The Impact of Change on Employee Productivity
Constant change — including frequent shifts in strategy, priorities, and tools — hurts employee productivity and overwhelms teams by increasing stress, adding confusion, disrupting routines, and ruining focus.
When change isn’t managed effectively, it disrupts workflows, stalls progress, and puts pressure on the people responsible for moving the business forward. New strategies, shifting priorities, evolving customer needs, and rapid technological disruption all keep teams on their toes. Though staying agile is essential, the sheer pace and frequency of change takes a serious toll on employee productivity.
A recent survey by Smartsheet of more than 1,400 project and portfolio management (PPM) professionals reveals a troubling trend: Change is happening so often and with such intensity that it’s leaving teams overwhelmed and unable to focus. The result? Declining productivity, growing disengagement, and stalled progress.
Business change is meant to drive growth, but when it’s not managed effectively, it can cause more harm than good. According to the research, 97% of PPM professionals report that the changes they experienced in 2024 had a negative impact on key business metrics, with productivity as the top metric affected.
More than half of survey respondents (58%) said change had an adverse impact on employee productivity — and it didn’t stop there. Respondents also reported negative effects on employee engagement (54%), strategic execution (52%), profitability (49%), and customer retention (36%).
These numbers highlight a clear and growing issue: The way organizations are handling change is hurting their people and their performance.
What’s Behind the Drop in Productivity?
Changes in the workplace cause a drop in productivity due to poor communication, manual work, and unclear priorities. Productivity is being squeezed from all sides — and teams are struggling to keep up.
The data tells us that productivity is suffering, but why? What’s actually making it harder for employees to get their work done?
The research points to several core issues:
- Poor Communication: Poor communication around change leaves employees confused or feeling out of the loop.
- Lack of Flexibility: Inflexible tools and systems make it difficult for employees to adapt to change quickly.
- Manual Processes: Manual processes slow down teams and prevent them from focusing on strategic work.
- Shifting Priorities: Shifting priorities and unclear expectations make teams reactionary, which slows progress.
How to Improve Employee Productivity in a Changing Environment
To improve employee productivity amid constant change, leaders must communicate clearly, adopt flexible tools, and align work with strategic goals. Supporting team resilience and eliminating manual processes can also boost focus and efficiency.
Though change may be unavoidable, declining productivity doesn’t have to be. PPM professionals and leaders of PPM teams have a powerful opportunity to shape how their teams respond to disruption. Here are four strategies to help your organization stay productive, focused, and resilient.
Strengthen Change Communication
When change happens, clarity is your greatest asset. Far too often, teams are left to piece together the why behind new priorities — or worse, forced to guess what’s expected of them.
Clear, consistent communication helps reduce confusion and keeps everyone aligned. Be sure to explicitly explain the what, why, and how behind the change. Answering the questions below can help you craft the key points of that message.
Using consistent channels to share updates can also support better understanding. Whether you’re using a project dashboard, regular team meetings, or a dedicated communications hub, consistency is key. Creating space for feedback and questions is also vital to supporting employee understanding and gaining buy-in. Employees want to feel heard, not steamrolled.
Improving communication doesn’t necessarily mean more noise. Intentionality needs to be at the heart of the way you communicate change. The right message, delivered at the right time, can turn disruption into direction.
Invest in Flexible, Scalable Tools
The right tools have the power to fuel employee productivity, but they also have the power to drain it. Rigid platforms, siloed systems, and manual workflows slow down teams and make it more difficult to respond to change.
On the flip side, tools that are built to flex and scale can empower teams to pivot without losing momentum. Look for tools that support real-time collaboration across departments, integrate with your existing systems, and automate repetitive tasks to free up time for strategic, proactive work.
Many organizations are now embracing platforms that combine project visibility, automation, and reporting all in one place. These tools not only help improve employee productivity but also reduce the cognitive load of keeping up with constant changes.
Prioritize Strategic Alignment
When everything feels urgent, it’s easy to lose sight of what actually matters. That’s why strong alignment between day-to-day work and high-level strategy is critical. PPM leadership can play a key role here by defining clear goals and using prioritization frameworks.
By defining clear goals at the project and team level that clearly connect to organizational strategic objectives, you help employees understand the why behind their work. This results in a more engaged, focused, and productive workforce, even during times of uncertainty.
Creating prioritization frameworks that evaluate new work against strategic objectives will help combat distracting requests that don’t support the team’s desired outcomes. With 54% of PPM professionals saying that business changes require them to “constantly” or “frequently” change work priorities, prioritization frameworks are critical to helping teams stay focused and productive.
Build Resilience Into Your Culture
Remember that productivity isn’t just about processes — it’s also about people. Supporting your people, especially when they’re feeling worn down by change after change, is important for building a team that can adapt to change successfully.
Help build resilience by offering professional development or change management training, encouraging managers to do regular check-ins, and creating space to pause, reflect, and realign after major pivots.
Resilient teams are better equipped to weather change without burning out. They can bounce back quicker, stay engaged longer, and keep moving forward — even when the future feels uncertain.
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