32 Change Management Statistics 

Key change management statistics

• The claim that about 70% of change initiatives fail is widely repeated but lacks a cited study (Beer and Nohria, Harvard Business Review, 2000); a 2011 peer-reviewed review found no valid, reliable evidence for it.
• Less than one-third of executives say their transformation both improved performance and sustained it (McKinsey, 2021).
• Only 32% of mid-to-senior business leaders say the last change they led achieved healthy employee adoption (Gartner, 2025).
• 60% of senior executives say transformation has become continuous or nearly so (KPMG, 2023).
• 37% of UK employees admit they resist change (Oak Engage, 2023).
• In 2025, 20% of employees worldwide were engaged at work (Gallup, 2026).
• Projects with excellent change management are approximately seven times more likely to meet objectives than those with poor change management (Prosci, 2023).
• 51 percent of respondents whose organizations monitor KPIs during implementation report success, against 13 percent where KPIs aren’t monitored (McKinsey, 2018).

Organizations now change faster than their people can absorb it, and many leaders can’t say whether their change work is landing. Change management is how an organization helps people adopt a new strategy, structure, technology or way of working. The figures below suggest the hard part is rarely the plan. It’s adoption.

Why organizations change

Large organizations now treat change as close to constant, which is the case for agile change management.

1. 96 percent of large organizations were in some phase of transformation in 2016

KPMG’s Global Transformation Study found that “96 percent of organizations are in some phase of transformation,” and “nearly half have completed at least one transformation initiative in the past 24 months.” KPMG surveyed more than 1,600 senior executives in 16 countries at organizations with at least US$500 million in revenue.

2. 60% of senior executives say transformation has become continuous or nearly so

In KPMG’s 2023 survey of 200 C-suite and senior executives at firms with more than US$1 billion in revenue, “Sixty percent say that transformation has become continuous or nearly so.”

3. 46% of companies named business growth as the top goal of their transformation programs

In Altimeter’s 2023 report, a survey of 602 executives at organizations with 1,000 or more employees, “increasing core business growth jumped to the top of the list” of transformation goals, at 46%.

4. 7 in 10 business leaders say their main competitive strategy is to be fast and nimble

Deloitte’s 2026 Global Human Capital Trends found that “7 in 10 business leaders say their primary competitive strategy for the next three years is to be fast and nimble,” in a survey of more than 9,000 business and HR leaders in 89 countries.

Change management success and failure rates

The failure rate most often quoted, 70%, rests on weaker evidence than its fame suggests, so the measured rates follow it. For named cases rather than figures, see these change management examples.

5. The “70% of change initiatives fail” claim has no cited study

The claim that about 70% of change initiatives fail comes from Michael Beer and Nitin Nohria in Harvard Business Review in 2000: “The brutal fact is that about 70% of all change initiatives fail.” They cited no study, and a 2011 review in the Journal of Change Management found no valid and reliable evidence for the figure.

6. One in three CEOs say past transformations failed to deliver the value they expected

In KPMG’s 2016 study of more than 1,600 senior executives in 16 countries, “One in three CEOs (34 percent) say their organizations have failed to achieve the value they anticipated” from previous transformations.

7. Only 17 percent of executives say their organizations are highly capable of executing an implementation plan

In the same KPMG study, “Only 17 percent of executives say their organizations are highly capable of executing on an implementation plan” for a new operating model.

8. Less than one-third of executives say their transformation improved performance and sustained it

In McKinsey’s 2021 survey of 1,034 executives who had been through a transformation in the past five years, “Less than one-third of respondents” said it had been successful at “both improving organizational performance” and “sustaining those improvements over time.”

9. Successful transformations realized only 67 percent of their maximum financial benefits

In the same McKinsey survey, executives who called their transformation a success “estimate that, on average, their organizations have realized only 67 percent of the maximum financial benefits that their transformations could have achieved.”

