What Are the Best Change Readiness Questions to Use for Change Management Surveys?
First, You Need to Understand the Pulse of Organizational Readiness
Picture this: you’re standing at the threshold of a significant organizational change, armed with a powerful tool that can foresee challenges, identify resistance to change, illuminate change gaps, and guide your teams toward a seamless transition. That’s the magic of a well-crafted readiness survey.
Readiness questionnaires play a pivotal role in gauging organizational readiness for change as the compass guiding your OCM journey.
In this article, we’re not just going to walk you through the process of formatting these surveys; we’re going to unravel their importance. A readiness to change assessment questionnaire isn’t just about asking questions; it’s your secret weapon for understanding your organization’s pulse, ensuring everyone is on board and ready for the transformational journey ahead.
Looking for a quick summary? You’ll find one next. Want to dig into more detail? Keep going, and you’ll find more about change readiness questions after the summary.
Quick Summary
What is a Readiness Assessment?
A change readiness assessment is the process of evaluating a target audience’s knowledge, readiness, and skills needed to adopt new behaviors, processes, cultures, or systems. The process often utilizes a change management readiness assessment questionnaire designed to assess readiness levels for individuals and groups.
The objective is to gauge the readiness temperature at different project planning stages, ensuring target audiences that need to make changes possess the knowledge, willingness, and capacity to embrace the upcoming changes.
OCMS Portal’s Readiness Assessment Tool
For organizations seeking streamlined solutions, the OCM Solution Change Readiness Tool offers an automated approach to populate questionnaire answers into change management survey templates, simplifying the reporting process.
Try the All-in-One Change Management software free by signing up for a no-risk trial.
Why is it Important to Choose the Right Questions for a Change Readiness Survey?
Creating effective change management surveys is crucial for assessing organizational readiness. Ensuring consistency in survey questions across all impacted groups is essential to provide a comprehensive report on change readiness.
Actionable questions are important as well as using the right format. For example, using text-based questions hinders the ability to track readiness analytics. Instead, use options such as “high, mid, low” that can be easily visualized to see the progress in readiness between assessments.
Without a structured change readiness assessment questionnaire, gauging stakeholders’ preparedness for change becomes very challenging.
Learn more about OCMS Portal with readiness to change assessment questionnaire.
What Should You Include in a Readiness Assessment Survey?
When assessing readiness for change, it’s essential to gather specific metrics and information through a well-structured questionnaire, whether in PDF, Word document, or online survey format. Utilizing OCMS Portal’s Change Readiness Assessment Tool can streamline this process with a built-in-questionnaire and produce efficient analytics reports.
According to the best practices of change management and the OCM Solution Change Management Framework, key performance indicators (KPIs) to evaluate readiness include:
- Level of Awareness of the Change: This metric gauges the respondent’s awareness of the impending change. If individuals or groups are unaware of the project or its impact on their workflow, their readiness level is low.
- Level of Acceptance of the Change: Assessing the level of acceptance or support for the project is crucial. Low acceptance indicates resistance and signifies the need for increased engagement, training, and resistance management efforts.
- Level of Knowledge about What is Changing: Individuals and groups need a basic understanding of the changes in their workflow, such as new procedures or responsibilities. A low knowledge level indicates the need for enhanced communication and engagement efforts.
- Level of Proficiency: Once stakeholders have some knowledge of the changes, they require training to acquire the necessary skills for proficiency. Assessing this, helps you understand the need for training so you can plan educational interventions effectively.
Additionally, to aid in change management engagement planning, it’s beneficial to include questions regarding:
- Preferred Meeting Times: Inquire about the best times for meetings and workshops to maximize participant engagement.
- Supportive Measures: Ask recipients what would help them prepare for the change, facilitating tailored support strategies.
- Objections and Concerns: Address objections and concerns respondents have about the upcoming transition, allowing proactive management of potential issues.
By incorporating these metrics-focused questions, organizations can comprehensively evaluate readiness for change and plan targeted interventions to ensure a smooth transition process.
OCMS Portal’s readiness to change questionnaire populates your readiness assessment automatically.
Try these organizational assessment survey questions for yourself. Sign up for a free trial of OCMS Portal.
