Adapting to Change: How to Effectively Guide Employees

Adaptability is a top skill for individuals and organizations facing a high volume of complex, high-risk or rapid changes in the workplace. Helping your people develop resilience and flexibility enables them to adopt new changes quickly and effectively.

While upskilling and personal development can drive different aspects of adaptability, organizations must have a unified approach to creating a flexible workforce. By using a change management framework like the Prosci ADKAR® Model, leaders and change practitioners can create an efficient and repeatable process that enables employees to adapt to change.

This article highlights why it is essential for individuals to adapt to change and how this helps organizations. Then, we explain how practitioners can use the ADKAR Model to help employees adopt changes at work.

What is Adaptability to Change?

Adaptability to change is the ability of individual employees to adjust effectively to new conditions, challenges or environments at work. When employees embrace change, it leads to a culture of continuous learning, growth and resilience in handling transitions—whether they’re planned or not.

People who consistently adapt to changes tend to approach changes with a positive attitude and a proactive attitude. They’re often good at problem-solving and communication and can analyze situations from multiple angles, enabling them to adjust their tactics accordingly.

This essential skill drives organizational flexibility and agility, propelling businesses forward amidst technological advancements and shifting market dynamics.

Why is Adapting to Change Important?

Organizations need to continuously change due to internal factors, like improving performance or increasing profits, and external factors, like implementing new technology or catering to customer preferences.

Creating a culture that welcomes change is important for leading successful change efforts and achieving great results. Helping people become adaptable and encouraging a mindset focused on growth are key to thriving in today’s fast-paced business world. A recent LinkedIn report highlights that adaptability is the top skill needed for 2024, showing just how vital it is.

By focusing on adaptability and building a supportive culture, organizations can better handle the challenges of change and improve their overall effectiveness.

Employees who are resilient to change and can adapt their working habits effectively receive several benefits, including:

• Personal development – Learning new skills or improving existing ones can improve soft skills, emotional intelligence and creativity. This makes them a valuable asset in the organization.
• Improved engagement – Adaptable employees are more likely to feel engaged and empowered as they overcome challenges. This leads to a sense of accomplishment that enhances morale and job satisfaction.
• New opportunities – Being open to adopting new systems, processes and tools can help individuals capitalize on opportunities for growth and career advancement.
• Better resilience – Adapting to change helps individuals develop resilience to handle setbacks and recover from difficulties. This resilience can contribute to a more stable and fulfilling work life, even when facing adversity.

Skilled and resilient employees lead to an agile and innovative organization that can take advantage of the latest market shifts and stay competitive through product and process innovations.

With many anticipating an even faster rate of change in the future, adaptability will become even more important. Organizations must help their people develop this ability by using a structured approach that delivers results time and again.

While employee learning and development programs are one part of increasing adaptability, organizations need a people-centric change management approach to facilitate individual transitions.

Adapting to Change in the Workplace: Advice to Help Individuals Transition

Empowering employees to build new skills or adapt to changes in their roles can be challenging, especially without a structured, research-backed approach or by allowing individual employees or departments to handle change adoption at their own pace.

Using a structured approach for individual change management can be much more effective. For example, the Prosci ADKAR Model, with its five building blocks, helps change professionals and organizations prepare, equip and support employees through change.

Prosci ADKAR Model

Let's take a closer look at how each element of our ADKAR Model helps build an adaptable workforce:

1. Awareness

Lack of awareness is the top reason why people resist change.

Awareness, the first element of the ADKAR Model, helps employees see the big picture and the critical role they play in the initiative’s success.

For example, if a company needs to implement a new technology to remain competitive, explaining the advantages of this technology over current processes can help employees understand why the shift is necessary and create a smoother transition.

Examples of adapting to change in the workplace

An example of tactics used to raise awareness and motivate employees to adapt to change is using preferred senders. Our research shows that employees prefer to receive messages about the personal impacts of a change from their direct supervisor but prefer executives and senior leaders as the senders of messages about the business case for change.

Preferred Sender of Messages

Change practitioners can create a Communications Plan that outlines who will deliver which key messages, through which channels, and at what frequency. This will increase the effectiveness of communications and raise awareness.

