Introducing new business processes can be tough. Whether you’re making a major change like overhauling your security practices or something smaller like introducing a new time-card system, getting employee buy-in can be an uphill climb. Most people don’t like change. When you introduce a new business process to your team, they’re likely to form a knee-jerk opinion. They might believe that the change is going to be difficult, make things worse, or be unnecessary. Such reactions will decrease the likelihood of successful and efficient adoption.
The key to getting your employees to adopt new processes positively and quickly is easing the pain of change. With these steps, you can help your business scale for long-term success without resistance from your staff.
What Does “Process Adoptability” Really Mean?
When you make a change in your business, how quickly the change is adopted company-wide is the key to success. If a new process is easily adaptable, it’s more likely to go over smoothly with fewer growing pains and potential mistakes. Process adaptability is a measure of how feasible and easily a new process is adopted into an organization.
Challenges to Process Adaptability: Employee Impact
All we must do to see that humans are resistant to change is investigate our own closets. Got outfits from the 2010s in there? Sure, you do. We all do. When transitioning to a fresh style of jeans feels like a feat too large to tackle, just imagine what overhauling business processes feels like to your staff.
“We are hardwired to resist change. Part of the brain—the amygdala—interprets change as a threat and releases the hormones for fear, fight, or flight.” - Chris Pennington, Emerson Human Capital Consulting
Three Cornerstones to Managing Change Resistance
Combating your team’s resistance to change comes down to three things: leadership, communication, and resources.
Exercise Leadership
When implementing new processes in your business, it’s up to you to lead your employees into this change in a way that minimizes resistance and maximizes adaptability. This starts with you, the leader, communicating the need for the change, why it will be good for the business, and more importantly, why it will be good for the employees.
Foster Communication
Make sure to frame your discussion of why this change is needed in a way that your team can see the benefit themselves. They’ll be more motivated to endure the frustration of change if they can see how they’ll benefit from it.
Provide Resources
Your staff will need resources and knowledge to make the change in the way you intended. This may come in the form of easy-to-find passwords and instructions, posted information guides in critical spots throughout your facility, instructional manuals that don’t take forever to read, new tools or software, etc. When you ask your employees to make a change, make sure you give them the tools to succeed.
Eight Points for Improving Business Process Adaptability
If you want your new process to be adopted efficiently and easily by your team, here are some key elements to include in your implementation process.
- Drive awareness: Identify the change to be made and clarify goals, objectives, and potential challenges for your team in the beginning, so they’ll know what to expect.
- Create a process map: Create a plan to navigate through this change that addresses potential problems and tracks progress.
- Foster collaboration: Communicate to your team that working together is key to making the change and seeing success.
- Get employee feedback: Create focus groups to gauge how well employees are adjusting to the change and adjust as necessary to improve the process.
- Create a training framework: Employees will need training on how to operate the new system, software, etc.
- Be transparent: Keep your employees up to date on how the change is going, including both wins and areas for improvement.
- Outline soft skills: The key skills necessary to implement change may include patience, a growth mindset, problem-solving, teamwork, and leadership.
- Think long-term: Prioritize long-term outcomes over short-term gains to ensure your business can evolve to the changing world of today.
Adopting a New Business Process Doesn’t Have to Be Difficult
At AMAROK, we create and implement perimeter security solutions for businesses, so we know firsthand that it is possible to get your employees on board with a new system without headaches and growing pains. With proper planning, communication, training, and support, you can make changes to your business to help it grow with ease. Change is necessary. Don’t be afraid to make it!
Ready to Adopt a New Security Process That Keeps Your Business Safer?
Adopting a new business process is never easy, especially when it comes to restructuring your security practices. With effective leadership, strong communication, and the right resources, your business can easily implement a new security process. Download a free copy of our Perimeter Security Playbook so you can plan for the long haul.