Sending Your Readiness to Change Questionnaire
When implementing a change readiness questionnaire, it’s crucial to determine the appropriate recipients based on the scope of impact. There are two primary levels of organizational readiness assessment: individual-level and group-level.
Individual-level assessment involves tracking readiness at the individual level, suitable for smaller projects or specific teams. The readiness survey is administered to individuals directly affected by the changes.
Group-level assessment, on the other hand, is applicable for larger groups and can be tracked by organizational divisions, departments, job roles, or regions. For group-level assessments, organizational survey questions can be disseminated either to all individuals using automated tools like the survey tool in OCMS Portal or to group representatives such as managers or supervisors.
Timing & Frequency of Readiness Assessment
The timing and frequency of administering change readiness assessments are essential. The process typically begins with the baseline survey, providing valuable insights that guide engagement activities, including communications, resistance management, meetings, coaching, and training.
Subsequently, a follow-up survey is conducted before the project’s go-live date to gauge the effectiveness of these engagement efforts and measure the progress made in enhancing readiness. It’s recommended to conduct a minimum of two surveys: the baseline survey and the pre-launch survey. However, the number of surveys may vary based on the project’s scale and timeline, with larger and longer-term projects often requiring multiple assessments.
OCMS Portal with Change Readiness Tool & Change Management Survey Questions
Summary Conclusion | Change Readiness Questionnaire
In conclusion, we’ve delved into the world of readiness assessment questionnaires and uncovered their immense significance in the realm of organizational change. These surveys are not just tools; they are bridges connecting your vision of change with the reality of your organization’s readiness.
By crafting thoughtful surveys, you empower your teams to voice concerns, identify gaps, and pave the way for successful transitions. Remember, a well-timed question can unearth a wealth of insights, steering your change initiatives towards smoother waters.
Armed with this knowledge, you’re not just a passive observer; you’re an active architect of your organization’s transformation journey. So, go ahead, embrace the power of these surveys, and watch as your organization evolves, thriving in the face of change.
Would you like to know more about organizational survey questions? Keep reading for a detailed deep dive.
Detailed Deep Dive
Best Step-by-Step Guide for Creating the Best Change Management Surveys for Organizational Readiness
How do you know that you or your change management team is asking all impacted groups the right change management survey questions? If everyone is doing their own thing and groups get different survey questions for organizational changes, it will be hard to provide one comprehensive report on change readiness.
Asking consistent organizational survey questions is important. As well as including actionable questions in a change readiness assessment survey. For example, asking about the level 0f proficiency will help know how to plan and deliver training.
In this article, we’ll review everything you need to know about creating the best change management assessment questionnaire for readiness. Including the types of change survey questions you should ask, when you should ask them, and what you should do with the results.
We’ve also included several change management survey questions examples and a readiness to change questionnaire PDF and Word document that you can download and use.
Organizations preparing for a change need to ask certain change readiness questions to see how close the team is to being fully prepared for the project’s implementation.
Do they have the correct login details for a new software tool? Have they been trained on the new process being rolled out? Have they even been given a heads up that something in their workflow is changing?
These are some of the questions that change management surveys for employees will ask. Without an organizational change readiness assessment questionnaire, knowing if stakeholders are prepared for a change can be tricky.
Are you wondering about a more automated way to get your organizational change questionnaire answers populated into a change management survey template for reporting? We’ll tell you about the OCMS Portal’s Change Readiness Tool, which has that capability.
Table of Contents: Change Management Questionnaire & Readiness Survey
Keep on scrolling down this page to read each section or click any link below to go directly to that section.
