Change Management Communication Plan Template & Examples. Also, Communication Strategy in Change Management. Importance of Communication Plan in Change Management
Communication in Change Management
Change Management Communication refers to the informational elements in the time of change in an organization that helps stakeholders and employees understand elaborately what will be changed, how to maintain it, and why this change has happened. It indicates effective interaction among employees during the change in any organization, company, or institute. It consists of delivering relevant and consistent messages on time and asking questions, and sharing feedback.
Communication practitioners use this strategy to achieve the short-term and long-term goals of the organization. The three most important stages of change management communication are preparation, implementation, and reinforcement or follow-up. It ensures the stakeholders are getting consistent information through an effective communication process. It is an essential component to motivate stakeholders to achieve the vision and mission of the organization. Therefore, The success of the organizational change depends on effective communication and building rapport among employees. Change is important to achieve a competitive advantage, and a change management communication strategy is essential to maintain the time of change in the organization.
Change Management Communication Examples
Netflix is the perfect and real-life example of organizational change. Netflix’s Organizational Change shows the importance of change in an organization to achieve competitive advantages. Communication is crucial in change management to achieve the goal. Netflix has maintained effective communication during change management to motivate employees. Lewin’s Change Management Model describes the process of change management communication with three stages of change management. The three states of the Bruce Lewin change model are unfreezing, changing, and refreezing.
Communication Plan in Change Management
change management communication plan is the strategy to ensure effective communication during organizational change. The change management communication plan improves the performance of the organization. Many scholars have mentioned the importance of the communication plan in change management. For example, Zareen Husain developed a change management communication plan template in 2013. This template aims to articulate the importance of effective interaction in the period of managing change in business organizations.
The nine steps of a change management communication plan template are: Tackle Queries, Generate Community Spirit, Build Trust, Motivate Employees, Employee Commitment, Employee Participation, Reduce Uncertainty, Job Security, and Add Feedback.
Tackle Queries of Employees
Communication must need to meet the queries of the employees during the transformation of the organization. It provides sufficient information for all employees to motivate them. Effective communication means exercising an excellent communication strategy inside the organization. It ensures that everyone in the Company or organization knows why this is necessary. It also informs all employees that how this change will affect the business and individual’s work.
Generate Community Spirit
Organizational communication generates a community spirit that assists the organization in achieving independent and interdependent goals. Effective communication creates community inside the organization to make employees committed to their duties and responsibilities.
Build Trust among Employees
Effective interaction builds and conveys trust via employees’ attention and openness. Actually, the practice of maintaining effective communication within the organization creates positive attitudes among employees. It also makes the employees cooperative to yield a superior level of performance. Change management communication refers to the appropriate, open, clear, and timely interaction that builds rapport and trust among employees.
Motivate Employees
Effective communication is a key component to motivating employees via addressing queries. It creates a friendly work environment within organizations, and a favorable work environment stimulates employees to obtain motivation. Motivation can be both positive and negative. However, interactive communication helps to gain positive inspiration.
Employee Commitment
The commitment of employees depends on the level of understanding regarding the internal and external issues of the organization. Similarly, the effectiveness of the employees relies on the knowledge of the strategic matters of the Company. Practicing an effective interaction strategy plays an important role in reducing confusion among employees in the time of change in the organization. So, transparent, authentic, and timely messages stimulate the change process successfully.
Employee Participation
Interactive communication influences employees to join in the decision-making activities in the organization. It also increases the level of gratification of the employees to be committed to the organization. Employees become more satisfied when they can give their opinion in the decision-making process. Therefore, effective communication and employee participation are interconnected matters that contribute to the success of the change plan in the organization.
Reduce Uncertainty
Effective interaction and sufficient information are essential to yielding better outcomes. Appropriate information reduces uncertainty and stimulates the employees to get ready for change. During the change process in the organization, uncertainty increases excessively among employees. Therefore, Providing precious, appropriate and timely information is very important to reduce uncertainty.
Job Security
Recent studies show that employees pay a high level of contribution towards the organization that has job security. In contrast, employees are less committed to performing in the job sector and feel insecure. So, the lower job satisfaction comes out from the lacking of job security. Interactive communication increase job security and the happiness of the employees.
