DRIVING CHANGE WITH SALES TRAINING

Transcription

1 DRIVING CHANGE WITH SALES TRAINING F O R A M U LT I G E N E R AT I O N A L W O R K F O R C E

2 Contents Overview... 3 Key Findings... 4 Change Effectiveness... 5 Training Strategy in Change Management... 7 Organizational Approaches and Tasks Related to Change Management... 9 Obstacles to Change Management Success Generational Impacts Best Practices for Managing Areas of Change Generation-Specific Best Practices Examining Change Management in Effective Organizations Summary Demographics Company Size Industries Represented Departments Represented Job Roles Represented About This Research About ValueSelling Associates About Training Industry PAGE 2

3 Overview Change management is a process all organizations will experience on some scale, and simultaneously this process is one of the biggest challenges for many organizations to conquer. Although comprised of a variety of constituent actions and strategies such as establishing vision, communicating plans, securing resources and managing milestones, the impact of changes on a sales team is a critical component of driving results. Training for such a sales organization is an important consideration for ushering business changes through transformations, with different generations of employees often needing to adapt in tandem. The aim of this research report is to explore the role of training and development in organizational change for a sales organization dealing with a multigenerational workforce. This study takes a forward-looking perspective at the support strategies for change initiatives in both current and expected training and development efforts focusing on leadership alignment, communication plans, and metrics in sales training contexts and beyond. A sales training intervention is a training program intended to provide sales personnel with the skills and tools to address sales challenges with clients, prospects or an industry to yield positive changes in the sales environment. A change management initiative entails interventions intended to influence behavior and associated outcomes for an individual, team or entire organization, often accompanied by changes in work processes, reporting structure and/or job. To explore these issues, Training Industry, Inc. and ValueSelling Associates conducted a study to examine the programs and initiatives that organizations are using for sales training and to look for patterns in what differentiates effective organizations. In December 2014 and January 2015, 194 companies completed a survey reporting their organizations use of sales training to support change management initiatives. PAGE 3

4 Key Findings Effectiveness of Training Support for Change Management 78% of organizations are effective at using training interventions to support change management initiatives 48% of organizations frequently use training to support change initiatives 79% of very effective organizations engage in frequent training support for change Organizations typically are weakest at aligning metrics to outcomes and anticipating the impact of change on existing performance metrics 38% of very effective organizations always manage the impact of change on metrics Attitudes toward Change 42% of organizations are successful at anticipating the impact of change on organizational culture 52% of organizations were rated as not being change averse Communication of Change Initiatives 57% of organizations seek executive sponsorship for change initiatives 51% communicate a vision for change 63% are effective at ensuring employees understand pending changes 52% see failing to communicate expected changes as an obstacle to change management success 58% are effective at creating accountability for employees to exhibit onthe-job behaviors required by changes and encouraging feedback Multigenerational Trends Organizations tended to be slightly more effective at meeting training needs of millennial (age 18-33) employees Of those who tailor training for millennial employees, 39% reported positive effects of doing so (compared to 35% for boomers) Approximately 70% of very effective organizations were rated effective at meeting the training needs of boomer (age 50-68), Gen X (age 34-49) and millennial employees PAGE 4

5 Change Effectiveness Transforming an organization can be one of the most challenging initiatives for managers and employees to navigate, as well as one of the most critical hurdles for an organization to conquer in order to streamline processes, maintain market relevancy and drive firm performance. There are a number of variables to consider with any change initiative including communicating a vision for change, modeling change behaviors, embedding change in company culture and evaluating buy-in through both leadership and employee attitudes. Successful change management touches all levels of employees and may or may not enact changes across an entire organization. It is crucial that organizations treat change efforts as a process rather than a discrete event, as is aligning strategy and metrics to have a focused and measurable plan for bringing about change. The focus of this research report is how sales organizations are using training as a component of a change management initiative. The good news for organizations managing through change is that the majority (78 percent) are effective at using sales training in support of change initiatives, as shown below in Figure 1. Figure 1. Effectiveness of Training Supporting Change Initiatives 78% PAGE 5

6 In addition to how effective an organization is when it comes to supporting change initiatives with sales training interventions, we were interested in how often organizations engage in this practice. While not all change management efforts may require training, depending on their scope, training is often an integral driver of success and behavioral sustainment. As shown below in Figure 2, the majority of organizations use training to support change initiatives often or sometimes. Figure 2. Frequency of Training Supporting Change Initiatives As frequency and effectiveness represent two different metrics for organizations use of training in change management contexts, we were interested in the contrast between how frequently both the very effective and somewhat/very ineffective organizations are engaging their sales training functions. PAGE 6

