You’d think all companies would have mastered workforce change readiness by now. The pace and intensity of change are only growing, and the costs of poorly handled change are sobering.

But many organizations are struggling to get their workforce ready for change… and suffering the consequences. Take just one example: Failed large-scale IT change initiatives bleed U.S. businesses of $50-150 billion annually. Across industries, workforces unprepared for change initiatives face a triple threat: direct project failures, productivity nosedives ranging from 5% to 60%, and concerning levels of talent drain.

meQ’s Winter 2025 State of the Workforce research also shows a staggering mental health cost. Employees least prepared for change suffer depression rates more than four times higher than their change-ready colleagues. Nearly a quarter of managers and more than a third of individual contributors admit to feeling lost during changes. The true cost of badly handled change strikes right at the heart of workforce well-being and organizational stability.

Companies can no longer react to changes when they happen. It’s not enough to mitigate the damage done to productivity after the fact. Leaders need to actively build change-ready workforces. Now.

Resilience: The Driver of Change Readiness

Our research shows this effort isn’t about grand transformations. It’s about consistent, practical steps that build fundamental capabilities at every level of the workforce, from leadership to managers to brand-new Gen Z employees.

Change readiness starts with resilience. Highly resilient employees are far and away, across years of research, the most prepared for change. Compared to their less resilient colleagues, they’re 81% more likely to have clear goals during change processes and 72% more likely to see personal benefits in change.

It’s not just some vague, general idea of resilience that drives change readiness, but five key characteristics:

  1. Emotion Control
  2. Engagement
  3. Positivity
  4. Stress Management
  5. Purpose

Data from hundreds of thousands of meQ members show that these characteristics of resilience are learned states, not inborn traits. With targeted digital coaching in resilience, the needle can be moved across all five factors, resulting in workforce change readiness.

Change Readiness from Top to Bottom

Targeted, personalized intervention is paramount in two ways. First, it bridges the troubling divide between senior leaders and line employees when it comes to change readiness. Where managers and individual contributors are experiencing difficulty with change, HR executives demonstrate high change readiness (over 80% reporting having clear goals during change and ease maintaining emotional composure when faced with change). This “vertical perspective gap” means that different sectors of the workforce need specialized, adaptable support to gain change readiness.

The youngest workers also require targeted interventions for change readiness. In our research, Gen Z presents a fascinating contradiction. They’re 14% more likely to see the benefits of change compared to their older colleagues, but their anxiety levels about change are substantially (34%) higher.

As Gen Z claims an increasingly significant share of the workforce, this emotional turbulence during change processes will likely hurt organizations’ ability to execute transformations effectively. Only a flexible intervention to address unique resilience needs can raise an organization’s overall level of workforce change readiness.

With economic uncertainty lingering and the pace of change accelerating, the lesson for leaders is clear:

Want to protect your bottom line, your people’s well-being, and your company’s ability to transform? Make building change readiness an organizational priority. The investment will pay off with a more stable workforce and fundamental competitive advantages.

Download meQ’s Winter 2025 State of the Workforce Report for a deeper dive on the trends that will impact your workforce in the coming year.

About the Author
Brad Smith

For more than 15 years, Dr. Brad Smith has been telling stories using health data. His career includes roles ranging from policy-focused work with the US Government Accountability Office to evaluation -related work for dozens of state, federal and private sector clients using health services research methods. He currently serves as Chief Science Officer at meQuilibrium, leading efforts to harness data to improve the product, enhance reporting to clients and establish the value proposition. He has served on the faculty of Drexel University and McDaniel College and is the author of more than 25 peer - reviewed articles on health and well-being.