1. What is a Change Readiness Test or Assessment?
2. How Do You Assess Readiness for Change? What Info Should You Gather?
a. Level of Awareness of the Change
b. Level of Acceptance of the Change
c. Level of Knowledge About What is Changing
d. Level of Proficiency
e. Change Management Readiness Engagement Planning Questions
3. How Does a Readiness to Change Questionnaire Help?
4. What Tools Do You Need to Conduct a Change Readiness Survey?
5. Who Should You Be Giving the Change Readiness Questionnaire?
6. When & How Many Times Should You Give a Change Readiness Assessment Questionnaire?
7. Different Ways to Survey Change Management Readiness
a. Multiple-Choice Change Management Survey
b. Likert Scale Readiness to Change Assessment Questionnaire
c. Open-Ended Change Readiness Survey Questions
8. Change Management Survey Questions Examples
a. Organizational Survey Questions About Awareness of the Change
b. Readiness Survey Questions About Acceptance of the Change
c. Change Readiness Assessment Questions About Knowledge of What is Changing
d. Organizational Assessment Survey Questions About Level of Proficiency
e. Organizational Change Survey Questions About Capacity for Change
f. Change Survey Questions to Help Plan Readiness Engagement Activities
g. Change Readiness Questions for Overall Project Go-Live Readiness
9. Download a Free Readiness to Change Questionnaire PDF & Word Doc
10. What Other Types of Change Management Surveys Are There Besides Readiness?
11. OCMS Portal’s Change Readiness Assessment Templates with Cloud Readiness Survey
12. Conclusion: Readiness to Change Questionnaire & Change Management Survey
13. FAQ: Best Change Management Questionnaire
Looking for a readiness assessment toolkit in addition to a survey on change management? Check out the OCMS Portal’s Change Readiness Assessment software.
Change Readiness Assessment Definition: What is a Change Readiness Test?
A change readiness test, also called a readiness assessment is a set of tasks undertaken to see how close groups are to having the knowledge and skills necessary to adopt new behaviors, processes, cultures, or systems.
The best way to find this out is through a change management readiness assessment questionnaire that asks pertinent questions related to readiness for the transition.
The goal of using an organization assessment survey is to take the “readiness temperature” of groups at various stages of project planning and preparation. Before the project goes live in the organization, the goal is to have your readiness to change questionnaire scoring showing that impacted groups have the knowledge, willingness, and capacity to adopt the changes required.
Are you looking for an alternative to ADKAR survey questions? Need a comprehensive organizational readiness for change questionnaire? Please reach out and let us know.
OCMS Portal Tool for Capability Assessment for Readiness
The OCMS Portal Change Readiness Tool includes a management readiness evaluation test survey to easily populate meaningful reports. Sign up for a free no-risk trial today to check it out for yourself!
What’s your biggest challenge in using an organization assessment survey? Do you have any tips on creating a management assessment survey? Please reach out and share your thoughts.
How Do You Assess Readiness for Change? What Info Should You Gather?
So, which metrics are the most important to include in a readiness to change questionnaire PDF, Word doc, or online survey?
Example of OCMS Portal’s Change Readiness Assessment Tool analytics report. This toolkit also includes a change readiness assessment survey that makes measuring readiness take less time.
According to best practices of change management and the OCM Solution Change Management Framework, here are top key performance indicators (KPIs) to assess the level of a group’s or individual’s readiness for a change:
- Level of awareness of the change
- Level of acceptance of the change
- Level of knowledge about what is changing
- Level of proficiency with the changes
We’ll explore each of these recommended change readiness assessment questions further below. We’ll also look at two other types of questions that are helpful to include in your organizational change readiness assessment questionnaire.
One of the reasons to follow an organization survey checklist when doing a readiness assessment is to fully understand the information you should gather from stakeholders that need to be readied for a change.
Without coordination on the organizational readiness for change survey, you can end up with results that are difficult to provide clear reporting about. For example, if all you use are open-ended resistance to change survey questions, like, “Tell us how you feel about the upcoming change?” You’ll be left with multiple answers, but nothing that easily correlates to actionable reporting metrics.
If, on the other hand, you use common metrics for your change management survey questionnaire, such as “Choose between High, Mid, and Low for your level of awareness about this transition,” this makes it much easier to graph the answers for all survey respondents.
You can also more easily do a comparison between the baseline employee and leadership readiness assessment test and the subsequent change readiness surveys.
Level of Awareness of the Change
An important metric to include on your change management assessment questionnaire is the awareness the respondent has of the change. If an individual or group that needs to adopt a new process isn’t aware that this project is happening or that it impacts what they do, that indicates a low level of readiness.
Awareness is the first step toward being ready for change. It comes before someone can even be in support of a change or have knowledge of what the change means for their job role.
See examples of awareness questions for an organizational change questionnaire.
Level of Acceptance of the Change
Another important metric to assess change readiness is the individual’s or group’s level of acceptance of the change. This may also be referred to as their level of support for the project in your organizational change questionnaire.