7 Figure 3. Frequency of Training Supporting Change Initiatives, by Effectiveness As shown above in Figure 3, the most effective organizations are linking sales training to change management nearly 80 percent of the time. However, not necessarily all effective organizations are frequently joining interventions with change initiatives and nearly 30 percent of ineffective organizations are attempting to do so regularly. The key point is that greater frequency is not sufficient for an effective pairing of sales training interventions and change initiatives, just as lower frequency does not account for all ineffective organizations. As such, the remainder of this report seeks to unravel what effective organizations are doing, how they re doing it and why these organizations may accomplish successful interventions independent of how often they occur. Training Strategy in Change Management First, we were interested in tactics and outcomes related specifically to change management initiatives. As shown in Figure 4, 75 percent of companies were effective at achieving their intended goals for change. However, aligning appropriate metrics to quantify outcomes and subsequently sustaining the impact of change initiatives were the most problematic areas for organizations. PAGE 7

8 Figure 4. Planning for Effectiveness in Change Management Initiatives For any change management initiative, strategic planning is one of the integral steps to ensuring success. As shown below in Figure 5, organizations vary in their effectiveness at anticipating how changes will impact their organization. Figure 5. Managing the Anticipated Impact of Change Initiatives PAGE 8

9 As can be seen in Figure 5, organizations tend to be effective at managing the impact of change initiatives on sales processes and have the greatest difficulty when it comes to planning for impacts on performance metrics and organizational culture. Organizational Approaches and Tasks Related to Change Management Accordingly, organizational culture is undoubtedly an important part of managing change if the work environment and general firm strategy is not conducive to change, the chances of success can be hampered despite following best practices. Our survey asked a series of questions about perceptions of organizational attitudes toward change, as shown below in Figure 6. Figure 6. Organizational Approach to Change Initiatives As can be seen, the majority of respondents disagreed with the statements, My organization generally considers change to be a negative thing, and My organization likes to do the same old things rather than try new and different ones. This suggests that although change management may have a reputation as a difficult process that most organizations shy away from, the opposite is true more often than not. That is, most organizations welcome change and may see PAGE 9

10 it as a source of growth and competitive advantage. Accordingly, respondents also showed higher levels of disagreement with the statement, When my organization is pressured to change something, we tend to resist it even if we think the change may ultimately benefit us. For organizations in the planning stages of a change initiative, the lack of an aversion to change may help drive employee buy-in and (often most importantly) buy-in from leadership and stakeholders. Following from perceptions of general attitudes, we asked survey respondents about the extent to which organizational leadership accomplishes the following tasks when managing a change initiative. As shown in Figure 7 below, leadership often holds strategic, resource and operational responsibility for change management efforts, their role is absolutely essential to securing, supporting and sustaining a positive change outcome, both in general and with respect to change-relevant training. Figure 7. Leadership Actions in Change Management PAGE 10

11 The sales training function of an organization often holds significant responsibility for efficiently steering employees through change. As shown below in Figure 8, organizations were approximately 62 percent effective overall at conveying how changes impact day-to-day behaviors, ensuring those changes are understood and providing their sales forces with the means to succeed. Figure 8. Role of Training for Change Initiative Tasks PAGE 11

12 Obstacles to Change Management Success We also sought to get information about why change management initiatives may fail across organizations. The obstacles endorsed most frequently are shown below in Figure 9. These obstacles include not sustaining newly-trained skills through reinforcement, addressing issues related to organizational culture and structure as they relate to change efforts, or timely communication regarding expected changes, as well as allowing complacency (e.g., a lack of urgency/importance concerning a change initiative). Figure 9. Obstacles to Change Management Success Figure 10 displays ratings from survey respondents on how effective their sales organizations are at achieving specific training objectives. As shown by the arrows, organizations tend to be most effective at holding employees accountable to learn necessary skills and behaviors (58 percent effective overall), as well as encouraging feedback to ensure skills and behaviors are aligned with change objectives (58 percent effective overall). PAGE 12

13 Figure 10. Sales Teams Ability to Achieve Training Objectives in Change Management Generational Impacts As mentioned previously, generational implications for training can sometimes be critical for organizations to consider when supporting a change management initiative. In other contexts, real or perceived differences between millennial and baby-boomer employees may not factor into training, or at least may not be worth the resources to tailor training to different generations. However, in change management, all employees need to embrace new methods and tools as quickly as possible. To that end, Figure 11 summarizes the responses from the survey related to how effective organizations are meeting the training needs of multiple generations. 53% of organizations tailor training programs to boomers; 66% of those that do report a positive net effect. 55% of organizations tailor training programs to millennials; 71% of those that do report a positive net effect. PAGE 13

