3 Steps for a Smoother Change Control and Implementation Process

Many organizations consider the change control and implementation the most challenging task to maintain quality. However, change is the only constant. They need a formalized change management system for smoother transitions to the newer technologies, systems, processes, and documentation to pace up with the ever-changing and growing business environment.

A Change Management System helps to reduce the overall impact of the change on your organization, its ongoing processes, and employees. This post intends to help you understand the entire concept of change management and why it is essential for an organization to be successful.

Let’s start with the Definition

Change Management refers to the process of managing and controlling the effective improvements in the documentation or processes to achieve business goals. The most significant part of change implementation is effective communication to ensure that every member is involved in the process.

The main objective of change management processes is to increase the overall organizational productivity and efficiency while minimizing the costs of quality. However, every change requires strategies, employee engagement, acceptance, and minimal resistance.

“Change before you have to.”– Jack Welch

If you will keep resisting the change and will stretch its implementation, you may end up losing the competitive edge.

3 Effective Steps for a Smoother Change Control and Implementation Process

We all understand that change needs a systemic and proactive approach for successful implementation to drive desired results. If it is not carried appropriately, you are likely to face inconvenience in the processes due to inefficiencies, redundant policies, and unnecessary delays. It will cost the business many new growth opportunities.

Doing the change management right is simple with these three steps:

• Eliminating the Internal Resistance

The most universal and obvious reaction any organization gets from its employee on a policy or process change is resistance – be it any reason. Without overcoming this barrier, no organization can expect a successful change implementation. Here are some critical steps that will help you to eliminate the internal resistance:

1. 1. • Establish a clear communication medium to inform your employees in advance about the upcoming change and its implementation plan so they can prepare accordingly.
      • Resolve all your employees’ queries regarding the need for change and how the proposed change will help improve their performance in attaining the quality objectives within the specified time.
      • Identify the unofficial leaders of the team to make change implementation successful. They can help understand the positive impact of the change to the coworkers while realizing their problems and reactions.
      • Support from the management team matters a lot to help employees survive the changing and growing work environment in the most positive way possible. You can introduce new training programs, awareness seminars, and workshops to help them in every possible manner to adopt the proposed change.

• Encouraging Employee Engagement

Employee engagement plays an important role in change control and management processes. Only when your employees will be involved in the process, they are likely to put more efforts to attain the desired outcome. You can ensure higher rates of employee engagement by:

1. 1. • Adopting a level-based approach to ensure all the team members are equally contributing to the change process regardless of their teams and departments.
      • Clearly defining the roles and responsibilities for your employees so as to avoid redundant tasks at one side and idle sitters at other. Always remember – “Everyone is responsible for Quality” and assign responsibilities accordingly.
      • Focusing on the team members who are most affected by the upcoming change.
      • Overcoming the resistance for the change among the top management. It should be the first step to avoid resistance from other employees in the organization.
      • Keeping your employee’s motivation boosted. You can identify the factors that can be of most help.
      • Encouraging your employees in every possible manner, so they take change optimistically.

Never underestimate the potential of happy employees to make every organizational endeavor successful. They are your real assets. So, nurture your assets through the right initiatives at the right time.

• Implementing and Communicating Change

Implementing and communicating change go hand-in-hand. You cannot expect your employees to accept every change in the processes or documentation happily. It’s not easy to convince them to adopt new ways of doing something even if it is maintaining records digitally and not using paper-based filing systems. We can broadly divide this step into two categories, i.e., Implementing the Change and Communicating the Change.

1. • Communicating the Change
     If you are not intimating your employees about the change initiative; you should be ready to notice indifferent behaviors and resistance from their side. Success in a change implementation is possible if you maintain a two-way relationship with your employees. It’s possible only when you effectively communicate with them. You can use different mediums such as:

     Survey foms to know and understand your employees’ opinions about an upcoming change. It will keep them informed.

     1. Arrange one-on-one sessions to resolve the queries of the people who are resisting the change opportunity.
     2. Maintaining consistency and clarity to ensure timeliness.
     3. Using formal as well as informal approaches such as emails, meetings, texts, etc.
     4. Giving them an opportunity to put their opinions. They may come up with a better plan to implement a change.
     5. Keeping them informed about the worst-case scenarios since every change initiative may not end up well.

     Effectively communicating change will help you to bring all the employees together for the best results.

   • Implementing the Change
     Any change initiative could turn into a challenge if the organization doesn’t have a systematic approach to make it smooth and flawless. Successful implementation requires:
     1. Preparation by following the change management strategy in a streamlined manner.
     2. Management by keeping every team together to contribute the best of their efforts.
     3. Strengthening the change with necessary CAPA actions.

Following these three steps will ensure that your organization doesn’t fail in the document change control and implementation process.

More you will be prepared; smoother will be an entire transition. The best way to escape the document change management challenges is to implement Change Control Management and Implementation Software.

The software will help you manage the end-to-end change processes right from identifying the need for change to managing the document revisions until publishing it for the end-user reference. Additionally, you can save all the relevant information, i.e., reason for the change, department, unit, and much more as objective evidence.

The powerful change management software like Qualityze even enables you to collaborate and communicate with the geographically dispersed teams in real-time for essential modifications. Even the availability issue can be easily managed through the scheduler that allows to schedule approvals, publishing, and deletion beforehand with a notification to all the impacted users.

Would you still continue with traditional change management processes that are highly prone to errors, or would you like to standardize the change process with software to eliminate the variances and maintain consistency?

Curious to know more about the Qualityze Change Management Software? Get in touch with the customer success team, and we will be right there for you. You can also request for a free demo for an exclusive tour of product functionalities.