You could have the best communication strategy for change management, the right tools, and a clear business case, but if your employees don’t understand what’s changing or why, the execution might be at risk. Projects get delayed, employee morale plunges, and implementation costs skyrocket.
What do some companies miss? A reliable way to make sure messages are actually seen and acknowledged.
That’s where internal notification systems can help. They fill the gap left by ignored emails and cluttered chat threads, so your most critical change-related updates are delivered, acknowledged, and acted upon.
In this article, you’ll discover:
If you’re responsible for managing communication during change, this guide will help you avoid common pitfalls and build a foundation for confident, company-wide alignment.
Key Takeaways
Table of contents
1. The Critical Role of Communication in Change Management
2. What Happens When You Get Change Communication Wrong?
3. Real-Time, Impossible-to-Ignore Internal Notifications for Communicating Change
4. How to Communicate Change in Large Organizations – See DeskAlerts in Action
5. Don’t let Communication be your Weakest Link during Change
Change management is the process of helping people and organizations move from how things are now to how they need to be in the future. This could mean implementing new systems, new ways of working, or even driving a shift in company culture. The goal is to make a transition that is as smooth and successful as possible.
But here’s the thing: no matter how great a change plan is, it won’t work if people don’t understand it. And unfortunately, many change programs are doomed to fail.
A study by Gartner shows that about half of change programs fail. Another study suggests that 60% to 70% of change initiatives fail (Errida & Lotfi, 2021). And McKinsey states that only setting effective and ambitious aspirations for change isn’t enough – people need to know what these goals mean for their day-to-day jobs.
A failed change program is costly. Organizations worldwide have incurred substantial losses due to unsuccessful change initiatives.
In 2022, it was reported that businesses spent approximately $1.6 trillion on digital transformation programs, while half of them often fail.
That’s where communication comes in.
Clear, honest, and timely change communication helps everyone in the company stay on the same page. It explains to the employees what’s changing, why the change is happening, and how it affects the people involved.
For practical tips, check out our guide to communicating change to employees.
When communication during change is strong, employees feel more involved and less anxious. They know what to expect and are more likely to support the transformation. On the flip side, poor communication can lead to confusion, frustration, and even resistance.
Good communication also gives people a chance to ask questions, give feedback, and feel heard. That helps leaders adjust the change communication strategy if needed and builds trust across the team.
Think of communication as the glue that holds change efforts together. Without it, even the best ideas can fall apart.
Change models like ADKAR and Kotter’s 8 Steps provide clear frameworks that enhance communication throughout change initiatives.
ADKAR focuses on individual transitions to guide communication efforts through stages like Awareness, Desire, and Knowledge, ensuring messages are timely and relevant.
Kotter’s model emphasizes creating urgency, building a guiding coalition, and communicating the vision clearly and continuously. Both models help leaders deliver consistent, targeted communication that aligns with employees’ needs and readiness.
Overall, these models structure how and when to communicate. Implement them to reduce confusion, build trust, and encourage employee engagement, making it more likely that the change will be understood, accepted, and successfully executed.
Check out our guide to communicating change to employees for practical messaging tips to support these frameworks.
Even the most meticulously planned change strategies can falter if communication is inadequate. Here’s what might happen and what pitfalls to avoid:
When communication is inconsistent or unclear, it undermines trust in leadership. Employees may feel as though they’ve been left in the dark, leading to skepticism about the change process. This erosion of trust can result in decreased morale and engagement, making it challenging for your business to implement change effectively.
Humans are resistant to change, but a lack of transparent communication can enhance that resistance. Employees are more likely to oppose changes they don't understand, which can manifest as decreased productivity, passive non-compliance, or active opposition – all of which can derail your change efforts.
Without clear communication in change management, different parts of an organization may have varying interpretations of the change objectives. This misalignment can lead to conflicting actions, duplicated efforts, and confusion about priorities, hindering the overall progress of the change process.
When employees aren't kept in the loop or included in changes, they may feel unimportant and lose motivation. On the other hand, engaged employees are more willing to support and help drive change. Without clear communication, people feel less responsible for and less committed to making the change work.
Effective change management requires two-way communication. When companies fail to listen to employee concerns or ignore feedback, it can lead to unresolved issues that stymy progress. Addressing feedback is crucial for refining change initiatives and ensuring they meet the needs of all stakeholders.
Poor communication during change can cause misunderstandings about new processes or systems, leading to errors and inefficiencies. Employees may not receive the necessary information or training to adapt to changes, causing delays and reducing the overall effectiveness of the change process.
When communication is consistently weak, it harms the organization over time. It creates distrust, lowers employee morale, and drives workers away. This kind of environment makes future changes much harder to execute.
Learn how to build a change communication strategy and plan communication activities.
As we’ve already established, change management is only successful when employees understand, accept, and act on new initiatives. Yet, many organizations struggle with communication breakdown.
Traditional methods like email, chat systems, and intranet announcements often fail to engage employees effectively for the following reasons:
Employees receive hundreds of emails daily, making important change-related communications easy to miss. Chat tools like Slack or Teams drown critical updates in constant message streams. Intranet posts require employees to actively seek out information, meaning many never see them.
Without urgency or visibility, employees may delay reading updates or skip them entirely. Generic subject lines (e.g., "Important Update") lead to low open rates. Failing to have an acknowledgment mechanism means leaders can’t confirm if employees actually read the message.
Different departments may send conflicting messages through different channels. And employees who miss updates may rely on rumors instead of official communication. Without a centralized notification system, it’s nearly impossible to track who received the message. These failures lead to disengagement and resistance.
