Mastering Management of Change: Navigating Organizational Development in Your Company

In business, if you’re not moving forward, you’re moving backward. Companies must learn how to constantly evolve and adapt to meet a variety of challenges, including:

• Economic trends
• Developments in technology
• New competition
• Changes in laws and regulations
• And more

One approach many businesses use is management of change (MOC). We’ll explain the management of change definition, why you need this process, and how you can smoothly implement it in your organization.

What Is Management of Change?

Management of change (MOC) is a policy companies use to manage any health, safety, or environmental risks that arise when facilities, employees, or operations are updated, added, or otherwise modified. 

The details outlined in an MOC help a business ensure new or increased hazards are identified and mitigated with any organizational change.

Why Are MOCs Needed?

An effective MOC should review any facility, process, or personnel change before implementation. This procedure is required by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) when any change, whether temporary or permanent, could affect the safety of a facility.

Examples of company changes that require an MOC evaluation include:

• Increasing the number of employees completing a process
• Changing the chemicals used in a production line; or
• Upgrading a piece of equipment

These changes, left unchecked, could increase employee injury, damaged equipment, or environmental pollution and ultimately cost a company time and money.

What Are the 5 Steps of Change Management?

The MOC process may seem daunting at first, but it can be broken down into five manageable steps. Let’s explore these in detail.

Step 1: Prepare Your Organization for Change

For an organization to successfully implement change, there must be buy-in from all stakeholders. This means starting with a preparation phase to get everyone ready — both logistically and culturally.

In this phase, it’s important for the manager to help employees understand the need for change, such as any problems within the organization that are creating dissatisfaction. This will help employees more readily accept what’s to come. 

Step 2: Create a Vision and Plan for Change

Once the organization is ready for change, a strategic plan must be crafted to bring it about. An effective plan for change should include:

• Strategic goals – What are we working toward by making these changes?
• Key performance indicators – How will success be measured? What metrics are involved? What is our baseline?
• Project stakeholders/team – Who will oversee the management of change? Who is responsible for implementation?
• Project scope – What actions will the project include? What is not included?

Step 3: Implement Changes

Now that the plan has been created, your organization must follow it to implement the changes. The specifics of the project will determine if this involves changes to the company’s:

• Structure
• Systems
• Processes
• Strategy
• Employee behaviors
• Etc.

During this phase, it’s important for managers to empower their employees to do whatever is necessary to implement changes and achieve set goals. Managers should also take time to celebrate wins and keep open lines of communication along the way to encourage compliance.

Step 4: Embed the Changes Within Your Company

Once implementation is completed, change managers need a plan to keep employees from returning to the status quo or going back to the old way of doing things just because it’s familiar. 

Embedding changes within the company’s culture will help with this. Consider tools like:

• Reward systems
• New organization structures
• Controls
• And more

Step 5: Review Your Progress and Analyze the Results

The final step is to analyze everything that has happened. Just because it’s finished doesn’t necessarily mean it was a successful effort, so be sure to conduct an analysis and review of the project to help leadership understand if goals were met.

Ask questions like:

• Was this a success, failure, or mixed result?
• Were project goals met?
• If they were, can we replicate this success elsewhere?
• If they weren’t, what went wrong and how can we fix it next time?

This will help you evaluate the process and make plans for the future as needed.

What Are MOC Best Practices?

Companies that embrace MOC best practices will follow these processes and procedures.

First, start by pulling together all safety data relevant to whatever change is occurring. Add new information related to the change in existing procedures, including changes to accident investigation or audit compliance. Be sure to gather input from key employees during this process and incorporate their ideas and suggestions.

It’s critical to train and educate all employees on the MOC procedures that result. Clear, step-by-step instructions will be needed in order to ensure effective execution in the case of an accident or emergency. Update all written material so the next MOC can be completed quickly and efficiently.

Another way to make sure you’re following management of change best practices is to incorporate the use of CMMS software into your procedures. An easy-to-use CMMS can centralize information and streamline operations within your organization.

Implement Management of Change With Help From UpKeep

UpKeep provides a CMMS solution that gives teams the tools they need to run operations reliably and efficiently. The MOC process can be painful if it’s not correctly implemented, but having a staff with access to UpKeep’s user-friendly, mobile-first solutions can help increase buy-in and communication across the board.

Let us show you how UpKeep can help your team with MOC implementation and so much more. Click the button below to request a demo and get started with UpKeep today.