Add Feedback
Effective communications always provide feedback and reinforcement to the employees during the change in organizations. It also enables everyone in the organization to make the perfect decision. Feedback of the interaction enhances the understanding of the pros and cons of change in the organization.
Importance of Communication Plan in Change Management
As most employees are not interested in accepting change in an organization, an effective change management communication plan can play an important role in a successful change.
For example, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the world economy and business have been changed. To combat the current situation, many organizations are changing their business patterns, policies, and strategies. It has become one of the most important factors for every organization globally to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic. Change management communication strategy in the organization is very important to maintain the organization’s management changes, such as adjusting to the new business model, following new business policy, engaging with remote work, motivating stakeholders, managing uncertainty, and maintaining effective communication.
New Business Model
Firstly, a change management communication plan is the essential informational component to adjust to the new business model. Many organizations have changed their business patterns and structures due to the covid-19 pandemic in 2020. For example, the Malaysian government has imposed a movement control order (MCO) to stop spreading the coronavirus. All educational institutes in Malaysia have decided to conduct online or long-distance learning systems to follow government instruction. As it is a new teaching system, the students and employees of the educational institutes have no experience, so they need to follow the change management communication strategy to understand what to do, how to do it, and why to do this during the time of change. So, it is an essential strategy to accept a new business model.
New Business Policy
Secondly, a change management communication plan seems an important element to follow new business policy because it can help employees know more about their new duties and responsibilities in the time of change. Every employee in the organization is compelled to follow the updated rules and regulations imposed by the authority. So, this sophisticated approach assists communication practitioners in maintaining consistency and harmony during the time of change.
Remote Work
Additionally, engagement and effectiveness in remote work lie in the quality of a change management communication strategy that the stakeholders practice inside the organization. The COVID-19 pandemic has compelled people to be stayed at home, so employees engage with work via the internet. Social media platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp, zoom, google meet are used to interact. Therefore, it isn’t easy to adjust to a remote work system without maintaining this approach. It provides a clear concept about the new procedures on what to do and how to do it.
Motivate Stakeholders
Furthermore, the change management communication strategy is important to motivate stakeholders. Stakeholders are a group of people who are directly associated with the organization. The organization cannot conduct the operation without the support of the stakeholders. So, a change management communication plan motivates stakeholders to stay associated with the organization to continue its operation. The organization may encounter a devastating situation if it cannot motivate stakeholders to continue the new change.
Manage Uncertainty
In addition, to manage uncertainty, there is no alternative but to follow a change management communication strategy inside the organization. Employees always scare to adjust to the change of the organization for uncertainty. The uncertainty has been raised among stakeholders due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, this strategy motivates employees by providing consistent and relevant information on time to reduce uncertainty. A clear and precious concept about the next action reduces the uncertainty among employees.
Effective Communication
Finally, a change management communication strategy is another vital component to maintain effective communication among internal and external stakeholders. Many big and small organizations have been shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They have been compelled to shut down operations, not conducting effective communication. Effective communication is an essential element for those organizations that provide information as a service.
For example, University is established to educate knowledge through providing services for students. University will not exist if it cannot provide service to students. Face-to-face communication is indeed much more effective than mediated communication. So, change organizational communication can ensure consistent and effective communication among stakeholders to ease the organization’s function. It ensures effective communication, including feedback and asking the question for more clarification between senders and receivers. Therefore, a change management communication plan plays a vital role in adjusting the new atmosphere through maintaining effective communication.
Conclusion
Many organizations practice the change management communication strategy to overcome the COVID-19 situation and decrease the pandemic’s negative consequences. It is a crucial component to ensure the success of the organization in times of change. Therefore, stakeholders should play an important role in maintaining interactive communication. Communication practitioners need to ensure that they are following this strategy in the time of organizational transformation.
Citation for this Article (APA 7th Edition)
| Kobiruzzaman, M. M. (2023). Change Management Communication Examples, Strategy, or Plan. Educational Website For Online Learning. https://newsmoor.com/change-communication-importance-objective-of-change-communication/ |
Reference
Husain, Z. (2013), Effective communication brings successful organizational change. The Business & Management Review, 3(2), 43-50.
