Only 1 in 4 employees think change is managed well in their organization, finds monday.com

The workforce is experiencing an unprecedented amount of change.

57% of employees said the number of tools they used at work had increased in the past year, and they aren’t always comfortable with new software.

Just 78% of individual contributors report feeling comfort with workforce management software, compared to 90% of managers and 94% of senior leaders.

That’s according to new research from monday.com, which surveyed 3,700 workers across the US, France, Germany, the UK, Brazil, Mexico and Australia in partnership with Qualtrics.

monday.com’s data also showed that while 80% of employees felt that software changes had some positive impact on their jobs, only 20% of individual contributors thought they had mad their job much easier.

That’s compared to 25% of managers and 37% of senior leaders.

While 45% of senior leaders think that change has been managed well, only 32% of managers and 23% of individual contributors agree.

Evidently, employees and leaders are out on touch on how successfully the organization is managing change, which could impact productivity and engagement.

This begs the question: How do leaders need to rethink change management?

HR, shared ownership is the key to successful change management

For Cat Paterson, People Director, EMEA, monday.com, it is clear “that today’s employees want to be active participants in shaping the workplace, yet many organizations still treat change as something to be ‘rolled out’ by management rather than built with their workforce”.

She tells UNLEASH: “That mindset needs to shift. When employees have a say in how work gets done, companies become more adaptable and innovative.”

“Effective change management requires communicating the ‘why’ at every level”, monday.com’s Chief People & Legal Officer Shiran Nawi wrote in the report.

According to monday.com’s data, organizations need to foster a sense of shared ownership if they want to have a productive and engagement workforce.

Currently, only 76% of individual contributors agree that organizations have successfully cultivated a sense of shared ownership, compared to 84% of managers and 92% of senior leaders.

It is clear that the HR function needs to step up.

Paterson tells UNLEASH: “As HR leaders, our role isn’t just to manage change – it’s to create the conditions for a two-way process.”

She adds: “We must ask ourselves: are employees shaping business direction, or just reacting to it?

“Are AI tools developed with their input, or simply handed down to them?

“The more employees are involved, the more effectively these changes will take hold.”