Strategies for Change in Your Business

Implementing strategies for change in your business can be frustrating for some and exciting for others. Whether a modification in business procedures, adopting a new technology solution, or revamping your business model, it’s crucial to get your employees onboard if you want the change to be a success. Here are a few helpful tips to keep in mind as you strategize improving your business through change.

Bring People in Early
When it comes to evolving your organization, taking a team approach can alleviate some of the difficulties associated with changing things up. Bring people into your strategies for change early, get their feedback on what needs to change and their ideas for implementation. Employee input is crucial. Their roles give them a different “on the ground” understanding of your organization’s needs and where improvement is necessary. Bringing them in early communicates that you value their perspective and helps ensure the success of the changes you envision.

Your Virtual Assistant can create and administer a survey to gain insight into employee concerns and ideas. She can help you identify key employees, schedule meetings with them, and keep all feedback organized in a database.

Clearly Define the Change
When undertaking strategies for change, it’s critical to have a clear understanding of whom the change will affect and which business goals you seek to meet or address. Taking time to anticipate the effect of your changes will help ensure they are necessary and beneficial to your long-term goals.

Your Virtual Assistant will help with the research necessary before making formal changes. Your VA can research equipment or software and create a product comparison chart showing features and pricing. Your VA can map out procedural changes in a clearly understood PowerPoint presentation. Your VA can help you present the documentation you need to support the changes you are implementing.

The Broad View on Who Will Be Affected and How
Not every change is widespread or will impact the same people. Take a big picture approach and investigate how your different departments and employees interact so that you have a better understanding of both who will be affected, and how they will be affected by the proposed changes. The insight gained will help you clarify how to implement the change and devise a plan to provide the right support and training to those who will be impacted.

Your Virtual Assistant can create a spreadsheet that includes each department in your organization with employee roles and job functions. This will give you a visual understanding of how each department and employee will be affected by the new initiatives, and can help in planning how the change will cascade through your organization. It can also be used as a resource in figuring out who will need what kind of training.

Communication is Key
Clear communication is the goal! When a change is taking place make sure employees comprehend why the change is being implemented and how the change will be phased in. Reinforce the main points of the plan and why this change will benefit the organization.

Don’t shy away from acknowledging the human side of this. Change can be difficult and sometimes there are rough patches as you implement new processes. Give employees space to give honest feedback and to express how they feel about the change processes. Prioritizing consistent and clear communication and listening to employee concerns and suggestions will help to alleviate the pain and frustration change can sometimes bring.

Throughout the change process communicate about the progress being made and celebrate successes achieved. Once the goals have been met, keep the lines of communication open by soliciting more feedback to see if employees feel they need additional training or other support.

Your Virtual Assistant can help inform your team of progress updates through any channel you are using to communicate, whether sending out email notifications, assisting by editing a newsletter, posting on your company’s internal social network or creating a PowerPoint presentation.

Provide the Necessary Support
As part of any change within an organization, employees need to know upfront that they will receive the support they need. Whether they need to learn new skills, understand new procedures, or even take on new roles, a clear path forward should be presented to them at the time they are told about the change. This might take the shape of training, classes, mentorship, or more frequent check-ins with their immediate supervisor.

Your Virtual Assistant can be the go-to for scheduling any necessary support an employee may need, whether it be training in a particular process or meeting with a mentor. Your VA can
track employee training, make sure that there are no gaps in skills or knowledge that need to be learned, and confirm that everyone has access to any support they need.

Evaluate the Change Process
Once you have implemented your changes, you want to see how successful your methodology was. At each stage of the process, take the time to understand how effectively things are going. Were there any unanticipated questions or feedback? Did any problems arise? Take note of these things, make adjustments, and think about how to integrate these lessons when introducing other changes in your organization.

Your Virtual Assistant will help document each stage of the change process making it easier to evaluate and apply lessons learned when implementing change in the future.
A company’s success in negotiating the process of change depends on its ability to get its employees excited about the change and invested in its success.

Having a Virtual Assistant can make all the difference in keeping everyone on track and informed throughout the process. Contact us today and learn how a 100Ninjas Virtual Assistant can help you navigate the ups and downs of healthy, invigorating change in your business.