Change is a constant business condition. Shifts in business strategy can lead to organizational adjustments that leave employees with figurative whiplash. Upgrades to technology can literally change the way employees work. Even the most basic process changes can require workforce recalibrations that take time and energy. All these shifts can feel relentless, and if not managed effectively, they can lead to change fatigue among employees. Beyond being an issue for human resources, there are rising concerns that change fatigue could erode productivity and ultimately affect top and bottom-line profits.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic was over, Gartner researchers found that the average corporate employee “experienced 10 planned enterprise changes—such as a restructure to achieve efficiencies, a culture transformation to unlock new ways of working, or the replacement of a legacy tech system—up from two in 2016,” as noted in a 2023  Harvard Business Review article. Organizational shifts are everywhere. And the effects of all these changes are adding up.

When we refer to change fatigue, we’re talking about a general sense of apathy, resistance, or passive acceptance toward organizational changes. Chronic fatigue shares symptoms with burnout, a state of chronic physical and emotional exhaustion caused by workplace stress. Change fatigue also can lead to quiet quitting, a trend that occurred in the pandemic’s wake, as some employees chose to do only the minimum work required for their jobs.

Strategies to stave off change fatigue

Even if businesses cannot put an end to change itself, there are effective actions leaders can take to stave off change fatigue. Some of these actions include communicating early and often about what is happening and why, coaching managers and employees to understand not only their roles in the change but also their own personal styles for dealing with it, and other actions that build team cohesion and esprit de corps that help organizations get through the experience—and be more resilient for the next set of challenges.

Strategy 1: Tailor support to workers' change-resistance needs

Coaching effectively and enlisting people to be on the lookout for those in need of support can help people cope with feelings of constant change. For some organizations, this means coaching managers about changes and equipping them with the skills and words to pass along information to others in concrete, easy-to-understand terms.

A classic 2019 study at the Mayo Clinic, in which the institute coached doctors to prevent burnout, offers an illustrative example. Coaching sessions provided to 88 midcareer physicians sought to help them weather a particularly tumultuous time. Every participant received six coaching sessions. At the end of this period, emotional exhaustion had decreased by 19.5% and symptoms of burnout decreased by 17.1%.

Focusing on key managers is one step. Another is to grow a network of in-house influencers to drum up support for changes ahead while distributing important information about those changes.

This was precisely the strategy at Lloyds Bank when the company found itself in a period of change. Leaders, concerned that they would lose talented workers during a transformation project to drive growth, identified in-house influencers they called catalysts, as a recent Accenture report notes. They found more than 6,000 catalysts from across the company—10% of the workforce—to build support. The bank’s leaders say these employees are constant in their adherence to the organization’s goals. “They are also proactive about asking for help, for themselves and others. Moreover, they empower those around them to do the same, fostering a culture of accountability and continuous improvement.”

The Lloyds Bank example illustrates the value of identifying frontline leaders who can help bring about change. Assessment tools are also valuable in helping businesses understand the type of coaching that would be most relevant to their employees’ receptiveness to change.

Denise Adams Wallace, CEO of Creative Thinking, a leadership and management development consultancy, says that companies can use an assessment tool such as the Change Style Indicator to evaluate an employee’s style of approaching and addressing change. This particular tool identifies three working styles: the conserver, who prefers the known to the unknown; the pragmatist, who prefers to explore the current situation objectively; and the originator, who prefers a faster and more radical approach to change.

Once an employee has identified which style describes them best, the employee can be coached about that approach and learn how to adjust it to get along better with the rest of the team, Wallace says.

“Thoughts drive actions and actions drive results—if you want results from your people, it’s important to understand how their minds work and meet them where they are,” says Wallace.

Leaders serve their organizations best when they implement such tools before big changes occur, Wallace adds. “When people have a mindset that change is bad, you’re not going to be able to convince them otherwise unless you help them work on perception.”

Recognizing when employees are checking out: Definitions

Change fatigue: A general sense of apathy to or passive acceptance of repeated organizational changes.

Chronic fatigue: A state of chronic physical and emotional exhaustion caused by workplace stress. Can lead to burnout or quiet quitting.

Quiet quitting: Employees choosing to do only the minimum work required. Can be a result of chronic fatigue.

Strategy 2: Tell people what is going on—and why

Communicating through and about change is another way for companies to help employees feel more engaged and less overwhelmed.

Providing employees with accessible communications about changes also assuages employees’ anxiety, says Elizabeth Granfort, an executive coach and consultant specializing in career development and personal transformation.

Granfort recounted a recent experience she had coaching executives of a company that was experiencing a delay during an acquisition. Employees knew their company was being acquired and that legal issues were prolonging the transaction. Because management issued regular and consistent communications about the reasons for the delays, Granfort says the employee base never became too concerned about the future.

