The Employers Guide

Managing emotional aspects of workplace change

It's a time of tremendous change for organisations across the UK. Many companies are reorganising and employees are facing the largest downsizing in decades.

While some people embrace change and the challenges and opportunities it brings, others are far more hesitant. Many employees, even the most talented and productive, become frustrated because they feel they have little control over what happens to them.

A person's reaction to change can also depend on the stresses and uncertainties they are experiencing in other areas of their lives. A change at work may bring additional stress for an employee who has just experienced a death in the family or who is in the middle of a divorce. When change becomes overwhelming, an employee's performance at work can be affected. They may show signs of stress with uncharacteristic outbursts of emotion, such as anger, frustration or sadness.

What action can you take?

Be positive about the future

Often HR professionals and business leaders know about workplace changes before they are announced. You may also help decide how the changes will be carried out. This early knowledge can make it easier for you to be positive about the future when the changes are announced. Keep this in mind if some of your employees initially appear less resilient than you would expect. It's likely they're experiencing the uncertainty that sudden changes can create and they have not had the chance to adjust.

Understand how your employees are reacting to change -The five step model

Employees need your support and patience as they begin to cope with a period of uncertainty. It can be helpful to look at employees' reactions to change in terms of a five-step model, variations of which are widely used in helping people deal with grief and other important life changes. Not everyone reacts to change in the same way and therefore may not go through the following stages in the same way:

• Denial: employees refuse to recognise that a change has occurred and continue to behave as if it hasn't.
• Resistance: employees recognise that the change is real and react with subtle or overt resistance, and often with hostility and anger.
• Depression: employees feel a sense of loss, and recognition that what is gone cannot be recovered.
• Exploration: the resistance gives way to a tentative acceptance and in which employees begin to look with interest at the change and explore how they will behave in the changed environment.
• Commitment: employees accept the change and commit to it.

In your role as an HR professional, you may help employees through the change process and try to keep them motivated and working toward the changes that need to be made. By understanding that individuals react to change in different ways and at varying paces, you may be better able to help your employees through challenging times.

Ceridian’s EAP, LifeWorks has introduced a new audio recording “Working Through Times of Change”, where Gregory Shea and Robert Gunther, authors of Your Job Survival Guide: A Manual for Thriving in Change, offer advice to employees on how to thrive in a business world of constant change.

If you’d like to find out more about our LifeWorks service and how we can support your line managers and employees through times of change, please contact 0800 0482 737