Maintaining the right emotional climate and protecting workplace sentiment throughout change and transformation is critical for sustaining morale, engagement, and productivity. Successful transformations are easier to achieve when the right work climate exists within your organization.
This executive brief discusses key takeaways on how to measure, manage, and respond to shifts in workplace sentiment during transformational efforts. Without careful management, sentiments can quickly shift from excitement to frustration, impacting your change process and, eventually, its success.
This roundtable was held on October 22nd, 2024.
Roundtable Participants
Led by Nellie Wartoft, CEO of Tigerhall and Chair of the ECLC
- Alvin Haygan, Pfizer - Organizational Change Management Principal
- Barbara Roos, Intel - Director, Program, Acquisition & Change Center of Excellence
- Bill Munley, Customers Bank - SVP, People Experience Team (PXT), Shared Services
- Bruce Ableson, Adobe - Senior Director, Field Readiness & Enablement
- Desiree Duarte, IQVIA - Communications & Change Lead
- Eleazar Orellana, former Northwestern Mutual - Head of Field Planning, Strategy & Business Operations | Chief of Staff, Engineering
- Hetal Shah, Maximus - Senior Director, Health Solutions & Clinical Services
- Jeffrey Barth, The Rube Goldberg Institute for Innovation & Creativity - Strategic Advisor
- Jeremy Lane, TTI, Inc. - Corporate Vice President, Change Management & Strategic Transformation
- Luca Santamaria, Sanofi - Global Head, Project and Portfolio Innovation
- Mary Fairchild, F5 - VP of Culture and Talent Development
- Matt Twitchell, Stryker - Sr Director, Manufacturing Operations & Business Excellence
- Michaela van Schalkwyk, Baker Hughes - Vice President, Change Management Michelle Weetman, ADP - Senior Director, Strategic Planning
- Nadine Hammer, Genentech - Sr. Organizational Change Lead – Product Development, Portfolio, Strategy and Delivery
- Nicolas Becquet, Pernod Ricard - Transformation Senior Director
- Niki Rabren, INVISTA - Finance Transformation Leader
- Nohra Rodriguez, HP - Change Experience & Strategy Global Lead, Lead to Cash
- Paul Papoutsis, Radial - Senior Regional Director
- Rahul Trivedi, Transunion - VP, Business Transformation
- Renee Follo, UKG - Sr. Director Strategic Business Process / Transformation
- Vanessa McDonald, WNS Global - SVP Change Management
Measuring Workplace Sentiment Throughout Transformation Initiatives
✔ Anonymous Employee Surveys
Surveys can help gauge general sentiment typically around employee’s views on the working environment, the company, and their future. However, it is important to recognize the downside of solely relying on this type of sentiment tracking as it might be inaccurate or hard to verify in certain cases. It can also be easy to identify who is who when the survey is done within a small department, which invalidates the overall point of maintaining anonymity.
“Survey data might not reflect the actual sentiment as a whole if just a small minority of employees take their time to participate in the surveys. It is better to receive negative responses than nothing at all as that would signify that people are already ‘checked out’ mentally.”
Paul Papoutsis - Senior Regional Director | Radial
“Studies show that open-ended comments often reflect three times more negative feedback within the organization.”
Mary Fairchild - VP of Culture and Talent Development | F5
“In some cases, over-indexing on open-ended comments may skew results toward a more vocal or negative minority and doesn’t always reflect overall sentiment.”
Barbara Roos - Director, Program, Acquisition & Change Center of Excellence | Intel
“Since comments in employee surveys are usually only accessible to leadership and not shared out, the employees might not know if their feedback is making any difference.”
Bruce Ableson - Senior Director, Field Readiness & Enablement | Adobe
✔ Meetings & Collaborations
One-on-one or skip-level meetings provide a deeper, more personal insight to see if employees are feeling uncertain or disengaged. These sessions allow leaders to probe beyond surface-level responses and understand the individual concerns of team members.
“Leaders will be able to ask more detailed and personalized questions. Are they feeling insecure? Are they looking for another job? Are they getting in their career progression and is there anything they need for that?”
Rahul Trivedi - VP, Business Transformation | Transunion
“It is also beneficial to foster close collaboration with other departments such as HR to gain more insights and data.”
Vanessa McDonald - SVP Change Management | WNS Global
✔ Hard Data
Measuring hard data such as the rate of attrition can help give a more solid idea of the general sentiment within the company and help pinpoint areas or functions where adjustment may be needed. A rise in attrition often signals a disconnect or dissatisfaction with ongoing changes.
✔ Frequent Feedback Collection
Practice frequent formal and anecdotal feedback collection to help in providing specific and actionable feedback.
“We use our product to gather weekly insights for supervisors, offering more granular feedback on how large-scale change impacts specific groups and allowing for immediate adjustments. However, it is slightly harder to correlate the feedback with concrete metrics.”