If those that must adopt changes in their workflows due to a project aren’t happy about that project and have a low level of acceptance, this means that it will be more difficult to ready them for the project’s go-live date. More engagement, training, and resistance management will need to be done to raise the level of acceptance and support for the transition.
See examples of acceptance questions for a change readiness questionnaire.
Level of Knowledge About What is Changing
Before groups and individuals can get ready for a change, they must have a basic understanding of what exactly IS changing in their workflow. What new procedures will they need to follow? Is their job role taking on new responsibilities?
Your organizational change survey for readiness should ask how much people know about what is changing. A low level of knowledge about what is going to change indicates that more communication and engagement are needed to ready the group for the transition.
See examples of knowledge questions for a readiness to change assessment questionnaire.
Level of Proficiency with the Changes
Once the project’s impacted stakeholders have some knowledge about the things that are changing, they need to be trained so they’ll gain the skills and proficiency necessary to successfully make that transition. Whether training is needed or whether that training needs to be formal will depend on the scope of the project and the changes occurring.
If any type of training or education is needed to help users become proficient in the new state they are expected to adopt, then you should include a level of proficiency question on your change management readiness assessment questionnaire.
See examples of proficiency questions for a change readiness survey.
Change Management Readiness Engagement Planning Questions
In addition to the metrics-focused change management survey questions noted above, it may be helpful to include some other questions that can assist you with planning your change management engagement.
These can be questions about:
- Best times for meetings, workshops, etc.
- What the readiness survey recipient feels would help them be ready for the change
- Objections or concerns they have about the upcoming transition
See examples of questions to help plan readiness engagement for change management surveys.
OCMS Portal’s Readiness for Change Assessment Tool
Group & Individual Change Readiness Assessment Templates & Readiness to Change Questionnaire PDF, Word, & MS Forms Templates – Find all these in the OCMS Portal. Sign up for a free trial here.
Do you have any questions about creating a change management questionnaire or what to ask during a survey on change management? Are you looking for a substitute for ADKAR survey questions? Please reach out and let us know.
How Does a Readiness to Change Questionnaire Help?
The readiness assessment guides change management activities, such as how many communications are needed to gauge awareness, if the current resistance management approach is working to improve acceptance, and so on.
Thus, it’s important that you have a targeted change management survey questionnaire designed to capture actionable questions relating to those engagement activities.
Of course, you can just write general questions down on paper and ask people. But this can be time-consuming. Plus, you run into the problem of not having answers that can be easily reported holistically across groups.
A change management survey template helps ensure that you are asking consistent, metrics-focused questions of every impacted group and individual. As well as ensure that you can accurately compare the results of your survey questions for organizational changes across different assessment dates to show progress in reaching readiness.
Here are several ways that it benefits your project to use an organizational assessment survey for readiness assessments:
- Helps you ensure all important readiness metrics are covered
- Can easily be sent to individuals to fill out online or via email
- Can be used as a capability assessment for readiness checklist to guide a one-on-one or group discussion about the readiness
- Results can be captured online and populated into a readiness assessment template and reporting dashboard
- Simple way to conduct a change management readiness evaluation test
Illustration 1 of 3: OCMS Portal’s Change Management Surveys for Employees & Groups
Example of the organization assessment survey that comes with the OCMS Portal’s Readiness Assessment Tool.
Illustration 2 of 3: OCMS Portal’s Employee & Leadership Readiness Assessment Test Survey Responses
OCMS Portal’s Change Readiness Toolkit includes an option to get your readiness to change questionnaire scoring in using our built-in surveys with survey reports.
Illustration 3 of 3: OCMS Portal Superior Change Management Assessment Survey Reporting
Use the OCMS Portal’s Change Readiness Dashboard to see insightful correlation analysis, graphics, and pie charts that turn your organizational readiness for change survey data into comprehensive insights.
What Tools Do You Need to Conduct a Change Readiness Survey?
There are a few things you need to efficiently conduct a readiness or resistance to change survey. It can be done virtually or in person. The questionnaire you put together will act as an organization survey checklist.
If you are conducting surveys across a larger organization or groups of people, automating your readiness survey change management process will save you valuable time. In this case, you will need a few tools to conduct change management surveys for readiness assessment.
