Employers must 'help staff adapt to change'

If companies want their workers to adapt to change, they need help from above, a new survey has found.

A Right Management survey found that staff at nearly a third of companies adapt poorly to changes at work, therefore harming their productivity, reports newsday.com.

More than 100 senior human resource professional across North America were asked "Is your workforce able to adapt to change and increase its effectiveness on the job?"

Figures collated by the career-management company showed that 43 per cent of the executives said that their workforce "somewhat" gets the job done during changes but that morale had suffered as a result, with 26 per cent saying that their workforce was "agile and responds to new challenges."

The changes include major layoffs and restructurings. When they occur, companies provide little guidance for employees, so management skills may need to improve.

"As our poll results demonstrate - with only one in four employees having the agility to adapt to change - most organisations don't prepare their employees to handle changes at work," said Ed Witherell, a vice president in Right Management’s New York office.

Mr Witherall told the news provider that a company can suffer from a drop in productivity as a result and customer service can decline, leading to a tarnished brand reputation.

The news comes as the chief executive of Mcdonalds UK Steve Easterbrook wrote in the Times that it is down to business to help youngsters improve their basic skills.