How to Sustain Change Momentum Post-Implementation

You’ve just implemented new enterprise software, and everything seems to be going smoothly. Employees are commenting on how much easier it is to generate reports, executives are impressed with the productivity gains, and customers are more satisfied than ever. 

It’s smooth sailing from here, right?

Not exactly. This is just the honeymoon phase. Once the euphoria wears off, employees may fall back into old habits as they reincorporate old workflows and workarounds. Meanwhile, performance metrics may begin to plateau.

Today, we’re talking about change management sustainability and preventing change regression. Keep reading for expert tips on ensuring long-term ROI on change initiatives.

How to Maintain Change Momentum​

1. Ensure Continuous Communication​

When you introduce new processes and technology, you must embed them into your company culture. In other words, you must integrate them into the familiar water in which employees currently swim.

Continually communicating post-implementation is one way of ensuring that this integration “sticks.”

For example, after ERP go-live, you might communicate with employees about some practical use cases for the new supply chain management system. This would further meld new technology with existing company values. 

When our change management consultants help clients communicate with stakeholders in the post-change phase, we employ strategies, such as:

• Providing regular updates on benefits realization progress and milestones
• Celebrating successes and recognizing end-users making effective use of the new software
• Conducting surveys and holding feedback sessions to gauge employee sentiment 
• Addressing concerns openly and involving employees in problem-solving
• Showing employees how their feedback is being implemented
• Using multiple communication channels to ensure messages reach all levels of the organization

All of these communication strategies help solidify new practices as standard operations, discouraging old habits from resurfacing.

For example, a government organization might institute an open-door policy to encourage ongoing employee input. This would send the message that the leadership team is committed to change, and this enthusiasm could spread throughout the organization.  

2. Reinforce New Behaviors

Introducing new business processes is one thing. Establishing new routines and habits is something else entirely. 

If you successfully change employee behavior for one month, and then they revert to their familiar workflows, that’s a sure sign you have not established a habit. 

Typically, behavior must be reinforced for a habit to be formed. 

Reinforcing change can look different in every organization, but it often involves strategies such as updating standard operating procedures, implementing reminders through digital tools, encouraging peer accountability, and using team incentives.

The most commonly used strategy for reinforcing change is ongoing training after go-live. We recommend holding software (and process) training sessions regularly and tailoring training to specific employee roles.

One of our manufacturing clients recently asked us to help them implement a training strategy to support ERP adoption. Our ERP selection consultants developed a training strategy that identified change impacts for different functional areas and defined roles and responsibilities for training execution.

3. Measure and Celebrate Success​

Whether you’re streamlining your processes, beginning digital transformation, or implementing an ERP system, it’s important to define what success looks like. If you know what key performance indicators (KPIs) you’re trying to achieve, you can track your progress and celebrate small wins to sustain momentum after implementation.

When celebrating achievements, it’s important to recognize individual and team contributions. Use these celebrations to reinforce the value of the change. Employees who are starting to sour on the new software will be reminded why they’re putting in the effort to learn new skills. 

For example, a financial services company might set KPIs related to reducing transaction processing times and continue to track these metrics for several years after ERP go-live. 

Many business benefits take many years to achieve in full, and when you factor in continuous improvement on top of this, you have years upon years of celebrations ahead of you as you achieve new KPIs.

4. Prevent Change Regression

How can you tell which employees are becoming frustrated with the new software or with other organizational changes? 

You can monitor your workforce for signs of change regression. Early warning signs include declines in performance metrics, decreased employee engagement, and lower employee satisfaction. 

We recommend conducting regular assessments and providing anonymous channels for feedback. Our ERP implementation consultants ensure clients stay on track after ERP go-live by conducting quarterly assessments to see how well the organization is performing. Based on these performance reports, clients can refine their training and communication strategies to address specific issues.

To illustrate, one of our oil & gas clients was transitioning from an SAP system to an Epicor system and experiencing change resistance. Our team provided implementation oversight to re-optimize processes, systems, and data and reduce employee frustration.

Learn More About Change Management Sustainability​

Sustaining change after the completion of a large scale project is challenging. Many organizations don’t even plan for this phase, so it’s even more challenging to maintain change momentum. 

The key is to start preparing now (before go-live) for the post-change phase. Following a structured change management process throughout your project will definitely give you change momentum post-implementation, but you must continue to focus on change management to maintain this momentum. 

The expert tips above will help you sustain change management throughout the post-change phase. If you want experts with experience in these areas, our organizational change management consultants are here to help. Request a free consultation below to learn more.