Posted on: Wednesday, August 4, 2004

Big changes can sap office morale

By Joyce M. Rosenberg
Associated Press

NEW YORK — You're expanding your small business, and hiring more staffers. Or you're cutting back. Or maybe you're moving your office. These are big changes, bound to unsettle your employees.

Consultants who advise businesses on what's known as change management, and owners who have led their companies through major changes say communication is paramount in helping employees cope and making the transition easier.

"Communication is everything ... to update the employees on a regular basis about not just what the owner thinks is relevant, but the little things" that are important to workers, said Lisa Aldisert, president of Pharos Alliance, a New-York-based consulting firm.

Craig Gipple, a consultant in Florham Park, N.J., and co-author of "Managing Business Change for Dummies," said communication is critical in handling the biggest issue owners face in change management: employee uncertainty.

"Without communication in detail, the employee is not going to know what's really happening and how it's going to affect them. And they're going to assume the worst."

Cammi Bailey, a certified public accountant in Tempe, Ariz., with six employees, had to lay off one worker, a traumatic occurrence in such a small office.

"They were concerned about their jobs. I just sat down and talked to each one of them individually," Bailey said. "I explained why I had to let a person go, because there wasn't work."

At Chapman Healthcare Services Inc., the change was an expansion, with the Vidalia, Ga.-based home healthcare equipment company growing from seven workers to 27 and opening a second office in Savannah.

Company CEO G. Biram Chapman said he has learned the need to fight miscommunication — rumors that give employees the wrong information and foster uncertainty and anxiety.

It helps to have already been running your company in an open fashion. If employees find you unapproachable in general, they're not likely to come to you with their concerns when you're contemplating a big change.

Aldisert advised against making the situation sound better than it is, or trying to talk workers out of any negative reactions. If employees are left "feeling that their quality of life on the job is less than it used to be, don't try to tell people that it's not. Don't sugarcoat the situation. Be authentic in how you deliver the message," she said.

Gipple said: "Tell them the bad news as well as why it's a great thing for them."

You also find that being sympathetic to employees' concerns will benefit you in the end.

"Force begets resistance, so if you want them to sabotage your change or slow down or not move, just force them," said Leslie Yerkes, president of Catalyst Consulting Group in Cleveland.

Veterans of change management advocate involving workers in the planning. It will do more than help them feel better — their contributions can go a long way toward making change easier for everyone.