Most employers wouldn't dream of implementing new technology without training employees how to use it, but research shows the behavioural change required to make new systems a success is largely ignored.
 
By skimping on the change management process, companies run the risk of spending big on implementation, only to see their staff gradually return to less efficient ways of working.
 
Research by Bluewolf Consulting, which helps companies implement software solutions, shows close to 90 per cent of organisations provide training when implementing a new platform. But less than half provide comprehensive change management that involves consulting users before, during and after the changes are made, explaining and demonstrating the benefits of the new technology, and coaching managers on how to be change leaders.
 
"While most get that you have to provide training when implementing a new piece of technology, less than half are looking at it from a holistic point of view of how you get people to change their behaviour," Bluewolf managing director Arlene Wherrett tells HR Daily. "You need to focus on why do we need this change.
 
"Almost the worst result is a company makes a potentially multi-million-dollar investment in a new piece of technology and employees go back to their old ways of using spreadsheets and completely ignore the power of the technology."
 
Wherrett, who has a background in human resources, says change management around technology implementation runs into the most problems when employees can't see the benefits of the new system. This may seem obvious, but it is a common mistake.
 
Systems that are clunky and hard to use frequently encounter employee resistance, particularly when there has been inadequate communication and training. At the end of the day, most people want to do a good job at their roles and will embrace a system when they can see how it makes them more effective.
 
"Employees like to do a good job and feel successful in their role," Wherrett says. "The more a company focuses on the people and what the expected outcome is, rather than the technology itself, that's the first place to start."
 
Steps to successful change
 
The first thing to do is ensure change begins at the top of the organisation, Wherrett says. Senior executives need to be change leaders so they aren't simply forcing the change on those below but are living it themselves.
 
"The old cliché is to walk the walk," Wherrett says. "It's not just telling employees they need to be doing this but actually doing it themselves. [The executive team] should be the first to make the change, and help employees understand the why of the change – where is the business heading and how is this change helping us to get closer to where we want to be?
 
"When leaders are not comfortable with technology, or are reluctant to change the way they work, that can be harmful to the change when employees don't see their managers or leaders using the new system on a day-to-day basis."
 
One of the best implementations Wherrett was involved in was with a global insurance broker. The HR team was engaged from the beginning in supporting the change and helping employees understand what it would involve. This included working one-on-one with the executive team, coaching them on how they could use the technology, so they could personally demonstrate its use to employees.
 
"One of the best behavioural changes I saw was the executives using the technology live in a sales team meeting," Wherrett says. "So instead of looking at Excel spreadsheets saying this is what the sales pipeline is, they were putting the sales pipeline in real time in front of the sales team and managing the sales meeting in a different way."
 
She says the best examples of HR's involvement have been when HR leaders were focused on the business outcome and helped the executive team understand how investing in changing the behaviour of individual employees was important to that outcome.
 
"It's about relating what the employees do on a day-to-day basis to what our business is trying to achieve," Wherrett says. "Help the chief risk officer to see that, help the chief finance officer. If HR can help them make that connection, they will have had an important impact on the business."