As companies grapple with the changes brought about by COVID-19 and the associated safety guidelines, change seems to be the only constant. At GSG, we’ve been ramping up our Change Management practice so we can support our clients as they navigate the new normal — from shifting to a work-from-home model to determining how to safely reintegrate their workforce back in an office setting.
We spoke with Matt Kussman, Executive Director of Strategic Accounts & Professional Services to learn more.
Tell us about GSG’s Change Management capabilities, and how Change Management is coming into play in the COVID-19 era.
GSG has always had a change management practice to help our clients as they implement new processes, procedures and technology at an enterprise level. We understand that with COVID-19, everything we used to take for granted in our lives has been upended in one way or another. From a business perspective, our clients are realizing the new normal and empowering their employees to continue to work from home as they gather more information and build a plan to getting their workforce back to the office. Major organizational changes will be necessary with people, processes, and technology; having a change management team in place to help shape and deliver what these changes look like is more important now than ever.
“Change Management” seems to be an umbrella term that covers a lot of different specializations and skillsets. Can you give us a quick overview of the types of Change Management consultants GSG works with, and what kind of work they can deliver?
Our change management team is focused on supporting executive leadership teams as they build out their plans and begin preparations to deliver the change that is taking place. In the COVID-19 world this applies to practically everything we do throughout the day. Our experience change management consultants will support everything from organizational change to process management and business readiness, from training and learning and development to communication plans. They will ensure all messaging across the organization is being relayed effectively and efficiently and help make transitions as smooth as possible.
What are some of the workplace changes you see as being hallmarks of the “new normal,” and how can change management consultants help?
The biggest change currently is the shift from office to remote work across entire workforces. Companies have done a great job with their Business Continuity Planning and getting all their workers proper equipment, security access, and online. Empowering your workforce with the required and recommended technology is critical right now. Enhancing the capabilities you offer to your workforce to foster a collaborative environment, encourage teamwork, and continuing to drive productivity is one of the biggest changes taking place. Change consultants will help in driving the process changes that are taking place as a result of new technology, they will support the training programs to make sure workers are adopting these changes, and they can help in monitoring the progress being made and providing the metrics to leadership.
What are some of the benefits of having a dedicated Change Management team to support enterprise-level changes?
As organizations discuss and address this ‘new normal’ and build out their workforce re-entry programs we are seeing that new task forces, comprised of executive leadership and business leaders, are spending the majority of their days on this program alone. While this is important initially in how the company plans to respond and communicate their responses to their workforce, the actual execution and delivery of all these changes should be done by dedicated change management consultants to allow the leaders of the organization to focus on their business as usual responsibilities: delivering on strategy and goals and driving productivity.
Granite Solutions Groupe has been providing people and solutions that deliver for our clients since 1998. Our consultants are diverse, experienced, driven and dynamic contributors who excel at getting things done. To find out more about how we can give your team the change management support you need, reach out to engage@granitesolutionsgroupe.com.