When Workers Resist Change

November 24, 2025

People can be resistant to change for any number of reasons: the need for familiarity and stability, 
a perceived loss of control, fear of failure, etc.

So, it’s not unusual for safety professionals to encounter pushback to a new rule or initiative – or even a change in personal protective equipment.

“One of the things I like to do to understand people is flip it around a little bit,” said Ron Gantt, vice president of environmental, health and safety at Beale Infrastructure. “You’re going to come and tell me here’s a new way to do this task that you think is better and I should just take your word for it? Why on earth would anyone ever do that?”

Here are five ways to help bring employees around to changes in the workplace.

1. Identify barriers

Gantt, who gave a presentation during the 2022 NSC Safety Congress & Expo titled “Why Don’t They Follow the Rules?” said the thought exercise of changing perspectives allows safety pros to anticipate obstacles to employee compliance.

“Rather than asking the question, ‘Why aren’t people doing this?’ you could flip that question around and ask, ‘What makes doing this hard?’” Gantt said. “That will help you identify barriers, which leads to a more actionable conversation.”

2. Gather feedback

Along with identifying barriers, asking employees for feedback – and acting on it – is another way to ease the transition into a workplace change.

“I think part of the reason there’s resistance is that there’s not nearly enough input from employees when you’re creating a new rule, introducing a new safety initiative or making other safety improvements,” said Josh Williams, principal consultant at DEKRA, who holds a doctorate in industrial and organizational psychology. “We know we’ve got an issue and we’ve got to figure out a better way to do something. Let’s talk to people actually doing the work.

“That way, they understand the rationale behind the rules. They have more skin in the game, helping to write some of these rules, and this involvement helps them understand [the rules] better. It also leads to better, more practical procedures most of the time.”

Williams offered the example of using helmets, adding that “one size does not always fit all” for many workplace changes. “If you’re going to do helmets – that’s a good initiative – but talk to people,” he said. “When do we need them? When do we not need them? What jobs do and what jobs don’t?

“I think if companies did that better, there would be less resistance.”

3. Get everyone on board

When the safety department is the only one leading the change, that’s another stumbling block, according to Williams.

“Then it’s like, ‘Oh, that’s a safety thing. That’s a safety person’s job. That’s a safety issue,’” he said. “No, you’re the plant manager. It’s your job, too.

“I think that helps a little bit with some of the resistance, when people see that it’s not just safety people doing things.”

Williams advocates for leadership to conduct listening sessions with workers affected by changes, calling these sessions “a powerful tool to get some of that input and overcome resistance.”

Another part of getting everyone on board: Look for “safety champions” – or those employees who can help lead the change, act as positive influences and help co-workers.

“I can’t be on the floor all the time, so if one of your peers comes up, can I identify you as someone they can go and ask questions of?” said Clair Reynolds Kueny, department chair and associate professor of psychological science at the Missouri University of Science and Technology.

4. Accentuate the positive

Another helpful step for employers, Kueny said, is accentuating the positive rather than just punishing for noncompliance.

Rewards are one way to do that. You can also acknowledge or show appreciation to workers who follow the new procedure or wear the new PPE.

With the opposite approach, “People are going to resist this idea of ‘I wasn’t punished before for doing this and now I’m going to get punished for it,’” Kueny said. “That doesn’t feel good, and it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense from a day-to-day cognitive processing standpoint.”

5. Review

Any change process should involve reviews, as in the plan-do-check-act cycle. That’s why regular check-ins with employees are vital, Williams said.

“You’ve got to be vigilant on the back end regularly to make sure things are going well,” he said.

Employers also need to make sure their people have the resources, training and anything else they need to successfully navigate change.

Additionally, it’s important during after-action reviews to look at not only what needs improvement but what’s going well.

“Successes also should have after-action reviews,” Kueny said.

Ultimately, safety pros should remember that resistance can serve as valid information, feedback or concern during times of change.

“Sometimes resistance is viewed as this emotional thing, and emotions are considered irrational,” Kueny said. “Instead of thinking of resistance as something we need to squash down, it’s something we need to meet, understand and then address.”