Office Hours: Do You Have a Plan in Place for Automation-Driven Change?

Change can be hard. And, when it comes to work, shaking up specific routines or team dynamics generate fear and anxiety among employees. In fact, some changes—like the reorganization of a team—can be so disruptive that they decrease productivity. A recent study from the American Psychological Association found that such changes increase employee stress, reduce their trust in their employers and motivate them to look for other jobs.

According to the World Economic Forum's 2018 Future of Jobs Report, among the many changes expected to impact how we work is a growing interaction with machines. But this transformation must be managed and communicated to your employees strategically.

In this video, Holger Mueller, VP and principal analyst at Constellation Research, urges companies to anticipate employees' fearful response to new things. Leadership should come up with a list of potential scenarios and rank those scenarios according to probability. Then, a team of uninhibited specialists should go down the list and devise plans for the likeliest scenarios. When these changes are anticipated, Mueller says, "the fear around them diminishes significantly."

Photo: Creative Commons