14 Figure 11. Effectiveness at Training across Employee Generations As shown above, a higher proportion (33 percent) of organizations were rated very effective at meeting the training needs of millennial employees. Conversely, a combined 24 percent of organizations were rated ineffective at meeting the training needs of boomers. Overall, most organizations appeared to be meeting Gen X-ers needs, as a combined 62 percent were rated effective overall and only 16 percent were rated as ineffective. Best Practices for Managing Areas of Change Lastly, we were interested in identifying best practices for using sales training to drive change management. We asked survey respondents for suggested practices across five areas of objectives: 1) sales personnel adoption of change, 2) sales process/skillsets, 3) technology infrastructure, 4) sales training delivery and learning outcomes, and, 5) metrics for a successful change initiative. Several themes emerged from the collected responses and the majority of themes were identified across multiple areas as described below. Theme 1: Ensure communication across all levels of the organization The importance of communication was underscored repeatedly. Although communication to the employees directly affected by change was seen as PAGE 14

15 important, organization-wide communication was touched upon again and again. Deservedly so a sales organization does not operate in a vacuum, and when there are supply chains to manage, implications for current and future leadership initiatives and impacts to technological processes to consider, survey respondents advocated the same thing: communicate enough detail, communicate to everyone and do so on a deliberate timetable to ensure an initiative does not miss milestones due to unfamiliarity. This was identified specifically to drive sales personnel adoption of change as well as for measuring outcomes. An exemplar best practice comment was, proper communication around why change is necessary and done in a timely manner. Theme 2: Provide relevant training to employees Training around a change management initiative seems like a given though our survey showed that there are particular areas where training a sales force is critical. Notably, changes to sales processes and related skillsets was overwhelmingly identified as an area for targeted training. However, it was not the only content area noted as a best practice as changes to technology infrastructures, how sales training will be delivered and how learning outcomes will be assessed were also recognized as vital to success. An exemplar best practice comment was, Training is important rather than simply embracing the concept of change. Theme 3: Secure leadership support for the change initiative While it is no surprise that leadership involvement emerged as a theme, it was emphasized in relation to measuring and managing learning outcomes. Leadership s role was also stressed as an important part of holding sales personnel accountable for adopting change. An exemplar best practice comment was, leadership's ability to communicate changes prior to training and implementation for employee buy-in. Theme 4: Engage in strategic planning Last but not least, having a defined end-to-end strategy for enacting change was brought up for several content areas in other words, knowing the what, who, and how before taking the first steps toward change. This practice was noted in relation to both sales processes/skills and technology, as deficits in either area could potentially derail a change management effort. Exemplar best practice comments included, Show what you need to accomplish in terms of result and build the process together with your people, and Practice and follow up with motivation and incentives. PAGE 15

16 Generation-Specific Best Practices We were also interested in the extent to which organizations are specifically taking into account the impact on these demographic groups when managing a change initiative. We asked survey respondents to contrast their organizations approaches to managing both baby-boomers and millennials. For boomers, 41 percent of organizations do not single them out when designing a change initiative, 16 percent seek to incorporate their perspective when planning training and 10 percent reported that they offered change-relevant training targeted specifically at this age demographic. For millennials, 42 percent of organizations do not take them into account, 11 percent provide technological skills training and support and 10 percent reported that they offered change-relevant training targeted specifically at this age demographic. This suggests that while roughly 40 percent of organizations do not take demographic age groups into account in any way when designing a change initiative, 10 percent are explicitly tailoring training to change initiatives. The distinction between the most common practices between the two age groups are notable: for boomers, organizations appear to be tapping into their experience and tenure with the organization and its processes to help direct the ways in which training should support change management efforts, whereas for millennials, organizations are upskilling technological capabilities to ensure newer employees have a solid understanding of the digital tools and infrastructure they will need for success. PAGE 16

17 Examining Change Management in Effective Organizations When comparing the organizations rated very effective at using sales training in support of change initiatives (N = 47) to those who were identified as somewhat or very ineffective (N = 35), the subsequent ratings across many of the areas previously discussed showed a consistent pattern of endorsement by effective organizations. The charts in this section illustrate the differences between these two subsets of the data as they compare on favorable ratings that is, we explored which component aspects of change management described effective versus ineffective organizations. Figure 12. Planning & Managing Change in Effective Organizations PAGE 17

18 As can be seen in Figure 12, effective organizations take a robust approach to driving change management, and execute well throughout all aspects of planning for change and anticipating the impacts on a variety of organizational capacities. As shown in the lower half of the chart, effective organizations are not as successful at managing impacts and risks associated with change initiatives, particularly for the impacts on existing technology infrastructure and current job roles. However, 94 percent of the most effective organizations achieve their intended objectives from change management initiatives. Notably, ineffective organizations are better at some aspects of planning such as identifying what parts of the business need to change and communicating initiatives across the organization, but fall short when it comes to anticipating and managing the impacts of change. Accordingly, comparisons such as Figure 12 and those that follow demonstrate that there is no skeleton key to effective change management in organizations it is a holistic, multi-faceted endeavor. Figure 13. Leadership Actions in Change Management ( Always/Usually True Ratings Only) As shown in Figure 13 above, effective organizations involve leadership as a crucial driver of change, particularly for defining objectives, communicating a vision for change and gaining sponsorship from the top levels of an organization. For both effective and ineffective organizations, creating an integrated communication and change strategy was least consistently endorsed. PAGE 18

