Activate Frontline Managers in Change Management

Develop frontline managers to influence organizational change ability.

Executive Summary

McLean & Company Insight

Given their proximity and daily interactions with employees, frontline managers are best suited to support, influence, and lead employees through change. Equip frontline managers with the training and tools necessary to effectively navigate their dual role as both the recipients and leaders of change.

Situation

• Change management traditionally focuses on how senior leaders behave and communicate during change, with little consideration for the critical role of frontline managers in influencing the results of change initiatives.
• A major contributor to failed change initiatives is the lack of frontline manager involvement in contextualizing change messages and continuously advocating for the change.

Complication

• Frontline managers are often informed of the change at the same time as the broader workforce and are rarely consulted before key decisions impacting their teams are made.
• Despite being in the prime position to influence employees to adopt change, managers’ knowledge of and expertise in their teams and functions are left untapped. Managers are also not provided with the necessary support or training to be effective leaders of change.

Solution

• Create a standard plan to involve frontline managers at all stages of change, communicating key change messages, consulting on key decisions, and participating in training to be effective leaders of change.
• Evaluate frontline managers on key change abilities and curate a resource toolkit for frontline managers to address gaps and facilitate successful implementation and sustainment of change in the front lines.
• Monitor the effectiveness of the toolkit and establish a regular cadence to update the toolkit.

Key terminology

Frontline managers are people leaders who are responsible for overseeing day-to-day operations and directly manage frontline employees.

Change abilities refer to behaviors that facilitate change within organizations. These five abilities are critical for frontline managers to possess to lead change with a people-centric approach in their teams.

Although change is constant, many initiatives fail to achieve intended results

A majority of organizational change initiatives do not reach expected levels of success.

75% of change initiatives fail to achieve the improvements expected (Furst, 2021).

50% of organizational change initiatives are unsuccessful (Miller, 2020).

57% of all transformations fail to hit their targets in terms of value envisioned, timeline, or both (Messenböck, et al., 2019).

Ratings of organizational change management proficiency (by both HR and non-HR professionals) have continued to decrease since 2020…

Average change management proficiency (on a 1-to-10-point scale)

2020 - 5.8 (n=442)

2021 - 5.4 (n=418)

2022 - 5.2 (n=327)

% Highly proficient in change management

2020 - 21%

2021 - 13%

2022 - 13%

(McLean & Company Trends Report, 2020-2022)

Frontline managers have a critical role in gaining buy-in and engaging employees in change

Employee engagement strongly influences employees’ commitment to change (Men, et al).

Managers have great influence over how well employees adopt and sustain change behaviors (Hoogerhuis & Anderson).

Frontline managers have a direct impact on engagement:

70% of variance in team engagement is determined solely by the manager. (Suellentrop & Bauman, 2021)

3.5x - Respondents who had trust in their manager were 3.5x more likely to be engaged. (McLean & Company Engagement Survey Database, 2022; N=153,917)

3.4x - Respondents whose manager kept them well informed about decisions that affected them were 3.4x more likely to be engaged. (McLean & Company Engagement Survey Database, 2022; N=162,534)

McLean & Company Insight

Securing buy-in for change with frontline managers is crucial: their receptivity will determine how employees perceive the change. While change adoption among frontline managers alone will not ensure success, lack of buy-in will guarantee failure.

Managers are best positioned to involve and support employees through change

Frontline managers’ critical role in engaging employees means employees look to managers to communicate and contextualize change.

Employees prefer to receive personal impact messages about change from direct managers.

Most employees indicated direct managers as the preferred messenger.

Direct Manager/ Supervisor - 70%

CEO - 3%

HR - 2%

(Prosci, 2020)

Frontline managers connect employees directly to change, leading to more successful change initiatives:

65% of respondents whose transformations were successful cited engaging frontline employees, using managers specifically (McKinsey, 2021).

70% higher transformation success rates are reported when employees are at the center of a transformation. (Messenböck, et al., 2020).

Frontline managers understand best what is relevant to frontline employees adapting to change.

For example, senior leaders are almost 20% more likely than those in other roles to believe transformation goals have been adapted for relevant employees (McKinsey, 2021).

However, to effectively lead employees through change, managers require tools and training

Frontline managers are given the role of turning strategies into practical initiatives on the frontlines (Soteres). To be successful, managers need defined roles and training to develop change skills.

70% - Effectively defining roles and responsibilities can result in a 70% increase in change success (Messenböck, et al., 2020).

14% of frontline managers have received the message that leading change is critical for success in the role (Folkman, 2020).

Despite rapid changes in the environment, few organizations have implemented or plan to implement change management training.

State of organizations offering additional training on change management:

5% - Implemented

31% - In progress

41% - No plans to implement

(McLean & Company Trends Report, 2022; N=327)

Managers do not feel prepared for an active role in change.

Four out of five managers reported effective change management training had not been received (Furst, 2021).

63% of respondents felt the organization did not adequately prepare managers with skills, training, and tools needed to lead through change (Prosci, 2020).

Curate a toolkit that will provide managers with tools and training to develop key change abilities

McLean and Company Insight

Given their proximity and daily interactions with employees, frontline managers are best suited to support, influence, and lead employees through change. Equip frontline managers with the training and tools necessary to effectively navigate their dual role as both the recipients and leaders of change.

Build a toolkit to strategically and proactively develop frontline managers’ change abilities

Although the toolkit can be built and used just before, or during, a change initiative, it is not recommended that the toolkit be used as a “crash course.” The toolkit is best used when HR and frontline managers are able to invest time in reviewing and completing the curated list of resources, templates, and tools.

See McLean & Company’s Navigate Change for more project-specific guidance around managing organizational change.

Use McLean & Company’s process to build a toolkit to prepare frontline managers to lead change

1. Assess current state of manager involvement and change abilities
2. Create a toolkit to develop managers’ change abilities
3. Deploy toolkit and iterate based on data