Making a change to expenses: how to get people on your side
Change can often be a difficult thing to achieve in many organisations and one of the reasons for this is the almost inbuilt resistance that humans seem to have.
The problem is that if you have something that is going to add real value for the company, or is going to make people’s lives easier, resistance can often be very frustrating.
The question is, then, how do you overcome that resistance when you are looking to implement change?
Don’t make it a surprise
Most people will naturally be instantly resistant if a change is foisted on them as a sudden thing.
Consequently, the best way to start off your project is simply to tell people you are looking at a replacement.
Acknowledge that there are problems with the current system and even itemise them and then say you are looking at ways to make things better.
This way people are prewarned that change is coming sometime in the future and this reduces the shock when it actually happens.
Get a high-level sponsor
If you are making a change then a director-level sponsor works really well in reinforcing the message that this is a change that the whole company is behind.
They need to be positively behind the project and they need to be happy to write or put their name to communications that encourage people to get behind the project.
When you meet resistance that you just can’t shift then your sponsor can be wheeled in to add force to your argument.
Ask people’s opinion
The best change projects get people to group behind the concept of a new way of working and one of the best ways of doing this is to ask them their opinion.
Naturally, this removes the objection that “we were never consulted” but it does much more than this.
It clearly signals that you are looking for something to make their workdays better and that you are keen to take their opinions into account.
Garnering opinion also gives you valuable, frontline feedback about what people want to see from their expenses system and from Finance in general and this is extremely useful when you are choosing and configuring your system.
Communicate early, communicate often
A key tool in gaining acceptance for a system is communication.
Telling people what the goal is, what you are doing to fix things and where you are in the project means that you can get the workforce more engaged in the end goal.
Clear communications are an important step in building on the opinion gathering step because you can use what you have found to set out a roadmap of change.
A good comms strategy will also totally remove the element of surprise and shock when the system finally goes live.
Include people in the project
If you are doing a large company-wide project for a bigger business then picking individuals to work with the project team from each department is a good way to make sure that your system is properly configured for each area.
Even if you work for a very small organisation you can still include people, either formally or informally in the project and carrying out tasks that will help get to the successful implementation.
It’s also great for staff development to have more people exposed to project management.
Make sure you test the system, then test it again
The worst thing you can have is that the system goes live and on day one there is a myriad of teething problems.
Even if they are tiny issues that can be quickly solved, they still destroy confidence in the new system and cause resistance.
Use your project team to properly test the system and then pick people from different departments to test it again.
Testing can be used to check the configuration of the system, to make sure users can get online and to see how much training will be needed for the wider company when it goes live.
Recruit cheerleaders.
As you approach ‘go live’ for your new expenses systems it is a good idea to recruit a cheerleader from each department or location.
Give them training and access so that they can solve low-level issues.
Then on go-live day make them the local representative for first-line support.
This works exceptionally well because when people can’t get things to work properly due to a small misunderstanding or a setting that needs changing, your cheerleader can get the person working quickly with the minimum of fuss.
This instantly removes change resistance due to day one issues and a positive outlook from the cheerleaders further reduces any negative feelings from users.
Be available for feedback
It’s a rare project indeed that goes completely as expected.
Having a method for people to easily express their thoughts and frustrations means that you can gather issues and solve them.
If people have problems using a system then they are likely to be less resistant if they know that their problems are being worked upon.
Where resistance tends to build is if there are frustrations and it feels like no one is listening.
But don’t worry – resistance is quite rare
The majority of companies don’t experience massive resistance to change and using the tips above can help to get everyone on side.
For companies that seem to have a large amount of inbuilt resistance then it’s even more important to make sure you use these points to smooth the path to a successful expenses implementation.
