but lack the foresight to see the operational adjustments or provide the structure for the results they want.
