One in four leaders expect employees to simply adapt to workplace change

Almost one in four senior leaders expect employees who resist organisational change to “simply adapt”, despite only 21 per cent of leaders describing their latest major transformation as a clear success.

Research from digital coaching platform CoachHub found 24 per cent of senior leaders respond to resistance with an approach that amounts to “the decision has been made, employees need to adapt”, while a further 15 per cent escalate resistance to senior leadership.

By comparison, 41 per cent begin by trying to understand employees’ concerns. The findings raise questions about how organisations manage the human impact of transformation as employees face changing technology, roles, processes and ways of working.

The research surveyed 800 senior transformation, business and people leaders across seven markets in Europe, including the UK, and North America. While 79 per cent of respondents said their most significant recent transformation initially created measurable business value, this fell to 64 per cent when leaders were asked whether that value was sustained following implementation.

CoachHub found a significant difference between the organisations reporting the strongest and weakest transformation outcomes in how managers responded to employees.

The strongest-performing organisations were 45 percentage points more likely to have managers adapt plans in response to team feedback and 41 points more likely to have managers listen to employee concerns before deciding how to respond.

The research also suggests frontline managers could be a weak point in organisational change.

Readiness to deliver transformation differed by 23 percentage points between the highest and lowest-performing organisations among core transformation teams, but the gap increased to 41 points among frontline managers and team leaders.

Support was also more likely to arrive earlier in organisations reporting stronger outcomes. Some 38 per cent provided managers with support before a transformation was announced, compared with 18 per cent among the lowest-performing group.

Sarah Henson, Senior Behavioural Scientist at CoachHub, said: “Resistance is a normal human response to uncertainty and disruption, not evidence that employees are inherently opposed to change. Leaders should reduce friction around new behaviours, create the right environmental and social conditions for change, reinforce progress and help new behaviours become embedded over time.”

The findings are particularly relevant to workplace health and wellbeing, as organisations continue to introduce AI, restructure work and change roles and processes.

How change is managed can determine whether employees feel involved and supported or experience greater uncertainty and pressure, while middle and frontline managers are often expected to implement organisational decisions alongside managing their teams’ response to them.

Yet CoachHub’s research suggests investment continues to favour the technology behind transformation.

Organisations reported allocating an average 22.4 per cent of transformation budgets to technology platforms and systems, compared with 9.2 per cent to coaching for managers and leaders.

Only 16 per cent offered managers coaching during transformation, although 86 per cent of those receiving it described the support as useful.

Matti Niebelschütz, CEO and Co-founder of CoachHub, said: “Transformation only happens when people are able to translate that change into new behaviours and new ways of working. Telling people simply to adapt risks treating the symptom rather than understanding the cause and the data shows what that costs. Four out of five organisations cannot point to a transformation that clearly worked.

“This is where coaching can act as a transformation accelerator, giving people the space and support to process uncertainty, challenge established behaviours and build the capabilities they need to operate differently. Every Leader in our research who received one-to-one coaching found it useful. When coaching is embedded into transformation rather than added as an afterthought, organisations can move from simply implementing change to making it stick.”

The findings suggest employee resistance may be more useful when treated as information about how change is landing rather than simply as opposition to it.

The research was conducted independently by Coleman Parkes Research between May and June 2026, with final analysis completed in September.