Companies had to implement a huge number of changes in the past year and some were with very little warning as the impacts of the pandemic were suddenly upon us. While the demands of the pandemic may be unusual, change is nothing new – for the past decade, companies have been forced to make continual changes in their systems and technology and the way they work to remain competitive.
Are we saying change is easy? It depends on how you approach it. Consider that lasting change will help transform your organisation to one that is ready to adapt to an evolving business environment. This requires an effective change management plan and can be an ambitious undertaking. However, it is important to remember the biggest component of any change management plan is the human element or the people side of change.
Too many firms fail to stop and consider why they are making changes and, in the process, ignore the impact of those changes on their people. If you want to implement change that sticks, you need to understand your goals and align your employees with your plan for achieving them.
We have all witnessed businesses which managed to adapt their during the pandemic to survive. From restaurants offering takeaway services for the first time, to fitness instructors going virtual, those who embraced and adapted to the change have not just survived, but often thrived during the last year. For many others, implementing the changes that came with moving an entire workforce at short notice to remote working was a huge challenge. However, many adapted quickly and effectively.
We are currently working with businesses to support them through various business changes as they continue to navigate in the pandemic environment. The companies that are embracing these changes, viewing them as a positive to strengthen their business and improve employee experience, are handling it best. We have learned so much from the pandemic: it has highlighted many aspects of work which need to change, from the way we work to where we work.
At MovePlan, we are building integrated change management plans to support businesses through these changes, which will no doubt assist businesses to continue to bring about change independently in the future. Focusing on the people side of change is vital, and business leaders who do this instinctively will create lasting change.
As we emerge from the pandemic, business leaders need to wake up to the realisation that change is the only thing that is here to stay.
Digital disruption, financial fluctuations, customer attitudes, COVID-19, and other forces are driving continual change in today’s business landscape.
To keep up, stay relevant, and stay profitable, businesses and their employees must learn to adapt.
Below, we’ll take a look at some of the ways employees and employers can adapt to and maintain business continuity in today’s uncertain economic conditions.
To adapt to changes in the business landscape, it is useful to understand what those changes are and why they are occurring.
The factors mentioned above are a few of the biggest forces driving change in today’s economy.
For example:
- Digital disruption has driven changes such as the adoption of the internet, mobile technology, remote working, and much more
- Financial crises also cause changes to the business landscape and can affect everything from customer spending habits to international trade to the health of industries
- COVID-19 has influenced customer spending habits, the workplace, the economy, and more
All of these changes are just a few examples of the multitude of forces that constantly affect the business environment. The ones listed here are among the most prominent, so it is useful to understand how they are influencing the business world.
Here are a few ways that organizations can adapt to the changes we are seeing in today’s business world:
The Future of Work Is Digital – Employees Should Prepare Now
Not only is the future of work digital, the present work environment is also digital.
Digital disruption, as mentioned, is one of the largest forces affecting the modern business world and it will continue to change the business world for years, if not decades.
Here are a few changes to look for in the years ahead:
- Automation will reshape job categories. Automation platforms can enhance employee productivity by performing repetitive and tedious tasks. On the one hand, this will reduce the need for certain types of jobs, such as low-skilled administrative positions. On the other, it will increase the demand for technically skilled jobs, such as those requiring mathematics and computer science.
- The workplace will become even more digital. Today’s workplace is digital-first. Employees spend the vast majority of their day using digital technology, and every day that passes sees the introduction of new tools and digital workflows. in the years ahead, software will likely continue to proliferate and fundamentally reshape the modern workplace.
- Emerging technologies will fundamentally transform the workplace. Technologies such as OCR, augmented reality, virtual reality, 3D printing, and the Internet of Things will all reshape the workplace. In the years ahead, for instance, all of these technologies will become as integral to the workplace as the internet has.
In short, all of these trends point towards a future of work that is digitized and different from the workplace many of us have known.
To adapt to these changes in tomorrow’s business environment, it is important to adopt both the right skills and the right mindset.
Employee training programs can give workers the skills they need to stay successful and productive in a digital-first workplace. Likewise, cultivating a digital culture can help employees embrace learning and stay adaptable.
Adopt an Agile Customer Strategy and a Customer-Centric Work Culture
Agile ways of thinking are built around customers, collaboration, and data. The focus is on adapting to changing conditions, making agile highly suitable for disruptive business environments.
Not only is it a useful business principle, it is an excellent approach to take when designing customer strategies.
A customer strategy that is agile:
- Continually incorporates customer feedback and input into products and services
- Focuses on working products and services, rather than documentation and static plans
- Is willing to reshape business processes, units, and methods as needed
Agile is especially valuable in today’s business environment, since customer sentiments changed so rapidly.
There are several reasons for this, including digital disruption, as mentioned above. Other reasons include COVID-19, financial crises, geopolitical tensions, and the passage of time itself.
All of these trends can and do affect customer sentiment.
To keep up, therefore, it is necessary for businesses to continually learn from their customers, collect data, and implement adaptable business practices that can react to changing customer needs in real-time.
Continually improve
Continuous improvement, or kaizen, as it is called in Japanese, is a core principle of many process improvement methodologies. It is a central concept in lean, for instance, which is built around reducing waste and improving quality across the business.
In business, this idea suggests that processes should be constantly optimized and enhanced over time.
Continuous improvement can be applied in any area of the business, from employees’ daily workflows to business processes to the organizational strategy itself. By incorporating this concept into the business, employees and the organization’s leaders can ensure that the organization evolves on an ongoing basis. In the years ahead, this type of principle will become essential for those who want to keep evolving in the post-COVID next normal.