Facing lingering supply chain issues and constantly changing consumer behaviors, retailers today are looking to large-scale transformations to better understand what customers want — and to deliver on those demands more quickly.
But while most leaders readily accept that they need to spend money on things like system configurations, vendor contracts and project managers to oversee product rollouts, they’re often hesitant to invest in the change management resources required to accelerate transformation and ensure adoption. And when belts are tightened, change management is often the first thing to go.
In many cases, that’s due to a lack of awareness of the return on investment (ROI) of change management and how to measure it. Despite the fact that change management plays a critical role in helping employees understand how their work ladders up to the overall company vision; in ensuring that changes actually stick; and in maximizing the benefits of any change initiative, there’s a tendency to conflate change management with communications and training. Leaders may think it’s enough to send a memo, offer training or build a job aid, but this approach overlooks the critical strategic role that change management plays in increasing value creation and overall ROI.
It’s not always easy to show how having change resources involved in a project will help the initiative be more successful in the long run, but a few key steps can help you measure change efficacy and adoption, as well as engage and activate all levels of employees to solidify change across the organization.
Here’s how to get started.
- Align Around a Shared Vision and Goals
- Set Metrics at the Beginning of the Project
- Use Qualitative as well as Quantitative Metrics
- Measure Over Time
- Be Ready (and Willing) to Pivot
Dive deeper in the full article on Retail TouchPoints.
