2025 is in full swing and what can’t be ignored (as much as you may want to) is that HR leaders and teams need to be prepared to usher their organizations through a lot of change.
Whether your company is undergoing a full-blown transformation or has discreet initiatives, such as leveraging technology and AI for efficiency, it all requires the organization to move along a change curve and adopt new ways of working.
With over 25 years of driving all change levels, here are 5 critical success factors you need to consider to drive effective change in 2025.
1) Change management cannot be part of a project plan that comes at the end.
Change starts the second you decide to pursue an initiative that affects how people work. At the start of 2025, if you don’t have the change capability and resources you need, you are already behind the curve.
2) Change needs to be stakeholder-centric, not project-centric.
There are likely a multitude of changes your business is facing and you need to look holistically at the impact. Specifically for HR-led initiatives, one of the biggest gaps is when no one is looking across all the changes from the end user perspective. There are a variety of approaches, but my favorite is the Prosci ADKAR methodology. Whatever approach you take, beware of falling into the trap of a siloed approach to change. Not only can that be inefficient, but also ineffective.
3) Change practitioners must have HR expertise.
To take a stakeholder-centric approach to HR-related change, you need to have the experience and expertise to know what the impact is to your managers, employees, and your own HR team at the outset so that you can build a credible plan. When considering how to resource change management make sure you are acquiring skills that include a deep understanding of HR.
4) Driving real change requires a practical and tactical approach that takes time and effort.
Driving real change requires a practical and tactical approach that takes time and effort which are typically scarce among the team who are tasked with any given initiative. It is critical that there is someone who’s responsible for waking up every morning and thinking about the impact of change on your business stakeholders across the portfolio of HR initiatives.
5) It’s important to build change capability across the HR team.
A key success factor is to build change capability across the HR team, in particular with your HR business partner community. This necessitates a defined approach to change, articulation of the skills and behaviors needed to drive change, and the tools and mechanisms to equip your team to execute.
By now you have a good idea of your HR initiatives for the year. Don’t wait to equip you and your team with the right capability and capacity to drive change.
If you want to brainstorm about your particular situation or need some help, don’t hesitate to get in touch!
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