The announcement is finished. The new structure is in place. Employees have attended the training, and the project team has met its launch deadline. A few weeks later, though, people are still using old processes, managers are fielding the same questions, and progress is harder to see.
For HR and L&D leaders, this is a familiar point in a transition. The organization has introduced a change, but teams are still figuring out how to work within it. Change management coaching can help managers understand what is slowing that adjustment and support employees as the new expectations become part of everyday work.
Gallup’s 2024 research on organizational disruption found that seven in 10 U.S. workers had experienced disruptive change within their organization in the previous year. Leaders and managers were 56% more likely than individual contributors to report extensive disruptive change in their organization.
Managers are being asked to help teams adapt while navigating significant disruption themselves.
That creates a development need that extends well beyond the launch date. Managers need to recognize what people are experiencing, respond to practical barriers, and maintain enough capacity to keep leading as the transition unfolds.
When adoption stalls, the cost shows up well beyond the project budget. The organization keeps paying for the new system while people work around it. Productivity dips last longer than planned. Employee relations issues surface that HR has to resolve. And the employees most frustrated by the transition are often the ones the organization can least afford to lose.
Employees Arrive at the Change from Different Starting Points
A manager involved in planning may have spent months understanding why a change is necessary. An employee hearing the announcement for the first time is just beginning to consider its implications. Even when both people support the direction, their readiness can look very different.
One employee may be eager to try a new approach. Another may worry about losing expertise that made them valuable. Someone else may agree with the goal but see an operational problem that has not been addressed. Treating every hesitation as resistance can cause managers to miss information they need.
The American Psychological Association’s 2025 Work in America survey found that 54% of U.S. workers said job insecurity had a significant impact on their stress levels. The survey examined a period of economic uncertainty and government policy changes. It offers useful context for employers introducing their own transitions: employees may already be carrying concerns about their future when another change arrives.
Managers cannot promise certainty where it does not exist. They can make it easier for employees to understand what is known, raise concerns, and find the support available to them. HR and L&D teams should consider whether managers have been prepared to recognize these different starting points.
A Drop in Performance Deserves a Closer Look
After a rollout, a previously reliable employee starts falling behind. It is easy to assume that the employee is struggling to accept the change. But consider what happened to the work itself.
Perhaps a new approval process has created delays. A system migration has removed access to information the employee used every day. Responsibilities have shifted, but ownership is still unclear. The employee is trying to meet expectations in an environment that no longer supports the familiar way of meeting them.
Before attributing the slowdown to motivation, a manager needs to understand where the work is getting stuck. More encouragement will have limited value if someone is waiting for access, lacks training, or is being measured against conflicting priorities.
When a manager attributes a performance drop to attitude rather than to a broken process, the response often escalates too quickly: a warning, a performance improvement plan, a strained conversation. If the real cause was missing access, unclear ownership, or conflicting priorities, that documentation can be inaccurate and the employee can feel targeted. What began as a workflow problem becomes an employee relations case that HR now has to untangle.
Change management coaching helps managers diagnose before they document. That keeps performance conversations accurate and fair, and it keeps avoidable issues from reaching HR. HR and L&D teams should look for development that helps leaders recognize the support people need and respond appropriately as work changes around them.
When Concerns Go Unheard, They Tend to Escalate
During a transition, employees raise more concerns than usual: about workload, role changes, the fairness of new expectations, or how decisions were made. A manager under pressure may dismiss these concerns, react defensively, or make a decision soon afterward that looks like a response to the complaint.
That pattern matters. Retaliation has consistently been the most frequently alleged charge filed with the EEOC, and it can attach to almost any underlying complaint. A restructuring decision, a schedule change, or a reassignment made shortly after an employee raises a concern can be interpreted as retaliation, even when the manager intended nothing of the kind.
Many of these situations can be addressed at the manager level. A leader who listens, acknowledges the concern, explains what is known, and brings HR in early can resolve conflicts before they become formal complaints. Change management coaching prepares managers for those conversations, so concerns are handled while they are still small and far less costly to address.
Momentum Depends on What Happens After Launch
The launch date gives a change initiative a visible milestone. Adoption is harder to track. Teams may attend training and understand the intended process while continuing to rely on familiar routines when workloads rise.
Imagine a new system introduced to simplify reporting. During the first month, managers accept the old spreadsheet alongside it because deadlines are tight. Employees soon see that the previous method still counts. The organization has invested in a new way of working, but day-to-day management is reinforcing the old one.
Every week that pattern continues, the organization is paying for two ways of working and getting the return of neither. The business case behind the change, whether efficiency, accuracy, or cost savings, depends on adoption that managers reinforce day to day.
Maintaining momentum takes continued attention. Managers need to see where adoption is progressing, where employees are struggling, and whether their own decisions support the intended change. They also need a way to raise obstacles that require action beyond their team.
For HR and L&D leaders, this means planning manager support beyond launch. The questions managers face several weeks into implementation can be very different from the ones covered in the initial briefing. Development should prepare them to keep assessing and responding as those needs evolve.
Managers Need Support Through Their Own Transition
The manager responsible for helping a team adapt may also be learning a new role, reporting to a different leader, or working with fewer resources. Supporting employees can become one more responsibility layered onto an already full workload.
Over time, that strain can show up in delayed decisions, reduced availability, and less attention to how the team is progressing. Employees may experience inconsistent support just when they need a dependable manager.
That inconsistency has a price. Gallup estimates that replacing an individual employee can cost one-half to two times that person’s annual salary. Its research also found that 52% of employees who left voluntarily said their manager or organization could have done something to keep them. During a transition, a manager with the capacity to notice and respond is one of the organization’s most practical retention tools.
HR leaders should examine what managers are being asked to carry during the transition. Are priorities realistic? Do managers have access to guidance when implementation stalls? Is there room to acknowledge their own uncertainty and workload?
Coaching can help leaders recognize the demands on their capacity and respond more intentionally. Organizational support matters, too. Sustaining change requires a realistic view of what managers can deliver with the time, authority, and resources available to them.
Build the Leadership Capability to Sustain Change
An effective change plan needs managers who can put it into practice as employee needs and operational challenges emerge. Those leaders must understand how people experience change, identify what is affecting performance, and continue supporting progress over time.
Change Management, a module within IMPACT Group’s LeaderQ offering, helps leaders build a structured approach to leading through transitions. It focuses on understanding employee needs, responding intentionally, supporting performance, and sustaining leaders’ own capacity throughout the process. For the organization, that means faster adoption, fewer avoidable employee relations issues, and stronger retention of the people the change depends on.
For HR and L&D teams, change management coaching offers a way to develop that capability before the next rollout and strengthen it during an ongoing transition.
Learn More About Change Management Coaching
If your change initiative is losing momentum or your managers need more support, contact an IMPACT Group specialist to discuss the Change Management module within LeaderQ and how it can support your leaders through the transition.
