7 principles of change management

Changes to an organisation’s goals, processes, or technologies require a well planned and executed change management strategy. McKinsey say that more than 70% of enterprise transformation efforts fail, resulting in huge losses of investment, time, and trust.

A great change management programme will drive the successful adoption of newness, minimise disruption during the transition, and embed the change in the ongoing operations of an organisation.

At Parkable, we know that parking is a sore point in organisations and that any change will be met with resistance. Our Customer Success Managers are stewards of change. They’ve led organisations of all sizes through the changes to parking facilities, policies, and technologies. They work with key stakeholders at each client to design a customised change management programme based on our 7 change management principles.

The result is that 100% of our clients said they wouldn’t want to go back to the system they used before Parkable. We’re quite happy about that.

Keen to introduce parking software at your organisation to reduce facilities administration, improving parking experiences, and increase asset performance? Get in touch with our enterprise solutions experts.

1. Get the lay of the land

We suggest organizations survey employees before implementing a change to better understand attitudes towards the existing process and gauge the level of readiness for change. The insights obtained can inform the change management plan so that it best suits your staff and their ways of communication.

Surveying employees early creates an environment where employees feel they have been involved in the planning of the change. This can help reduce resistance and increase employee commitment to new change efforts.

At Parkable, we have a pre-change survey template that we run through Stickybeak. In just a few simple questions, we are able to understand how respondents feel about their commuting experience and parking accessibility at the office.

Running this survey has enabled clients to quantify the impact Parkable has made. At one client, the pre-survey revealed that only 31% of staff said they had a positive commute. When they surveyed the same people again after implementing Parkable, the number more than doubled to 70%

2. Resource the project appropriately

Each Parkable client is assigned a dedicated Customer Success Manager from the outset. Providing a dedicated Customer Success Manager allows us to develop an intimate understanding of your organisation and build relationships with your stakeholders.

On the client side, we request to work with an individual or team with the authority to set a strategy and the time, skills, funding to execute on it. We find this streamlines project management and enables the change management programme to run efficiently and effectively.

When implementing Parkable at 2degrees, our Customer Success Manager Ashley worked with a team of 8.

The project was initiated by Commercial Manager, Maryke Schneider, before being handed to Leasing & Facilities Manager, Doug Jacques who received executive support from the Head of Property, Ben Blakemore.

Communications were developed together with Katherine Cornish, Head of Communication and PR, and operational support came from the Office Management and Reception team.

3. Document a plan

When a new client comes onboard, the dedicated Parkable Customer Success Manager sets up a kick off meeting with all involved parties. This meeting gives the Parkable team an opportunity to gather information about the client organisation’s facilities and workforce and the desired project outcomes, as well as the company’s culture and internal communications channels.

The information gathered is documented into which includes:

• Project goals and success criteria
• A platform configuration proposal
• An activity timeline

Once shared and agreed upon, this document becomes the project plan. This document acts like an instruction manual that guides those involved in the project through the steps to success. Having a clear plan reduces confusion around responsibilities, sets deadlines, and enables success to be measured based on original goals.

4. Appoint a change champion

Having a trusted senior leader to front the change legitimises the need for change, inspires action, builds confidence in the planned outcome. To leverage the credibility of this senior leader, communications should be sent from them and they should be present during all other change management activities.

It’s also critical that wider leadership is onboard with the change. Hosting a management briefing about the upcoming changes in advance of the announcement going out to the wider workforce prepares managers for answering questions and providing reassurance to their teams.

At BNZ, the implementation of Parkable at the company’s Auckland HQ was led by Nick Grieve, General Manager of Workplace & Technology. Having been with the business for a number of years and implemented many successful transformations, Nick had developed wide reaching relationships within the company and established himself as a trusted figure.

5. Communicate constantly & clearly

Companies shouldn’t just notify their workforce about impending changes, they need to explain the drivers for change, share the expected outcomes of the change, and request feedback from those impacted. Communications should be issued regularly, so staff don’t feel uncertainty at any point in the transition. Communications should be transparent to paint a realistic picture of the outcome and maintain employee trust.

Parkable has tried and tested templates for communicating car park changes to staff. Our Customer Success Managers work with your internal comms team to tailor these to your organisation’s facilities, platform configuration, communications channel/s, and tone of voice.

To support communications, we also have a plethora of how-to videos, step-by-step instructional guides, and FAQs. We really like how Seek Australia embedded these assets into their intranet, creating a one stop shop for parking information which administrators were able to easily direct support seekers back to.

6. Create space for feedback

The flipside of communicating is listening! Closing the communications loop with a feedback channel allows those impacted by the change to share their emotional and practical response to the change. Based on the sentiment of the feedback, adjustments can be made to the change management process. You may also receive feedback on functional bits of the change.

At Parkable, we encourage feedback to be shared in an open forum. Not only does this help sharers feel seen, it also reduces duplicates as sharers are able see what feedback has already been provided.

At Meta, the Dublin Facilities team invited Metamates to provide feedback by commenting on the change announcement post in their dedicated transportation workplace group. The post received hundreds of comments - a combination of criticisms, questions, and support.

While requesting feedback is a start, it’s important there’s follow through with feedback being acknowledged and actioned, where appropriate.

7. Reinforce positive behaviour

After the change has been implemented, the success criteria should be regularly measured to gauge the effectiveness of the change management process and the success of the uptake of change. In this process, super users of key features can be identified.

At Parkable, we love to crown champions of allocated park sharing and future booking, shouting out these top users in front of their peers and rewarding them with a prize. This positions these individuals as experts and makes them points of contact for peer-to-peer support.

Celebrating achievements is a key element of the culture at Parkables’ client, Les Mills International. The top sharer for the month receives a grocery gift card from management to thank them for their contribution to the company.

On the flipside, through the same reporting process users that aren’t following the correct process can be identified. In the early days of the change, these users can be reached out directly with educational resources and the offer of support.

If you’re considering taking the leap to implement parking management software at your office, you’re in safe hands.

Xero’s UK & EMEA Workplace Experience Manager, Ricky Martin, said “I’ve loved working with the team at Parkable. They’ve provided an excellent onboarding experience, and made change management really easy for us to ensure this is a success”.

And, hundreds of other clients have echoed this sentiment, giving Parkable’s Client Success Managers an NPS score of 100 for onboarding experience. We look forward to meeting you!