If change is the only thing constant in this world, then we’re stuck with a paradox: the practice of change management will need to evolve constantly to make change more sustainable.

Since 2023, 45% or about 2 in every 5 employees say they have been feeling exhausted from organisational change. There’s the pressure to be the first mover, the top sales agent, or the most well-connected team member, for example.

But while workers are burning out, more than half of HR leaders (53%) believe mitigating change fatigue is a top priority of their companies.

Indeed, change can be exhausting.

In large organisations, teams undergo 10 major changes in a year. This leaves up to 73% of employees feeling moderate to high levels of stress as they go through change, Gartner said.

Employers backtrack on transformation initiatives

Fatigue can come from the seemingly endless stream of new policies, regulations, practices and standards being introduced to employees in response to challenges in a VUCAD environment.

The feeling of exhaustion and despondency, however, worsens when companies themselves seem ambivalent about their own transformation agenda, often pushing for certain changes before backtracking.

Take for example the number of firms that once lauded remote work as an indispensable part of their new way of doing business.

Many revised their work-from-home policies in 2020-21 – only to scrap the idea of full-time WFH just a few years into post-COVID recovery.

Another hot-button topic where leaders are retreating is DEI. Some businesses quickly jumped on the bandwagon of DEI to purportedly align with new social realities and to maximise the impact of diversity on their bottom line.

But after a few naysayers like Robby Starbuck entered the fray, companies that were once evangelists of DEI announced they would be scaling back efforts or eliminating them altogether.

Of the respondents polled by Capterra – on whether their employers backtracked on COVID era changes – 93% said yes while 43% said multiple times.

Also Read: Fatigue vs productivity: The hidden cost of overwork

Understanding change-fatigued employees

Left ignored, change-fatigued employees end up feeling more stressed (48%) and less productive (32%). These are also signs of low vitality.

Just recently, People Matters Global tackled a unique trait of top-performing employees and found that their level of vitality was a factor to their levels of engagement, enthusiasm and loyalty to the company.

Vitality refers to holistic health across eight categories: social, occupational, financial, intellectual, physical, spiritual, emotional, and environmental.

Employees struggling to keep pace with change may have lower vitality and higher chances of burnout than peers who handle fatigue well and set healthy work boundaries.

Exhaustion and burnout can also fuel resistance to change. And this resistance in turn manifests as an overall lack of enthusiasm and a tendency to stall their own progress as well as the progress of others.

A McKinsey study pointed out how 7 in 10 change management initiatives falter – this could be due in part to the people supposedly driving change being resistant or apathetic about the project.

How top companies manage change

1) Getting everyone involved

One is through proactive communication and engagement. Deloitte has found that actively pulling employees into the planning, execution and management of change initiatives boosts employee satisfaction by up to 33%. This way, people are less likely to distance themselves from the collective goal.

2) Making change personal

Aside from getting people personally involved, the best change managers also personalise the mission. Some companies break down the objectives of a project, first, by departmental needs then, second, by individual roles.

At Microsoft, for example, managers identified common roadblocks to change then developed targeted action plans for each team member.

3) Listening to team members and trusting them

The best change managers keep their finger on the pulse of employee sentiments. They monitor employee energy levels or vitality as seen in the team’s engagement and enthusiasm.

Most of all, however, they create feedback loops and safe spaces that allow employees to speak up and move autonomously.

Zurich Life, for example, reduced bureaucracy across teams and gave employees more autonomy to execute on change initiatives.

Ultimately, change fatigue transforms workplace dynamics from collaborative environments to spaces of persistent stress and potential organisational disengagement.

However, managers can pivot their teams to handle change as an opportunity for growth when they take on a collaborative approach.