BPM Project: How to get Employees Buy-In?

One of the goals in process design and BPMS implementation is about improving productivity or cost cutting. BPM project is also a change management project. However, around 70% of BPM projects fail or do not meet customer/user’s expectation. And one of root causes is culture inertia, people resist to change, but why, what do they worry about and how to get employees buyer-in?

1. Communicate clearly about the Project Benefits to Employees: As employees will concern about: How does the BPM effort benefit me: What’s going on to my team, my department? Job security concerns. . Therefore, the question of "what is in it for me??" is always an outstanding question from the stakeholder stand point 

2. Transparency is the key to getting shop floor buy-in. If you don't involve, educate and bring the employees on the journey from the outset and all the way through, then what's the point?  Transparency is key. Especially today, people won't adopt a system that isn't clearly a tool in their best interest, always up-to-date, and always available. At the end of the day, something that improves both the employee experience and customer experience is never going to be a hard sell. 

3. Engage employees in their languages and seeing within days what was their idea coming to life! Think bottom up instead of top down. Employees, managers and CxO execs should be able to scratch their own itch with BPM. Ask input and feedback from employees. The executives may get "buy in" from employees when they responded to these questions directly and succinctly! No idea off agenda recognizing change is encouraged. And the new processes would be their processes..... 

4. Make processes as easy as possible This requires a transformation from the BPM systems as being known today. Seamless integration between process and adaptive cases on the one hand. Replacing complex software installation with registering for an account on the cloud. As organizations talk so much about customer experience, that often forget who is most key in creating it: the employees 
   

5. Overall employee experience: Develop BPM as a discipline to improve productivity is the key notion of the "Employee Experience". The processes are designed in such a way that it creates a stimulating, motivating environment that gives meaning and purpose of work.  

6. Internal company users' needs and customers' concerns are always in alignment. Sometimes what is easiest for the business user creates obstacles for customers. Build up a customer-centric organization in which the new processes can be recognized with the ultimate goal & outcome to have satisfied customers. 

7. Let users work with good mentor involved in building processes, set the right guideline in understanding & using process; and take best practices in formally adopting new processes.

Posted in: Business Process Management,Change Management