“Sometimes overcommunicating can be helpful,” she says. “On the flipside, when companies don’t communicate enough, people fill in the gaps with their own thoughts and words, and that is one of the things that can lead to fatigue.”

Regular town hall–style meetings, in which managers share information about upcoming changes, are a well-known tactic. Adobe has assembled teams of midlevel leaders who are charged with communicating information on more of a grassroots level through regular sessions with smaller groups of employees.

Wallace noted that it doesn’t matter if companies engineer these check-ins virtually or in person. Simply going through the effort of offering regular communication about change makes a huge difference in how employees deal with the situation. She added that talking through big transitions almost always helps employees deal with the anxiety and uncertainty. The feeling of not knowing what’s coming is “usually a scary place for employees,” Wallace says.

Strategy 3: Highlight wins, big and small

When changes overwhelm employees, they can get accustomed to associating their workplaces with negative feelings, even dread. Businesses can offset that by inserting genuine reasons to feel good, and—importantly—to build up a sense of community. One way to do that is to identify positive things that are happening and celebrate them.

Social bonding through shared experiences fosters relationships, strengthens interpersonal ties, and provides emotional support. For example, one leader we know works with her team to prepare a list of accomplishments to share and celebrate every Friday.

According to Granfort, no win is too small to recognize when it comes to navigating tumultuous times. She regularly advises companies to celebrate everything—big-picture successes, midlevel victories, and seemingly innocuous successes of the most basic kind. The way Granfort explains it, positive reinforcement boosts morale and provides people with a healthy framework for thinking about what’s ahead in a more positive light. She adds that when companies give employees opportunities to lift each other up, the employees spend more time thinking about how to support the greater good and less time focusing on all the aspects of change that might be unsettling to them.

“Especially when there’s lots of change happening, the high-touch approach is best,” she says. “Morale has a huge impact, and investing time and energy in good morale can make a huge difference.”

Celebrations can take many forms. At some companies, they might look like public recognition on a company intranet, a Slack channel, in an all-hands meeting, or during a town hall. At other companies, celebrations could be heralded in a weekly e-mail newsletter or in a mass message that goes out to the entire community. Still other companies may use video, turning to C-level executives to make shoutouts during talks that address the entire workforce simultaneously. Some companies even ask employees to make short lists of accomplishments every Friday; this request is followed by an invitation for employees to read aloud some of the things they put in the lists.

Storytelling makes for a good form of celebration, too. Going back through time, all cultures told stories of success to boost morale and inspire members to contribute positively to the whole. Companies are no exception. Whether storytelling takes the form of a case study or an impassioned speech, relating important anecdotes can be an effective way of celebrating success over time and combating the frustrations that lead to change fatigue.

A multinational company in China provides an interesting illustration of this, as recounted in an Accenture report. The company launched a “Leadership Stories” program through which leaders disseminate to employees’ success stories about how certain leaders have positively managed change over time. “These are not training documents, but communication pieces designed to highlight exemplary leadership practices within the company,” the company’s CIO told Accenture. The pieces show “instances of excellent leadership, such as consistent employee engagement, respect for ideas and open communication,” that are shared monthly by the HR department. “This consistent storytelling approach is integral to our culture change initiative, ensuring individuals are both informed and inspired by their colleagues' positive examples,” the executive said.

Strategy 4: Build team cohesiveness by fostering comaraderie

Camaraderie is crucial during stressful situations because it allows individuals to feel less alone, more supported, and better able to cope with pressure by sharing burdens and receiving emotional encouragement from trusted peers. This ultimately leads to reduced stress levels and improved mental well-being.

Focusing on employee wellness can engender camaraderie. Debra Wilton-Kinney, an executive leadership coach and organizational development consultant in Pepperell, Massachusetts, says that when everything at a company appears to be changing and moving at breakneck speed, one solution is to take management slower, helping employees to take a breath individually and culturally, then seek comfort from the rest of the team.

“Change fatigue is really about feeling disempowered and feeling overwhelmed at whatever is coming at you,” Wilton-Kinney says. “It’s important work to step back in those moments and take a look at the bigger picture.”

Strategies for helping organizations and their workers cope with ongoing change amount to recognizing that employees are human beings.

Maya Townsend, founder and lead consultant at Partnering Resources, a human-centered organization development consultancy, says it’s important for companies to recognize that employees are going to react to change and news of change, and that the same decision likely won’t affect every person the same way.

If companies really want to help employees manage change fatigue, their leaders can build into their corporate environments time for them to process change while reinforcing among employees that learning is part of change.

Constant change can be exhausting, says Townsend, but the results don’t have to lead to burnout or attrition. Instead, companies build resilience and boost retention when they are clear about priorities, help employees understand what’s at stake, and provide them with the support, training, and tools they need to implement change.

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