Basic tools you’ll need to use to give impacted groups change readiness survey questions and collect their answers:
- Data sharing tool to send and collect responses to the change management survey questions. For example,
- MS Word
- SharePoint
- Online survey tool (like Microsoft Forms or the one in OCMS Portal)
- Readiness Template & Dashboard for capturing and reporting on the answers for each assessment. For example,
- Excel spreadsheet
- Smartsheet
- OCMS Portal’s Change Readiness Tool
- Online data visualization tool
- Presentation tool for sharing reporting insights with project sponsors and critical stakeholders. For example:
Who Should You Be Giving the Change Readiness Questionnaire?
In most cases, you would be giving the change readiness survey questions to the people and/or groups that are being impacted by the changes and that need to adopt new behaviors, systems, tools, or processes.
There are two main levels of organizational readiness assessment:
- Individual-level assessment
- Group-level assessment
The individual-level assessment is a readiness assessment that is tracked at the individual level for the people being impacted by the project. This may be done for smaller projects or projects that are only impacting one or two smaller teams within an organization.
In the case of the individual-level assessment, the readiness survey change management questionnaire would be given to those individuals that need to be made ready for the changes.
The group-level assessment is done when larger groups of people are being impacted by a transition. In these cases, tracking readiness by hundreds or thousands of people may be too time-consuming, so readiness is tracked by either organizational level (e.g., division, department, group), job role, and/or region.
In the case of a group-level readiness assessment, the organizational survey questions could be sent one of two ways:
- Survey all the individuals via an automated method and collate those answers by the group being tracked and use the group average; or
- Survey group managers, supervisors, or another type of group representative regarding that group’s readiness
When & How Many Times Should You Give a Change Readiness Assessment Questionnaire?
Being ready for a project’s go-live date is a process. This process would begin with the first (baseline) change readiness assessment survey. The results of that survey help the change management team plan needed engagement activities to prepare the impacted stakeholders for the change.
These readiness activities that are guided by results from the organizational change survey questions are:
- Communications
- Resistance management
- Meetings/briefings
- Coaching of managers and sponsors
- Training
- And more…
After that first round of change management engagement, and before the project’s go-live date, another organizational change readiness assessment questionnaire should be given. This allows the change management team to see the benefit of the engagement activities, which have hopefully improved readiness to change questionnaire scoring. This would indicate that the individuals and groups are closer to being ready for the transition.
The results of this second organizational change survey will also inform any additional readiness preparation activities that need to be done.
It’s recommended that at a minimum, two (2) change management surveys for readiness be given. The first is the baseline survey, and the second, which is given prior to the go-live date, is the one that gauges how successful change management has been in readying the impacted stakeholders for the changes.
Often, more than two change management surveys for employees are given during the course of change management support for a project. The number of times you give the organization assessment survey will depend on the scope and timeline of your project.
A larger project, impacting more people, and projects with longer timeframes will typically conduct more than two change management readiness evaluation test surveys before the project’s go-live launch date.
Different Ways to Survey Change Management Readiness
There is no single way to put together the questions for a change management assessment questionnaire. As long as you collect the key metrics you need to assess readiness, then you can ask those organizational assessment survey questions in a few different ways.
Multiple-Choice Change Management Survey
Using a multiple-choice format for your organizational change questionnaire is the easiest way to automate your readiness assessment process. Because multiple-choice forces the respondent to select one clear answer, and those answer options are the same for everyone, it’s easy to report on readiness metrics.
For example, you could include a question that says, “At this stage in the project, how would you rate your level of willingness to support or accept the changes?” You could then include three choices (High, Mid, Low).
Example of a multiple-choice question on an organizational readiness for change questionnaire:
The same multi-choice options in your change management readiness assessment questionnaire could be included on your spreadsheet or readiness template for tracking readiness responses. This allows you to quickly generate reports and analytics.
This also facilitates being able to upload the results of your change management survey questionnaire into your reporting tool, which saves you a lot of time.
Likert Scale Readiness to Change Assessment Questionnaire
A Likert Scale is a type of question where someone states how much they agree with something. For example, you may say, “How much do you agree with this statement?” and include the options of “highly agree,” “slightly agree,” and “disagree.”
