Every major transformation seems to create another list of responsibilities for HR. Prepare managers. Develop training. Monitor engagement. Reinforce adoption. As organizations accelerate AI adoption and other large-scale transformations, that list continues to grow.
At the same time, APQC’s research points to a difficult constraint. Through a global, cross-industry survey of more than 1,100 HR leaders (chief human capital officers, HR directors and HR managers), APQC found that organizations at the median devote 40% of their change investment to people-focused activities. Yet only 44% say their function has change management capability and capacity to a substantial or very great extent. The disconnect suggests that investment in the people side of change isn’t automatically translating into confidence that HR can deliver change at scale.
Organizations clearly recognize that people are central to successful change. For HR leaders supporting enterprise transformation, the question is how to create greater impact without continuously expanding the function’s workload.
HR already owns many of the practices that determine whether change becomes part of everyday work. It clarifies expectations, equips managers and employees, builds capability and brings workforce evidence into business decisions. Greater impact comes from connecting those familiar practices around the behavioral expectations a transformation depends on. The sections that follow draw from APQC member interviews and case study research to examine three ways HR leaders can make those connections.
See also: Change management is getting more sophisticated. So, why does it feel less human?
Start with the behavior, not the initiative
Transformation goals often describe what the organization hopes to achieve, but not what employees need to do differently. Objectives like “adopt AI,” “improve collaboration” or “become more customer-centric” don’t tell employees what to practice, managers what to reinforce or leaders what to measure. Before HR can align its practices around a transformation, the business must define the specific behavior that needs to change—and HR is well-positioned to help leaders make that expectation concrete.
A useful place to start is with a simple sentence:
The change will take hold when [specific role] consistently [performs a specific behavior] at [a specific point in the workflow].
Once that behavior is clear, HR can help the business reinforce it by:
- Defining exactly what employees should do differently
- Removing outdated guidance or expectations that incentivize the old way of working
- Equipping managers to coach and reinforce the new behavior through everyday conversations
Case in point: Boon Edam
An APQC case study of manufacturing company Boon Edam illustrates how organizations can set clear behavioral expectations in support of change. Following an SAP implementation, the organization found that its high-level frameworks and complex diagrams had limited relevance for guiding employees’ daily work. Boon Edam responded by simplifying employee guidance and translating the transformation into practical instructions employees could apply in their daily work.
Transformation goals become meaningful only when they are translated into clear behavioral expectations.
Support employees where the work happens
Once the expected behavior is clear, HR can reinforce it through the practices it already influences, like manager coaching, learning and development, employee guidance and workforce listening. The opportunity is to connect those familiar practices around the same behavioral expectations rather than deploying them as independent interventions.
Employees and managers shouldn’t receive the same kind of support at every stage of change. Formal learning builds foundational knowledge, but applying new behaviors often requires manager coaching, practical guidance in the flow of work, and access to trusted expertise when questions arise. To reinforce new behaviors, HR should:
- Integrate manager coaching and performance support around the same behavioral expectations.
- Provide practical guidance employees can access directly in the flow of work, not just before they begin.
- Connect employees to trusted experts and peer communities that help answer questions and turn recurring issues into shared learning.
Case in point: Novartis
As it rolled out a new enterprise search platform, pharmaceutical company Novartis connected multiple forms of employee support around shared behavioral expectations. The organization shared with APQC that rather than relying on training alone, it supported adoption through formal learning, practical guidance, recurring check-ins and a network of champions employees could turn to with questions. This approach helped turn a technology rollout into lasting changes in how employees performed their work.
Support is most effective when employees and managers can access it in the flow of work, where new behaviors require judgment, practice, and reinforcement.
Use workforce signals to keep change on track
Project dashboards can show whether training was completed and implementation milestones were met, but they reveal much less about whether employees are actually working differently. That gap shows up clearly in APQC’s survey of more than 1,100 HR leaders: While 63% of respondents use project KPIs to monitor change initiatives, only 32% use observations of behavior change. As a result, organizations typically know that a rollout occurred, but not necessarily whether the behaviors it depends on are actually taking hold.
HR is uniquely positioned to close that gap by bringing workforce data and insights into business decisions. Signals like recurring workarounds, manager observations and lingering employee questions can help leaders understand not just whether adoption is lagging, but why. Combined with operational outcome measures like quality or customer satisfaction, these signals help identify where expectations, support or even the underlying process may need to change.
To keep change on track, HR should:
- Look beyond project milestones by monitoring whether employees are actually changing how they work.
- Compare workforce evidence with operational outcomes to determine whether employees need clearer expectations, stronger support or changes to the underlying work—not simply more communication or training.
- Partner with business leaders and process owners to target the right response based on what the evidence reveals.
Case in point: Collins Aerospace
To understand whether an in-person conference was changing how employees collaborated, Collins Aerospace looked beyond attendance and satisfaction data. The organization shared with APQC that it analyzed participants’ professional networks before and after the event, revealing changes in knowledge pathways, key influencers and opportunities for targeted action. Workforce evidence is most valuable when it measures whether people are working differently, not simply whether they participated.
Combine workforce and business evidence to determine what needs to change next, rather than simply documenting that the rollout occurred.
Connect before you add
Only 44% of HR leaders say their function has change management capability and capacity to a substantial or very great extent. It’s easy to interpret that finding as evidence that HR needs more change resources or dedicated programs. APQC’s research suggests another possibility: HR can create greater value by making better use of the capabilities it already has and by connecting them around the behaviors each transformation depends on.
Before launching another change initiative, ask a simple question: Which existing HR practice can best reinforce the behavior this transformation requires?
The organizations highlighted here—Boon Edam, Novartis and Collins Aerospace—connected role expectations, employee support and workforce signals around the way work needed to change. HR’s greatest contribution is helping organizations make those same connections, linking change initiatives to the everyday work where new behaviors take hold.
Data in this content was accurate at the time of publication. For the most current data, visit www.apqc.org.
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