A guide to change management for HR professionals

According to Gartner, the typical business has undergone five major firmwide changes in the past three years, and 75% expect that number to increase.

Change may be common, but that doesn’t mean knowing how to manage it effectively comes naturally. Too often change decisions are made on high and rolled out without a solid plan and with little thought to how they’ll affect everyone in the organization. The business consultant John Kotter has estimated that approximately 70% of all change projects fail.

That’s why change management is important. Change management is the practice of taking an intentional approach to implementing changes in an organization. It involves thinking through the larger implications of the change, developing a plan for rolling out each stage of it, and making sure there’s active communication with everyone affected throughout the process.

And it’s a process the HR department should be directly involved in. HR can bridge the gap between the high-level strategists behind the change, and the workers who need to embrace it for it to be successful.