Companies in the region of Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) are lagging behind their global competitors in the issue of successful change management. That is at least the finding of the study by Towers Watson called Clear Direction in a Complex World that focused on companies forced to significant changes during the economic crisis in the past two years.
For companies in the EMEA region, it meant primarily reductions in workforce (47%) and freezing of salaries (31%). Globally, however, only 37% of companies reduced their workforce and only 24% of companies froze salaries. While half of the companies from the global perspective developed their integrated communication and change management strategies, it was only a third in Europe.
European firms also lagged in clearly explaining their employees what needs to be done differently. Globally, two thirds of companies with highly effective results in change management provided clear instructions to employees. In EMEA, is was only a half. Only a third of European companies with highly effective results in change management believed that they could clearly define their Employee Value Proposition (EVP).
The study is the fifth in a row similarly focused studies that are repeated every two years. This year, 604 companies of various sizes, industries and locations participated. It states that companies that are highly effective in communication and change management are 2.5 times more likely to overtake their competitors than those that do not achieve too effective results.
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