Michelle Weetman - Senior Director, Strategic Planning | ADP
“Regardless of the method, it’s better to measure sentiment internally and on a more frequent basis rather than relying on external surveys conducted once or twice a year to capture the real-time pulse of the organization”
Rahul Trivedi - VP, Business Transformation | Transunion
Navigating Sentiment Shifts: Understanding Underlying Nuance & Sensing Change Early
Recognizing when sentiment shifts occur is crucial to addressing issues before they escalate. Sentiment often changes gradually and keeping an eye on early warning signs can help leaders respond proactively.
“There will be excitement in the beginning if the communication and internal marketing are done well. However, sentiment can quickly turn negative and shift towards exhaustion if the initiative’s endpoint is unclear or delayed.”
Bruce Ableson - Senior Director, Field Readiness & Enablement | Adobe
“Sentiment is like being in a river. Going with the flow (positive sentiment) speeds up adoption, meanwhile swimming against it (negative sentiment), will require much more effort for change to succeed.”
Rahul Trivedi - VP, Business Transformation | Transunion
When Does Sentiment Shift Downwards?
✔ Survey Overload
While surveys are important and good to have to help gauge ongoing sentiment, too many of them often result in survey fatigue, leading to low engagement and response rates. Before sharing a new survey, check on the overall mood within the organization. Proactive social listening is crucial in overcoming survey fatigue.
“Consistent negative feedback may also increase leadership cynicism over the initiative. Demonstrate areas of improvement that have been done based on the feedback received to reverse the sentiment shift.”
Michaela van Schalkwyk - Vice President, Change Management | Baker Hughes
Share the findings of each survey before sending out a new one. This helps to show that employee feedback is being taken seriously. Benchmark feedback received against competitors to identify areas for improvement and where the company was outperforming. Proactive measures to address feedback will help counter the decline.
✔ Change Fatigue
It is difficult when a change initiative goes off the rails. Prolonged or poorly managed transformations can result in change fatigue, where employees become disengaged or cynical.
“Change fatigue makes people shut down. Continuing change without a proper communication framework creates more fatigue, and ultimately, resistance.”
Nohra Rodriquez - Change Experience & Strategy Global Lead, Lead to Cash | HP
“Delay has a ripple effect on leadership; it decreases their interest and support of the change.”
Hetal Shah - Senior Director, Health Solutions & Clinical Services | Maximus
“Constantly expanding timelines and scope shift both organizational and team sentiment negatively. To counter this, we ran a successful ‘Momentum Award’ campaign where teams could apply for recognition based on long-term contributions. This helps boost energy and get the initiative back on track.”
Nadine Hammer - Sr. Organizational Change Lead - Product Development, Portfolio, Strategy, and Execution | Genentech
✔ Uncertainties & Insecurities
Negative sentiment is often observed during large-scale transformations as they often introduce significant uncertainty for employees.
“Post-merger changes often introduce fears around job security and new roles. We introduced a ‘One Company’ campaign to help rebuild trust by fostering unity and transparency. This way of thinking creates better unity and cohesion during large-scale changes by having employees focus on company’s values and goals. Establish a group of brand ambassadors to bring in experts and provide insights into their areas, increase knowledge and awareness, and gradually help shift sentiment positively.”
Desiree Duarte - Communications & Change Lead | IQVIA
What is the Biggest Cause for Sentiment Shift?
Understanding the change curve to articulate the variety of emotions typically tied with large-scale efforts, and identifying the FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) factors could help in finding the biggest cause behind sentiment shift.
✔ Poor Strategy & Planning
Sentiment shifts often boil down to unclear goals leading to unclear expectations. When expectations differ, it can cause negative sentiment. Form a clear strategy that emphasizes the ‘why’ behind a transformation while planning for its execution. Strong and clear WIIFM details are needed to encourage a positive shift in sentiment across the enterprise.
“It is hard to get the right sentiment when you aren’t establishing the right milestones. Use the Human Action Model to identify two key ways sentiment can derail during the change processes. While aligning on problems and the vision is crucial, the path of execution must also be transparent and engaging.”
Niki Rabren - Finance Transformation Leader | INVISTA
✔ Lack of Communication
While it might be hard to control the pace of change initiatives, it is important to try and control optics on how changes are being perceived across your organization. Clarity, consistency, and holistic communication play a significant role in protecting workforce sentiment.
“Absence of transparency results in a lack of trust from employees. Your organization needs to see how people’s feedback is heard and being actioned on.”
Vanessa McDonald - SVP Change Management | WNS Global
“We shouldn’t be selling change initiatives to people – we should be honest and clear about it. Go back to the basics; repetition is key to avoiding confusion and fatigue.”
Nohra Rodriquez - Change Experience & Strategy Global Lead, Lead to Cash | HP
“When something unexpectedly derails your initiative, what’s important is resetting audience expectations. Send follow-up communication that is timely and well thought up to avoid resistance and disappointment.”