A benefit of using the Likert Scale for a capability assessment for readiness is that you can match each level of agreement with a particular KPI on your readiness metrics template or spreadsheet.
Example of a Likert Scale question on a change management survey template:
As an example, you could ask someone to indicate how much they agree with a statement like, “I have enough time for the change activities to prepare for the transition.” You could then equate “Disagree” with Low capacity, “Slightly Agree” with Mid capacity, and “Agree” with High capacity.
The Likert Scale is a format many people are familiar with from customer satisfaction surveys, as it’s used often in that format.
Open-Ended Change Readiness Survey Questions
Open-ended questions are those without a simple yes or no answer and that do not provide the respondent with a multiple-choice option for their answers.
This type of question can be used in a survey on change management when you’re trying to gather engagement planning information. Such as what times are better for someone for training sessions.
Example of an open-ended question on an organization assessment survey:
You can also use open-ended survey questions for organizational changes questionnaires to gather more information about possible points of resistance or areas where more support is needed. Such as asking, “How can we help you be prepared to adopt the new changes when the project goes live?”
Have you been looking for an easier way to conduct and report on an organizational readiness for change survey? Do you need something beyond ADKAR survey questions? Check out the comprehensive OCMS Portal’s Change Readiness Tool with Change Management Survey Questions.
Start a Free Trial of OCMS Portal with Project Readiness Tool Now!
Change Management Survey Questions Examples
Projects can vary widely, thus the style of survey questions for organizational changes and how you ask them can also differ to match the project requirements.
However, some constants do remain that are true for any organization survey checklist, no matter what type of project you have. These include:
- You need to ask organizational survey questions that relate to change management engagement needs (i.e., awareness, acceptance, proficiency, etc.)
- You should send out your readiness to change questionnaire PDF, online survey, or document form at least twice (to get a baseline at the beginning of the project and again before going live). Some projects require more readiness assessment cycles.
- It’s helpful if you use a change readiness questionnaire format that allows results to be uploaded to a template and reporting dashboard tool.
In the sections below, we provide you with several change management survey questions examples. We’ve divided them into the recommended organizational change survey questions sections discussed above that tie into readiness engagement activities.
In addition to the questions for your employee and leadership readiness assessment test, you’ll also find a downloadable readiness to change questionnaire PDF & Word document. It includes the questions in this article, so you can leverage these easily for your project.
If you have any other organizational change survey questions that you think would be helpful to add to assist other change management professionals, please reach out and let us know.
Organizational Survey Questions About Awareness of the Change
The awareness questions on your change management assessment survey should help you identify how aware the impacted stakeholders are of the project that is driving the changes they must adopt.
A low awareness indicates that a high level of communication and engagement needs to be done to ensure all those being impacted by the project are aware of what’s going to happen and when, and what it means for them.
Here are some examples of awareness questions for a capability assessment for readiness.
- What is your awareness of the upcoming (Name of Project) project? (Give a multiple choice of High, Mid, Low.)
- Have you heard of the (Name of Project) project?
- “I am aware of the (Name of Project) project and have a basic idea of what it is about.” How much do you agree with this statement? (Use a Likert Scale for the level of agreement.)
- Explain what you know about the (Name of Project) project.
Readiness Survey Questions About Acceptance of the Change
This next batch of change management questionnaire questions is for identifying the level of acceptance those being surveyed have for the upcoming transition. Another way to think about this is as a resistance to change survey, meaning how many people are resistant and not accepting of the changes they need to make.
If those being impacted by a change and that need to adopt new behaviors, tools, or processes for the change aren’t supportive, the project can fail. Thus, if you see low acceptance, that means the change management team should deploy opposition/resistance management activities to improve acceptance.
Here are some examples of awareness questions for a capability assessment for readiness.
- How do you feel about the upcoming project? (Give a multiple choice of Very Good, Good, Okay, Not Good.)
- Are you happy or unhappy about the changes associated with the upcoming project?
- “I believe there is a high likelihood that the changes associated with this project will benefit myself, my team, and the company.” How much do you agree with this statement? (Use a Likert Scale for the level of agreement.)
- Explain why you think the project will succeed or not succeed.
Would you like an automated cloud survey to use instead of a readiness to change questionnaire PDF? Looking for more substitutes for ADKAR survey questions? Please reach out and let us know.
