Employee pulse surveys in change management

Change can be scary, and many people's gut reaction is to resist change. Research also tells us that most organisational change initiatives fail. According to Mckinsey, as much as "70 percent of change programs fail to achieve their goals, largely due to employee resistance and lack of management support."

70% fail! That's a lot of failed change initiatives. And at the same time, our world is ever-changing, and organisations need to be agile and quick to change to remain competitive.

By incorporating employee feedback in your change management strategy, you'll be able to implement change faster, more efficiently, while also ensuring a better employee experience.

Change management pulse surveys – a game changer

Success factors in change management processes include agility, a proactive approach, and efficient internal communication. Pulse surveys help you tick many of the boxes that can make or break your business when you're implementing organisational changes.

Employees that feel supported and seen will be much more resilient and open to change. Collecting employee feedback regularly with employee engagement surveys will help you understand how the changes are received by your employees, so that you can adapt your strategy accordingly.

A common challenge is that stakeholders at the leadership level have a different perception of the changes taking place than the people experiencing the changes in their day-to-day work. Often, leaders will consider the change implemented and done, when in reality, the organisation has neither understood why the change was implemented, how they are now expected to act, nor what value the change is expected to bring. If this is the case, adoption will be slow and people tend to cling to their old ways.

Examples of change management pulse survey questions

By adding questions specifically about change to your employee surveys, you will get valuable insights about the perception and level of buy-in and adoption in the organisation. This will provide you with a more accurate picture of how your change management is working. You will also be able to see what parts of your organisation may need extra support.

To fully understand how the people in your organisation are experiencing the change, it's a good idea to include employee survey questions that are both closed and open-ended. Closed questions consist of statements where employees rate the accuracy of the statement on a scale. Open-ended questions provide the opportunity for employees to give more elaborate survey responses.

Change management pulse survey questions (closed)

• I understand why changes are made at my workplace

• The ongoing change creates value (for our organization and our customers)

• I know what is expected of me during this change

• The reasons for this change are communicated clearly

• I understand how this change will affect me

• I am happy with the change being implemented

Change management survey questions (open-ended)

• What is your opinion of this change?

• How have you experienced the communication during this change?

• What would you suggest to improve our change management process for the future?

• What additional support or communication would you find helpful during this change?

• Do you have any doubts or hesitations regarding this change that you would like to share?

Interpreting the pulse survey results

Employee pulse surveys with open-ended questions generate a lot of data, especially if your organisation is large. But this should not deter you from performing employee surveys. With the right survey tool, gathering and analysing the results can be fully automated, and the insights employee surveys bring are invaluable in change management. AI for employee engagement surveys is a powerful tool to ensure you always have an updated realtime overview of teh state of your organisation, and what matters most to your people.

Recommended reading: Listening AI – Employee Listening at Scale