Human resources are responsible for the effective management of people within the organization.  When changing their behaviors, human resources are going to be involved at some level, whether it’s training the managers or adjusting policies and procedures.  More importantly, the human resources team is often the coordinator of communications throughout the organization.  In change initiatives, communication will play a critical part of the overall process.

In some organizations, the internal communications role is separated into its own department, but most often, the human resources team is responsible for ensuring that employees are aware of the things that the organization desires them to be aware of.  They typically have a variety of mechanisms available to help deliver messages to the organization.  Often, they have creative ideas that can get attention while requiring minimal funding.

In their role as caretakers of people, they can identify barriers to the behavior change, including any contractual or statutory limitations that may apply to what people can be asked to do.  As the keeper of people-related policies and procedures, they can transform the official documentation of the organization’s intent to match the intent of the change.