OCMCS Portal with #1 Ranked Change Readiness Assessment Tool, with free Readiness to Change Questionnaire PDF, Word, & Online versions.
The OCMS Portal change management questionnaire can be filled out online on a PC, tablet, or smartphone. This makes it more likely that you’ll get answers back for your readiness to change questionnaire scoring.
Change Readiness Assessment Questions About Knowledge of What is Changing
Do those that are being impacted by a change know what they’re going to need to do differently? Do they know when these changes need to happen in their workflows?
The following change readiness survey questions help you understand how much basic knowledge impacted individuals and groups have about what is changing and what it will mean for them and their teams.
Here are some examples of knowledge of what is changing questions for a readiness to change questionnaire.
- What level of knowledge do you have about what the upcoming project means for your workflow and daily activities? (Give a multiple choice of High, Mid, Low.)
- Do you know what it is that you need to do differently when this project goes live?
- “I am aware of what I need to change in my workflow when the project is launched, and when that happens.” How much do you agree with this statement? (Use a Likert Scale for the level of agreement.)
- Explain what you need to change in your workflow when the project is launched?
Organizational Assessment Survey Questions About Level of Proficiency
For a project to be successful, impacted groups need to not only know what is changing and what they need to do, but they also need to have the skills to successfully adopt those new processes, tools, and/or behaviors.
These change management survey questions relate to training and skill level. They help the change management team understand how much training needs to be done to ensure stakeholders have adequate skills and proficiency to operate in the “new normal” after the project goes live.
Here are some examples of the level of proficiency questions for change management surveys on readiness.
- What level of proficiency do you feel you still need to be prepared to adopt the required changes? (Give a multiple choice of High, Mid, Low.)
- Do you feel you have adequate training to successfully transition when the project is launched?
- “I feel I am proficient in the new process/tool to successfully make the transition when the project is launched.” How much do you agree with this statement? (Use a Likert Scale for the level of agreement.)
- Share your thoughts on how training has gone for this project (both positives and areas with room for improvement.)
Organizational Change Survey Questions About Capacity for Change
The questions below for a readiness to change assessment questionnaire are designed to provide insight into the capacity a group or individual has to learn what’s needed to adopt the required changes.
Capacity (otherwise known as time or “bandwidth”) can be low if a group has already been through a lot of changes and is still adjusting to the “new normal.” Being overwhelmed with work is another reason for low capacity.
It’s important to know this and ask about it in a survey change management questionnaire because low capacity can get in the way of getting a group or individual properly prepared for the transition they need to make.
Here are some examples of capacity questions for a change readiness questionnaire.
- What is your capacity for meetings and training required for the upcoming project? (Give a multiple choice of High, Mid, Low.)
- Are you worried about having enough time to learn what’s necessary by the time the project goes live?
- “I can easily incorporate the required educational and awareness activities for the project into my schedule.” How much do you agree with this statement? (Use a Likert Scale for the level of agreement.)
- Share any concerns you have about having enough time to learn the new process needed for (Name of Project) project by (Project Go-Live Date.)
If you have additional questions to add to our readiness to change questionnaire PDF and Word doc download below that you feel other change practitioners would benefit from, please reach out and let us know.
Change Survey Questions to Help Plan Readiness Engagement Activities
While you are surveying impacted individuals and groups on their change readiness status, it can be helpful to add in some questions to help you plan change management engagement activities.
For example, change management survey questions about scheduling, can help you avoid scheduling workshops and meetings at bad times. It can also be helpful to understand how much change management experience in general someone has, so you know whether or not to include a primer on what change management is in your communications engagement.
Here are some examples of engagement planning questions for a change management questionnaire.
- Choose which times are best for you for workshops and training to learn about the upcoming changes. (Give a multiple choice of specific timeframes.)
- List the worst times that are hardest for you to accommodate meetings.
- List the best times for you to have scheduled meetings and workshops about the upcoming project.
- Indicate your level of experience with change management in general. (Give a multiple choice of High, Mid, Low.)
Change Readiness Questions for Overall Project Go-Live Readiness
You can choose to use the organizational change survey questions from the metrics above to generate an overall readiness score, or you can add additional questions related to overall project readiness to your readiness survey.