19 Next, we considered how training objectives in sales organizations differed across organizations. As shown in Figure 14, effective organizations showed the same pattern of results: from creating accountability for employees to encouraging feedback and sustaining desired behaviors, the most effective organizations rated high across the board. Figure 14. Sales Teams Ability to Achieve Training Objectives in Change Management (Effective Ratings Only) PAGE 19

20 Lastly, an examination of the obstacles to realizing success in change management showed a varying pattern of endorsement across effective and ineffective organizations. As shown below in Figure 17, the common obstacles to effective organizations allowed too much complacency and suffered from a lack of resources or budget. For ineffective organizations, the greatest obstacles were failing to set goals and milestones, train the necessary skills, reinforce skills post-training and address obstacles of organizational culture.notable in the figure compared to the preceding pages, however, is that the split between effective and ineffective organizations is nowhere near as pronounced. Just because an organization is effective overall when it comes to using sales training interventions to support change initiatives does not grant immunity to the same problems experienced by ineffective organizations. The difference can be seen as a matter of degree. Figure 15. Obstacles to Change Management Success ( Agree Ratings Only) PAGE 20

21 Summary This research report examined an array of influences on the success of change management initiatives in organizations and the role of sales training in driving that success across multiple generations of employees. Despite 78 percent of organizations rated as effective globally and more than half reported to welcome opportunities for change, more detailed questions and analysis revealed where organizations excel and where they may falter. Measurement of training outcomes and desired change end-states is a critical aspect of organizational change. Aligning metrics to relevant outcomes and anticipating the impact on existing metrics was a theme that surfaced repeatedly throughout the report, highlighting the importance of appropriate, timely and actionable measurement. Accordingly, 38 percent of the most effective organizations were found to always manage impact on change metrics. As sustaining the goals of a change effort was also noted as a weakness for many organizations, these results suggest that metrics are a cornerstone to change management success not only at the planning and implementation stages but also post-training, in order to accurately capture whether the impact of change had the desired effects. Communication was another emergent area of focus. The data presented in this report showed that communicating vision, getting employees to understand that vision and its implications, and creating a feedback loop with employees were all highly endorsed by the responses to the survey. Failure to communicate around changes was noted as a significant obstacle to an initiative s success. For training across generations, organizations paid the most attention to millennials, and for those who tailor training to that demographic, more organizations reported having success in doing so compared to older employees. However, the most effective organizations were typically proficient at meeting the needs of all generations of employees, irrespective of age. Besides frequently using sales training interventions to support change management initiatives, effective organizations were almost unilaterally more adept at planning, anticipating and managing impacts of change, appropriately involving both leadership and sales training functions and meeting the training needs of employees across generations. When it comes to obstacles to change management success, ineffective organizations showed a lack of planning, whereas effective organizations are more challenged by resources. PAGE 21

22 Demographics Company Size Figure 16. Company Sizes Represented Industries Represented Figure 17. Industries Represented PAGE 22

23 Departments Represented Figure 18. Departments Represented Job Roles Represented Figure 19. Job Roles Represented PAGE 23

24 About This Research About ValueSelling Associates ValueSelling Associates is the creator of the ValueSelling Framework, the sales methodology preferred by sales executives around the globe. Since 1991, ValueSelling Associates has helped thousands of sales professionals increase their sales productivity. Offering customized training to FORTUNE 1000, mid-sized and start-up companies, ValueSelling Associates proprietary sales training tools and consulting services deliver measurable results. Clients turn to the experts at ValueSelling Associates for services that yield immediate impact, repeatable strategies and sustainable results. For more information, go to About Training Industry Our focus is on helping dedicated business and training professionals get the information, insight, and tools needed to more effectively manage the business of learning. Our website, TrainingIndustry.com, spotlights the latest news, articles, case studies, and best practices within the training industry. For more information, go to call , or connect with us on Twitter and LinkedIn. About This Research Training Industry, Inc. research captures the collective wisdom of learning professionals, revealing fresh data on trends and practices in the evolving training market. Copyright 2015 by ValueSelling Associates and Training Industry, Inc. All rights reserved. No materials from this study can be duplicated, copied, re-published, or re-used without written permission from ValueSelling Associates or Training Industry, Inc. The information and insights contained in this report reflect the research and observations of ValueSelling Associates and Training Industry, Inc. analysts. PAGE 24