The Role of Human resources in organizational change

 Karen Mccullough who is an award-winning keynote speaker explained in one of her speeches that change leads to many positive aspects that lead to retaining a competitive edge and remaining relevant in the respective business area (Mccullough, 2016). However, employees may take change as a challenge due to different circumstances.

It’s natural to think that change in the workplace is a bad thing. Change can be daunting and scary because it removes employees from their comfort zones. Research shows that only 39% of employees feel capable of responding to changing business and customer needs (Bagga, 2018). Many employees work on tasks and projects that are not aligned with functional or business objectives. Also, 43% of employees are confident that their work is aligned with customer needs (Bagga, 2018). Furthermore, 19% of chief HR officers say that their employees can change direction when needed (Bagga, 2018). What this means is that companies are losing thousands of hours of productivity each year because employees don’t know what to focus on when things change. Many organizations have tried using their talent strategy to build the skills needed to increase agility (Bagga, 2018). However, this hasn’t always worked. Therefore, it is highly important for an organization to not only focus on skills but also to remove barriers to responsiveness such as misaligned work designs, trapped resources and rigid processes so that employees will stay productive even through periods of immense change. This is where human resources play a crucial role.

For example, let’s consider the pandemic due to Corona Virus attack in 2019. It was an external factor which was out of control of all the organizations in the world, so the organizations had to rapidly change how the services are delivered (Kelly, 2021). The important thing is that change may happen due to an external factor but the control of how it is going to happen lies in the power of the organization (Kelly, 2021). HR plays a critical role in change management because the implementation of a change may be done by HR due to a requirement of an external force or facilitation of a change may be done by HR because it is requested by the internal stakeholders (Cohen, 2016). Furthermore, HR enables change because it is the most crucial thing to do in response to the organization’s current and future conditions (Cohen, 2016).

From the perspective of Debra Cohen, who has 25 years of experience in HR operations and leadership she says that regardless of whether the change is required, requested, right or all three, the main thing that HR needs to be focused on is “respectfulness” (Cohen, 2016). HR has a major role in ensuring that change is identified, developed, and carried out in a respectful manner. In such a change process, the role of HR needs to be a “change agent” not in the sense of being a conduit but in the sense of planning the right changes in consultation with other executives and senior leaders (Cohen, 2016).

Human resources leaders should take a structured approach to change management. This includes:

Communication – This means how the change plan is going to be communicated to the employees in the organization. It is a must that the leaders communicate the need for change in a compelling way and stress the benefits that it gives to employees (Kelly, 2021)

Involvement in all company levels – The author of this article thinks that this is a crucial aspect when it comes to change because it adds more value and reduces conflicts if all the individuals who are going to be affected by the change are a part of the change.

Training for the new policy – Training is important because the stakeholders should be familiar with and comfortable being in the change. Therefore, change agents must plan for what sort of training to be provided to ease the transitioning process and know which area the employees might need support in (Kelly, 2021).

Change doesn’t happen overnight. It takes planning and skilled project management. At the same time, change encourages innovation, develops skills, develops staff, leads to better business opportunities, and improves staff morale (Mccullough, 2016). HR has a role to play in terms of making sure that all the stakeholders in the organization are part of the change. At the end of the day, organizational change and changes in HR need to be successful. The HR personnel suffers a multitude of critics both within and outside the ranks. HR needs to make the changes that will drive positive value and improve organizational effectiveness while helping to align strategy and culture. If the change will be consistent, whether large scale or small, then HR needs to embrace its role of being an effective facilitator of the change.

References

Bagga, A. (2018) Organizational Change Management: HR insights, Gartner. Available at: https://www.gartner.com/en/human-resources/insights/organizational-change-management (Accessed: November 27, 2022).

Change or Die! (2016) YouTube. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zchcnH1Fhc (Accessed: December 2, 2022).

Cohen, D. (2016) What is HR's role in managing change?, SHRM. SHRM. Available at: https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/trends-and-forecasting/special-reports-and-expert-views/pages/deb-cohen.aspx (Accessed: November 28, 2022).

Cummings, T.G. and Worley, C.G. (2008) “The nature of planned change,” in Organization Development & Change. 9th edn. Mason, OH, Canada: South-Western, pp. 24–45.

Kelly, L. (2021) “Change Management: What's the Role of HR?,” People Goal, 24 March. Available at: https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/change-management (Accessed: November 28, 2022).

Lee, D. (2022) The importance of Change Management in challenging times, CMC partnership global. Available at: https://www.cmcpartnership.sg/blog/the-importance-of-change-management-in-challenging-times (Accessed: November 27, 2022).

Storbiersky, T. (2020) What is organizational change management?: HBS Online, Business Insights Blog. Harvard Business School. Available at: https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/organizational-change-management#:~:text=Organizational%20change%20refers%20to%20the,operate%2C%20or%20its%20internal%20processes. (Accessed: November 25, 2022).

Thompson, J. (2018) The definition for a business change, Bizfluent. Available at: https://bizfluent.com/facts-7214659-definition-business-change.html (Accessed: November 27, 2022).