For smaller projects, you may also decide to skip the other questions and just use these more general readiness questions in your change readiness survey.
Here are some examples of general readiness for go-live questions to survey change management readiness.
- What is your level of readiness for the upcoming project’s rollout date? (Give a multiple choice of High, Mid, Low, etc.)
- Do you feel you are ready to transition successfully on (Date of Go-Live) when the project launches?
- “I feel I have adequate training and support to successfully transition to the new workflow when the project launches.” How much do you agree with this statement? (Use a Likert Scale for the level of agreement.)
- Explain how you see your workflow changing on (Date of Go-Live) when the project launches.
Download a Free Readiness to Change Questionnaire PDF & Word Doc
OCM Solution has put together the questions above into a handy readiness to change questionnaire PDF and Word document. You can download them by signing up for a free OCMS Portal account.
Sign up for a Free OCMS Portal Account to Get Change Management Survey Questions
Are you looking for an online, cloud-based change readiness survey? Check out the OCMS Portal’s Change Readiness Tool, with a template, analytics dashboard, checklist, and cloud-based change management questionnaire.
What Other Types of Change Management Surveys Are There Besides Readiness?
An organizational change readiness assessment questionnaire is one of the staples of any change manager’s toolkit. Ensuring impacted individuals and groups are ready to adopt the changes required by a project or initiative is the whole aim of change management.
However, within change management engagement there are other types of change management surveys that can be used as well to assess stakeholders, gauge the effectiveness of communications, and more.
Here are some of the other types of change management surveys for employees and groups:
- Stakeholder support survey
- Resistance to change survey
- Training effectiveness survey
- Communications reach & effectiveness survey
- Sponsorship support survey
- Change Champion Network success survey
- Coaching effectiveness survey
Still have questions about a readiness to change questionnaire, alternatives to ADKAR survey questions, or other change management surveys? Please reach out and let us know.
OCMS Portal Change Readiness Assessment Templates with Cloud Readiness Survey
OCMS Portal’s change readiness assessment tool provides you with a powerful, yet simple-to-use tool for assessing your impacted groups for project go-live readiness. It includes an easy-to-use change readiness survey that can be filled out online. Readiness survey results import directly into the readiness template, giving you analytics reporting instantly!
This one-of-a-kind Change Readiness Assessment software includes a step-by-step organizational readiness assessment checklist to guide you through the best practices for readiness assessment.
Project Readiness Assessment Tool in OCMS Portal – Start a Free Trial Now
Conclusion: Readiness to Change Questionnaire & Change Management Survey
When supporting a project with change management, the goal is to prepare the people that need to make changes in how they do things to make those changes successfully. In other words, make them ready for the project to launch.
The readiness to change questionnaire is a key part of this readiness process. It provides change management practitioners with the information they need to plan engagement activities (communications, workshops, training, etc.) to prepare people for a successful transition.
We hope the organizational survey questions for readiness have been helpful to you, as well as the details about what types of questions you should ask and when you should assess readiness. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any additional change management survey questions you’d like to see added.
Do you have any questions about the change readiness assessment questionnaire? Please reach out and let us know.
FAQ: Best Change Management Questionnaire
What is a Change Readiness Test or Assessment?
A change readiness test or readiness assessment is a set of tasks undertaken to see how close groups are to having the knowledge and skills necessary to adopt new behaviors, processes, cultures, or systems.
What is a change management survey?
A change management survey is a set of questions you send to those impacted by a project to understand their level of readiness. It will generally include change readiness assessment questions to gather key metrics, such as:
• Awareness of a change
• Acceptance of the change
• Knowledge about what is changing
• Level of proficiency
• And more…
How many times should you give a change readiness assessment questionnaire?
It's recommended that at a minimum, two (2) change management surveys for readiness be given. The first is the baseline survey, and the second is the one that gauges how successful change management has been in readying the impacted stakeholders for the changes.
However, more readiness assessments are typically given for projects impacting large groups and projects with longer timeframes.
Who do you give an organizational change survey?
In most cases, you would be giving the change readiness survey questions to the people and/or groups that are being impacted by the changes and that need to adopt new behaviors, systems, tools, or processes.
There are two main levels of organizational readiness assessment:
1. Individual-level assessment
2. Group-level assessment
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