One in three employees don't adapt to changes at work

Thirty-one percent of employees are not able to adapt to changes at work, decreasing their effectiveness on the job and highlighting that engagement and productivity are at risk for many organizations, according to research from Right Management. More than 100 senior HR professionals across North America participated in the survey, which asked Is your workforce able to adapt to change and increase their effectiveness on the job? In addition to the 31 percent who said No, employee engagement and productivity are a major risk, 43 percent said Somewhat, our workforce gets the job done, but morale suffers and 26 percent said Yes, our workforce is very agile and responds to new challenges.

Addressing the challenges created by today's tumultuous economy requires leaders to make a variety of difficult changes, from reductions in force to radical restructuring, said Doughlas J. Matthews, president and COO of Right Management. As our poll results demonstrate--with only one in four employees having the agility to adapt to change--most organizations don't prepare their employees to handle changes at work. As a result, change management strategies tend to fail, undermining the organization's ability to achieve the goals the change initiative was designed to produce.

Matthews observes that the most common obstacles stem from a lack of planning, preparedness and skill in managing the change process. With careful planning and support from top leaders, organizations can help their workforces adapt to change, maintain employee engagement and productivity, and accelerate performance to new heights.

Source: Right Management; www.right.com.

Reprinted with permission. © CCH (Submitted July 6, 2009)

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