To overcome these challenges, companies manage change using internal notification systems such as DeskAlerts – a dedicated layer for high-priority, real-time communication. Unlike passive channels like email, these systems ensure critical messages are seen, acknowledged, and acted upon by employees.
The benefits include
Example
A major retailer might need to implement a new returns policy across several locations. Emails and intranet posts can lead to inconsistent adoption by the company’s employees, with many stores unaware of the change. Deploying DeskAlerts as a real-time notification system to communicate this change can lead to a higher acknowledgment rate, with 90% of alerts being read within 60 minutes.
DeskAlerts is an internal communication solution. It delivers high-priority messages directly to employees in large organizations across multiple channels to ensure visibility and engagement.
DeskAlerts sends real-time alerts such as desktop pop-ups, scrolling tickers, mobile push messages, lockscreens, wallpapers, and digital signage notifications straight to corporate devices to capture employees’ attention in a way that is deliberately intrusive. This makes it an essential tool for change management and communication success.
DeskAlerts can support your change management initiative as it:
DeskAlerts has been proven to play a crucial role in supporting organizations through significant transitions as it ensures clear, timely, and visible communication. For more details, read the NHS case study below.
Whether deploying a new software system, enforcing updated policies, or managing the complexities of restructuring and mergers, companies worldwide use DeskAlerts to make sure employees stay informed, aligned, and engaged.
Find out how you can benefit from DeskAlerts to ensure successful communication and change management. Get in touch with us today for a personal demo.
During changes, launching a new tool or platform can easily lead to confusion or delays if employees aren’t adequately informed or trained. With DeskAlerts, your IT and project teams can deliver real-time updates, training links, and troubleshooting tips directly to employees’ desktops or mobile devices.
These alerts can be targeted to specific departments or roles for higher relevance. For example, users might receive a pop-up reminder about an upcoming system downtime or a direct link to onboarding videos for the new software tool that’s being introduced. With acknowledgment tracking, managers can confirm that every user has seen and responded to critical rollout instructions.
Policy updates like new security protocols, HR rules, or compliance requirements often go unnoticed when buried in emails or intranet posts. DeskAlerts overcomes this by delivering visible, persistent alerts that require acknowledgment.
These alerts can include summaries of the changes, links to full documentation, or action buttons such as "Acknowledge policy" or "Complete required training." This helps you increase awareness and compliance while also auditing trails for accountability.
Check out tips on how to communicate policy changes.
Mergers, acquisitions, and organizational restructuring often cause uncertainty and anxiety among employees. In these high-stakes situations, consistent and transparent change communication is critical.
With DeskAlerts, you can share clear updates across the company, helping prevent rumors and misinformation. You can personalize alerts for different departments or regions, then schedule them to keep employees informed throughout each phase of the change. This builds trust, reinforces stability, and ensures everyone receives the exact message at the same time to buffer transitions during complex change initiatives.
When Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust undertook the ambitious consolidation of three hospitals into one modern facility, they faced a high-stakes challenge: relocating 600 patients and 3,500 staff without disrupting care or operations.
The scale and complexity of the move demanded precise, timely, and coordinated communication. However, relying on traditional channels like email or intranet updates wasn’t enough. Miscommunication could risk patient safety, delay critical services, and overwhelm already-stretched staff.
To overcome these risks, the NHS Trust implemented DeskAlerts [check out the full case study as a PDF].
With targeted messaging and role-specific notifications, the Trust was able to share updates tailored to departments and staff roles, reducing noise, eliminating confusion, and driving fast responses. DeskAlerts became an essential tool, ultimately adopted for daily use by the communications team to maintain clarity and control during ongoing change.
The hospital consolidation was executed smoothly, with minimal disruption, in part thanks to clear, visible, and trusted communication powered by DeskAlerts.
Explore more case studies or see how DeskAlerts can help as a change management communication solution.
In the middle of any organizational change, whether it’s a software rollout, restructuring, or a shift in company culture, communication is often the first thing to falter. Yet, it’s the one thing that can make or break success when employees are left guessing, rumors spread, engagement drops, and resistance grows.
Even the best-laid change management strategies can fail if people don’t understand what’s happening, why it matters, or what’s expected of them.
Poor communication isn’t just an inconvenience: it’s a costly risk. Missed messages lead to missed deadlines, confusion, and a breakdown in trust. That’s why clear, timely, and consistent communication must be treated as a strategic pillar of any change effort, not an afterthought.
Companies that succeed at change don’t just inform their employees, they engage them, make them part of the change process. They use the right tools, such as internal communication solutions, to ensure messages are seen, heard, and acted on. They also provide opportunities for feedback, track who’s on board, and close the loop with clarity.
If change is the engine, communication is the fuel. Without it, you stall. Prioritize communication, and you empower your people to move forward with confidence, clarity, and purpose.
Don’t let poor communication be your weakest link - make it your strongest advantage.
Find out how you can benefit from DeskAlerts to ensure successful communication and change management. Get in touch with us today for a presonal demo.
Effective communication during change includes several key strategies:
The four types of communication:
A change management communication plan explains how a company will share important changes with stakeholders, managers, and employees.
Use the Five Ps to understand your organization and manage change. The Five Ps are Purpose, Philosophy, Priorities, Practices, and Projections. They offer a system-wide view of your organization and can help you grasp your organizational culture and use it to manage change effectively.
Clear communication in change management lets everyone in your company know about upcoming changes. Tailor your messages to each employee group, address their concerns, and explain why the change is happening.