With the year on its way out, one of the things that I've been reflecting on lately is how organizations and individuals manage change. I'm no stranger to change, it's been common throughout my career as a HR professional and a business owner.

Some of the biggest things I've personally dealt with?

Being on a defined career path and hitting some career road bumps
Being on a defined organizational path and dealing with challenges with projects, clients, personnel, and the economy

Change can be difficult, both personally and professionally. We often have expectations for one thing, which when change occurs, we have to let go of in order to grow and develop. In other words, don't let obstacles get in the way.

This year was defined by changes. It was a challenging year, but successful nonetheless. What is one of the major things that got me through these challenges? My people.

Your people are critical to your organization's success and can be huge assets to help get your leadership and your organization through any changes. They can do tremendous things and show amazing skillsets, which sometimes don't even become apparent until you have a crisis and ask everyone to 'pull together" to get something done.

What ends up happening is that change can often bring your people closer as a team. It involves them in managing it and creating an optimized environment which can ultimately lead to new levels of success for your work and your business. I can't stress enough how important it is to get out from behind the change by leveraging your people, reward them, thank them, but simply involve them in helping you manage change.

As I move into the New Year, I'd be remiss if I didn't take this opportunity to thank my team for a phenomenal year, for being the smartest and most genuine HR professionals around and working with me to do great things for our clients. I know next year, our clients will continue to reap the benefits of this amazing team.

Happy New Year from us here at HR Advisors Group. May 2016 bring you and your teams nothing but success!

Barbara Irwin, President, HR Advisors Group

bhirwin@hradvisorsgroup.com

What We've Been Thinking About

Your Organizational Culture - Naughty or Nice?

This fall I attended the MBTI Users Conference and the Influence Factor where Josh Bersin, a principal at Deloitte, spoke about the company's 2015 Global Human Capital Trends Survey. I left his presentation thinking about many issues that HR stakeholders should be contemplating as they begin planning for next year, most importantly, organizational culture.