Do you run an Australian business as a CEO, Director or Managing Director? It’s a lot of responsibility, but for decent reward as well, especially financially. As the figurehead of the business, it’s your job to steer the ship and to communicate with the public and your staff. But what happens when change is afoot? How do you communicate change effectively as a business?
This article will explore the best practices when it comes to communicating change as a business leader.
What is Change in the Business World?
Before we dive into the depths of this article, it’s worth spending a little time explaining what change means in the Australian business landscape.
Change in business is any alteration to the standard ways of business operations as usual. A period of change could be anything from a change of management or ownership, a company restructuring, to a rebranding, moving offices or implementing new ways of working.
The Importance of Qualified Staff
Australian companies and organisations need qualified employees who can lead the charge in creating an effective communications plan to facilitate any change. Ideally, these staff will have completed communication courses and other relevant degrees and certificates.
Having staff responsible for company communications means you have a dedicated role or even a whole team whose job involves effectively communicating change, both internally and to external stakeholders.
Why Communication is Crucial
As a company leader, being able to communicate effectively is one of the most essential business leadership skills to support staff through any major workplace change. Even if you have a dedicated resource for communications, leadership still needs to communicate with staff.
Frequent, open and clear communication is key here. As you get ready to inform your teams about a change, consider your approach carefully. You’ll want to explain the driving reasons behind the change and the major benefits the change will bring to the organisation, as well as do your best to address any obstacles that may come with the change. When your staff members have questions, be prepared to answer them frankly. Alleviate their concerns with open, honest communication and provide regular updates and feedback as the change process occurs.
Part of effective communication is encouraging an atmosphere of open and honest discussion among team members, and between teams and management. It’s middle management’s job here to act as a go-between: they should ensure that communication channels function well, both vertically and horizontally.
Practising good communication as a business leader can reduce confusion, uncertainty, fear and resistance from staff and increase overall employee engagement, collaboration and trust during a change process.
Involve Your Staff in the Change Process
Another way to best communicate change to your teams through a business change process is to actively involve them in the process as much as possible. You should source their input, ideas, and feedback on how best to implement the proposed change and ensure this is fed back to upper management.
It is important to acknowledge their ideas and feedback and close the feedback loop, ensuring that they hear back from the business on whether their ideas and input were implemented or not. If not, you’ll need to explain the solid rationale as to why.
Empower your teams through open communication to make decisions and take actions that line up with the business change goals and objectives. Your staff will be much more likely to come along for the ride as willing participants rather than having to be dragged, kicking and screaming, through the change unwillingly. Active involvement in the change process will create a shared sense of accountability, ownership, and commitment within your team.
Tailored Comms
You can tailor your change communications to different groups of staff. This can be done in a few ways. First, you could segment groups in the company that may have similar concerns or specific needs. You can then tailor your change communication to address these groups and their concerns specifically. The second way is to ensure that you use personalised messages, wherever possible, because your staff are individuals and have diverse needs at work.
If staff members feel they are alone in a changing situation, it can break their psychological bond with the company, causing a huge rift in the leader and employee relationship and disrupting the level of engagement from staff employed with the company. Personalised messages can ensure that a shared sense of humanity and common purpose is achieved in the change communications process.
Restructure Communications
Sometimes, company restructures are necessary to reduce waste, streamline processes and ensure efficiency.
Even after a company restructuring process is complete, this does not mean that change communications should cease. Responsible leaders and staff should continue to provide regular updates about the success and progress of the new structure, as well as communicate the evolution of where the new operating model could lead. Leaders should also communicate how staff can have a voice in shaping the new structure. Surveys work well for this.
Strategic, prompt and effective communications are crucial to managing team member morale, productivity and trust when a company undergoes a restructuring. During this time, it’s especially critical to prioritise empathy, consistency and transparency as the core of your company comms.
Today, we have shared best practices for change communications for businesses, as well as key tips and tricks for communicating effectively with staff during periods of change and uncertainty.