Other examples of proven tactics to raise awareness about change include:

• Highlighting past failures where a change failed due to a lack of adaptability
• Sharing information on the risks and costs of not adapting to change
• Sharing research findings about the benefits of the change
• Encouraging advocacy from leaders for change

When these tactics are personalized and executed efficiently, employees are more likely to understand why they need to adapt and how it will help them and the overall business. It also prevents resistance caused by fear, anxiety and uncertainty.

2. Desire

Desire is a personal choice influenced by individual motivation, which can vary significantly among employees.

Change practitioners can help motivate employees to learn new skills or systems by connecting the change to their personal values and goals, and the direct benefits they will gain. During a change, every person affected will wonder, "What's in it for me?" The answer could be improved job satisfaction, career advancement or job security.

Addressing potential losses and concerns can also help mitigate fears, prevent resistance and build a positive outlook toward the change.

Examples of adapting to change in the workplace

Example tactics and actions to build desire include:

• Sharing case studies and examples that show the positive impact of a change
• Enabling leaders to be active and visible sponsors
• Using team supervisors to coach employees

By strategically aligning change with personal aspirations, organizations can ignite a powerful drive within their workforce to embrace and champion new initiatives.

3. Knowledge

It's not enough for employees to want to change; they must know what to do and how to do it. The Knowledge element of our ADKAR Model focuses on providing the information that employees need to function in the new way.

This element informs employees about the new skills they need and how to effectively perform them. Practitioners create targeted training programs to fit the learning styles and paces of different employees, ensuring that everyone understands their new roles and responsibilities.

Examples of adapting to change in the workplace

Examples of critical actions and strategies to develop knowledge include:

• Explain the change management methodology you will use
• Inform employees about the tools and resources at their disposal
• Provide training solutions, including programs for training, certifications and application

Equipping employees with the right knowledge empowers them to confidently navigate change, transforming potential obstacles into opportunities for growth.

4. Ability

Employees might understand what is required but might not possess the skills to implement the change effectively. The Ability stage is about translating knowledge into action.

To build employee skills and adaptability, practitioners must focus on supportive leadership, ongoing training and real-time feedback.

Examples of adapting to change in the workplace

Common examples of strategies to increase ability are:

• Simulations, like testing new software in a controlled environment
• Hands-on workshops
• One-on-one coaching
• Access to subject matter experts
• Two-way communication to hear and address concerns and questions

By fostering an environment where skills are honed and applied, organizations can ensure that their teams are not only prepared but also proficient in executing change initiatives.

5. Reinforcement

The final element of the ADKAR Model is Reinforcement, which equips people to sustain the change over time. Changes can be difficult to maintain, and without reinforcement, there is a risk of reverting to old habits.

In terms of adaptability, reinforcement ensures a culture of continuous improvement in the organization. It answers employee questions about what happens after they succeed at changing, what rewards they will enjoy, and how they will be encouraged to continue new behaviors.

Reinforcement activities enable a growth mindset in employees, so they have a positive attitude toward future changes, helping them become more adaptable.

Prosci research also shows a direct correlation between planning for reinforcement and meeting project objectives, with those who planned and allocated resources for sustainment activities being more likely to meet or exceed change goals.

Impact of Allocating Resources for Reinforcement and Sustainment on Meeting Objectives

Reinforcement: Examples of adapting to change in the workplace

Examples of reinforcement activities for increasing adaptability are:

• Public measurement mechanisms for added motivation
• Incentives that align with project goals
• Celebrating milestones with rewards to keep morale high

By following our ADKAR Model, organizations and change teams can create a structured process to develop employee skills and enable positive mindset shifts. When individuals are prepared and equipped to adapt to changes, it can prevent resistance and increase resilience. This can lead to an organization-wide culture of adaptability and flexibility, increasing the chances of long-term success.

How You Can Guide Employees in Adapting to Change

The increasing frequency of change can overwhelm employees, especially if they’re not adequately prepared to handle change. Adapting to change is a vital skill for employees, and practitioners can help individuals develop this skill set using structured change management that focuses on individual adaptability to change. The Prosci ADKAR Model enables a change-ready culture and resilient workforce—helping your organization see change as an opportunity rather than a threat.