15 key factors in employees’ response to change

Consider these 15 factors that determine how well your employees will—or won’t—adapt to new processes, workflows and other aspects of workplace life:

1. Control

The amount of input and influence the employee has around the change, goals, processes, and outcomes .

Research on stress shows that the degree of control a person has in a challenging or unpleasant situation is the No. 1 factor influencing their stress level. The more control an employee has in any situation, the more challenge and uncertainty he or she can handle without stressing out.

2. Predictability

The degree to which the person knows what will happen next in a change process or what the effect of a particular decision or action will be.

In difficult times, if employees know what will happen next, it creates what psychologists call “perceived control.” Even if they don’t have true control over what happens next, knowing what will happen creates confidence, as opposed to the helplessness of uncertainty.

3. Clarity

The degree of clarity around organizational and departmental goals, possible scenarios, current states of affairs, employees’ future roles, and repercussions and mechanics of the change.