A project status report can look reassuring even as adoption risk begins to rise.
The system is live. Training is complete. Communications were sent. Employees have logged in.
Meanwhile, managers are giving different instructions, teams are keeping side spreadsheets alive and support questions are increasing.
The project may be technically complete, but people are still adapting and learning how work needs to happen now.
Gartner* reported in July 2025 that "only one in three (32%) mid-to-senior level business leaders said that the last change they led achieved healthy change adoption by employees." Gartner defines healthy change adoption as "the success elements that leaders can directly influence – getting employees to act on change, do so on time, and in a healthy way that doesn’t adversely impact employee performance and engagement and cause undue stress."
The question leaders need to ask is:
Which adoption metrics will warn us that people are struggling before business results suffer?
Useful adoption metrics go beyond communications sent, training completed and system logins. Those numbers confirm that activities occurred. They do not confirm that employees can perform the new work correctly or consistently.
The strongest measurement plans use both:
🔸 Leading indicators, such as understanding, manager readiness, workarounds and support demand
🔸 Lagging indicators, such as productivity, errors, customer satisfaction, turnover and return on investment
Leading indicators provide time to respond. Lagging indicators confirm whether the change produced the intended result.
McKinsey** found that change programs with both initiative-level and program-level views of progress and impact were 7.3 times more likely to succeed. The same research found that organizations use only 29% of the metrics they claim to follow in change efforts.
More data does not always create better decisions. A small set of useful metrics, reviewed consistently, can reveal much more.
1. Employee understanding
Sending information is an activity. Understanding the change is an adoption measure.
Employees should be able to explain why the change is happening, how their work will be affected and what they need to do next.
A short pulse survey or team conversation can reveal whether the message has landed. Review the results by impacted group rather than relying only on an organization-wide average.
Early warning sign: Employees have heard about the change but cannot explain what it means for their role.
Response: Adjust the message for that group and provide managers with practical examples.
2. Leadership readiness and consistency
Employees often bring questions to their direct manager first. Managers therefore have a major influence on how people interpret and respond to change.
Measure whether managers can explain the reason for the change, describe the impact on their team, answer common questions and escalate unresolved concerns.
Briefing attendance does not prove readiness. A short confidence check, scenario exercise or employee feedback question will provide better information.
Early warning sign: Employees receive different answers depending on which manager they ask.
Response: Clarify the agreed message, resolve open decisions and provide regular manager updates.
3. Use of the required process
Logins show that someone entered a system. They do not show whether the expected behaviours are happening or the new process is producing the intended result.
Measure the behaviour that produces the expected result. This may include:
🔸 Percentage of transactions completed through the new process
🔸 Completion of required steps or fields
🔸 Number of exceptions or overrides
🔸 Percentage of work still completed through the former process
For a customer management system, the useful metric may be the percentage of records completed accurately before a sales review. For a safety change, it may be the percentage of required checks completed before work begins.
Early warning sign: Usage appears high, but required tasks remain incomplete or inconsistent.
Response: Identify where the process is breaking down and determine whether the cause is unclear expectations, poor design, missing skills or time pressure.
4. Workarounds and continued use of old tools
Workarounds are among the clearest signs that adoption has stalled.
Watch for side spreadsheets, duplicate data entry, email approvals outside the new workflow, personal tracking documents and continued use of retired systems.
System reports may show activity while the real work continues elsewhere. Interviews, observation and manager feedback help uncover that gap.
Early warning sign: Employees enter enough information into the new system to satisfy reporting requirements, then return to familiar tools to finish the work.
Response: Find the source of friction. A workaround may reflect reluctance, but it may also reveal a genuine process problem.
5. Proficiency, confidence and reinforcement needs
Training completion is easy to report. Proficiency offers better information.
Useful measures include first-attempt accuracy, task completion time, error rates, repeat support requests and confidence working without assistance.
A temporary increase in support requests is normal around launch. Repeated questions about the same task suggest that the training, instructions, process or technology are creating friction.
Capacity also matters. Employees may understand the change but lack the time, resources or confidence to carry it out.
Capterra’s^ research found that 71% of surveyed employees felt overwhelmed by the amount of workplace change. Among employees experiencing change fatigue, 54% were considering looking for another job and 32% reported lower productivity.
Early warning sign: Training completion is high while errors, repeat questions or task times continue to rise.
Response: Provide targeted support for the specific task or group rather than repeating broad training for everyone.
Start with the business result. Define what the change is expected to improve, such as service speed, safety, cost, data quality or accountability.
Next, identify the behaviour required to produce that result. “Use the new system” is too broad. “Enter all customer interactions within one business day” can be observed and measured.
Choose one or two indicators for each critical behaviour. Establish a baseline where possible and review results by impacted group.
Agree in advance on what will trigger action. This may be a downward trend, a widening gap between groups or a defined threshold.
Each metric also needs an owner and a response plan. A metric without either is only a number in a report.
Waiting for productivity, customer satisfaction or revenue to decline leaves leaders with fewer options and a more expensive problem.
Early adoption metrics show where understanding is weak, where managers need support, where processes create friction and where employees are returning to familiar ways of working.
A solution delivers value when people can adopt it, use it well and sustain the new way of working.
The signs are usually there. The question is whether anyone is measuring them early enough to act.
Ready to define the adoption measures that matter for your initiative? Levvel’s Adoption Success Metrics Workshop helps leaders connect business goals to behaviours, identify early warning indicators and build a practical monitoring and response plan.
~ Reach out to Connect@levvel.ca
Sources:**McKinsey & Company: How Do We Manage the Change Journey?
^https://www.capterra.com/resources/change-fatigue-in-the-workplace/