Leveraging data key to monitoring change adoption

Change management can help keep employees motivated in a transformation program by minimizing disruption in a change-saturated environment. PEX Network’s latest report, Mastering change in hybrid-work models, reveals how data can help monitor the adoption and engagement of employees in change initiatives.

Monitoring change adoption

The adoption of change is defined in the key performance indicators (KPIs) of the project and the business objectives. Chris Hetrick, director of the digital transformation office’s change management center of excellence at Gap Inc., explains that “organizations need to look at the anticipated business results of a tool being adopted”.

Dashboards and business reports can be effective too, with Hetrick saying in the report that “change analytics using more digital capabilities is a really interesting growth area within change management because readiness and adoption have traditionally been assessed through surveys.”.

According to PEX Report 2022, data analytics and business intelligence is the top solution to be invested in until mid-2022. Traditional models like Prosci ADKAR® where organizations can work toward building awareness, desire, knowledge, ability and reinforcement, can be tied to measure metrics to inform surveys. Focus groups and one-to-one interviews can provide qualitative data to support the survey insights.

Become a PEX Network member and gain exclusive access to our upcoming digital events, industry reports and expert webinars

Hetrick notes: “You can pull the data into some interesting dashboards using some data visualization capabilities to filter the feedback and tie it to specific groups, functions and regions. It allows companies to see what areas of change need to be affected to be successful to help focus change efforts and resources.”

Observing employee engagement

Observing the engagement of employees, however, is trickier but the fundamentals afforded through available data tools still show promise.

At PEX Live: Change management and culture change 2021, Soraya Abdelmageed, change management lead at Asahi Europe & International, explained her team measures employee engagement by reviewing the number of views acquired by the transformation program’s profile webpages. The average time spent on the pages and the volume of sign-ups for events connected to the program are also monitored.

Data can help create personalization of the change experience to individual employees, which Hetrick sees as key in the future. He notes: “If you think of the end-users of the change as customers, they will expect a personalized experience – organizations can leverage tools and digital technology to deliver this to help people navigate the change.”

Do you believe in the power of data for change management initiatives? Tell us by leaving a comment below.