Paul Papoutsis - Senior Regional Director | Radial
“No one likes change. Only babies like to get changed. Change should be seen as a center of excellence involving everyone. It is important to have change champions within different areas to advocate for change. ”
Hetal Shah - Senior Director, Health Solutions & Clinical Services | Maximus
✔ Uncoordinated & Fragmented Collaboration
Getting people aligned is more than just sharing a piece of written communication. Strategy cascade where goals are clearly defined and shared, down from leadership to individuals. Get change initiatives integrated within department goals, in project or program goals, as well as individual worker goals. Be clear about how the change initiative is moving down the hierarchy and how it translates on the ground, and then evolves back up through the organization.
“When the strategy is understood, people will feel closer to the end goal, enhancing engagement and positive sentiment.”
Bill Munley - Head of HR Operations Solutions, Co-Head of Global HR Operations, Human Resources | Millennium Management
“Sentiment can decrease due to insufficient cross-functional collaboration, especially in large system rollouts. Organize cross-functional workshops to address concerns.”
Renee Follo - Sr. Director Strategic Business Process / Transformation | UKG
“Refer to cross-functional teams as the ‘business team’ to emphasize the importance of engaging all impacted teams in decision making. This approach helps ensure change and sentiment are not driven by isolated decisions in silos.”
Niki Rabren - Finance Transformation Leader | INVISTA
✔ Leadership Role in Communicating Change
Hold leaders accountable for communicating change messages consistently. Lack of alignment or absence of messaging from certain leaders may imply indifference to the change.
“Unaddressed leadership dissent can silently undermine change initiatives. Use charter discussions and strategic change workshops to identify and get ahead of underlying dissent.”
Barbara Roos - Director, Program, Acquisition & Change Center of Excellence | Intel
“Conflicting narratives may also exacerbate resistance. Ensure alignment from top to bottom from the beginning to the end.”
Nohra Rodriquez - Change Experience & Strategy Global Lead, Lead to Cash | HP
During leadership changes, encourage a complete handover to the successive leader. Before leaders leave, they need to pass down their change initiatives to their successors through knowledge and vision transfer.
“Leadership change is hard on the workforce especially when they were ready to follow the previous leader down a thorny path, and now that leader is gone. Try to make it so that a change isn’t tied to one person and that the WIIFM is strong enough if the main leader leaves. ”
Bruce Ableson - Senior Director, Field Readiness & Enablement | Adobe
Organizational Sentiment vs Transformational Success: Do They Correlate?
“Change is inevitable. Metaphorically speaking, the current organizational state is like sitting on a beach with a happy mermaid, with crocodiles hidden nearby, ready to eat them. The future state is a pot of gold on a mountaintop that must be climbed. The mermaid represents the status quo, the crocodile symbolizes the danger of not changing, and the climbing process signifies the transition process needed to get to the pot of gold (growth).“
Rahul Trivedi - VP, Business Transformation | Transunion
While sentiment is an essential factor in determining the success of a transformation, it does not always correlate directly with the outcome of the initiative.
Case 1: Successful Transformation, Poor Experience
In some cases, a change is implemented effectively, but employees still experience frustration or dissatisfaction. If a change is imposed top-down without consultation, sentiment may be negative, but adoption happens because there is no choice. High adoption doesn’t always equate to a positive experience.
Case 2: Overly Positive Sentiment, Poor Transformation Outcome
Sometimes, overly positive sentiment can be misleading, resulting in a rushed transformation that overlooks critical details. While positive sentiment can accelerate adoption, it’s essential to ensure that the adoption is meaningful and that the transformation has been thoroughly planned to avoid poor outcomes.
Case 3: Positive Sentiment, Successful Outcomes
When change is clearly communicated, involves cross-functional teams, and aligns with individual goals (WIIFM), employees are more likely to feel engaged and positive about the transformation. Alignment fosters excitement and ownership; resulting in positive sentiment, leading to excellent transformation experience and successful outcomes.
Conclusion
Workplace sentiment is undeniably pivotal in its contribution towards the success of a transformation initiative. While technical elements of change are essential, the emotional and cultural aspects often determine whether a change will be embraced or resisted. By effectively measuring ongoing sentiment, maintaining transparent communication, and responding proactively to shifts in mood, leaders can sustain positive engagement and negative fallout throughout the change initiative. Remember, a transformation’s ultimate success is not just about the end result, but also how well employees feel supported and valued throughout the journey.
The Executive Council for Leading Change
The Executive Council for Leading Change (ECLC) is a global organization that brings executives together to redefine the landscape of organizational change and transformation. Our council aims to advance strategic leadership expertise in the realm of corporate change by connecting visionary leaders. It's a place where leaders responsible for significant change initiatives can collaborate, plan, and create practical solutions for intricate challenges in leading large organizations through major shifts.
In a world where change is constant, we recognize its crucial role in driving business success. ECLC’s mission is to create a community where leaders can excel in guiding their organizations through these dynamic times.
Interested in joining ECLC? Learn the membership criteria and sign-up below.