10. Only 32% of business leaders say the last change they led achieved healthy change adoption

Gartner reported in 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.” Healthy adoption means employees act on the change on time, without damaging performance or engagement.

Why change initiatives fail

11. 37 percent of executives say underestimating operating model change is their greatest execution barrier

In KPMG’s 2016 study, “More than a third (37 percent) of executives say that the greatest execution barrier they face in transformation is” “underestimating the significance of changes to their organization’s operating model.”

12. 79% of employees have low trust in change

An April 2025 Gartner survey of more than 2,850 employees “revealed that 79% of employees have low trust in change.”

13. 55 percent of a transformation’s value loss occurs during and after implementation

McKinsey’s 2021 survey found that “much of a transformation’s value loss (55 percent) occurs during and after implementation,” the stage where people have to change how they work.

14. 64% of employees who work 6 to 10 extra hours for a transformation report high stress

In KPMG’s 2023 survey of 1,002 US middle managers, “64% of employees who work an additional 6-10 hours report high stress” during a transformation.

Employee resistance, engagement and burnout

These figures cover the people side that most change plans touch.

15. 23% of US full-time employees feel burned out at work very often or always

In Gallup’s study of nearly 7,500 full-time US employees, “23% of employees reported feeling burned out at work very often or always, while an additional 44% reported feeling burned out sometimes.”

16. 37% of UK employees admit they are resistant to change

In a 2023 Censuswide survey of 1,035 UK employees commissioned by Oak Engage, “over a third (37%) of people admit that they are resistant to change.”

17. 20% of employees worldwide were engaged at work in 2025

Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace: 2026 Report found that “In 2025, 20% of employees worldwide were engaged at work,” down from 21% in 2024.

What improves the odds of success

Each figure below ties a specific practice to better results. For the practices themselves, see these change management success factors and the change management frameworks that organize them.

18. Projects with excellent change management are approximately seven times more likely to meet objectives

Prosci’s Best Practices in Change Management, 12th edition, drawing on 2,668 respondents, finds that “with excellent change management, your project is approximately seven times more likely to meet objectives than with poor change management”: 88% of projects met or exceeded objectives, against 13%.

19. 96 percent of transformations that used all four McKinsey elements improved and sustained performance

In McKinsey’s 2023 survey of 472 respondents, “Nearly all respondents (96 percent) from transformations that implemented all four elements say their efforts improved and sustained organizational performance, compared with 13 percent of respondents from transformations that implemented just one.”

20. Transformations that let employees apply new skills are four times more likely to outperform peers

In the same McKinsey survey, organizations that give employees “regular opportunities to apply the skills they are learning” are “four times more likely to report that the organization outperformed peers.”

21. Companies that addressed mindsets were four times more likely to rate their change programs successful

In McKinsey Quarterly, Scott Keller and Bill Schaninger reported that “executives at companies that took the time and trouble to address mindsets were four times more likely” “than those that didn’t to rate their change programs as at least ‘successful.’”

22. Implementation success is over three times more likely when organizations train employees

McKinsey’s 2018 survey of 1,528 participants found that “Success is also over three times more likely when organizations train employees to use the digital solution.”

23. Gartner’s model predicts employees are three times more likely to adopt changes on time when leaders routinize change

Gartner’s 2025 research states: “When leaders routinize change, our model predicts that employees are three times more likely to adopt changes on time.”

Communication during change

These figures cover what leaders say they’d do differently and what employees say they hear. For the week-to-week work, see these change management activities.

24. 49 percent of transformation leaders would spend more time communicating a change story

Asked what they would do differently next time, the transformation leaders in McKinsey’s 2015 Global Survey of 1,946 executives “most often say they would spend more time communicating a change story (49 percent).”

25. Transformations are 5.8 times more likely to succeed when CEOs communicate a compelling change story

McKinsey’s 2017 Global Survey of 1,657 participants found that “A transformation is 5.8 times more likely to be successful at organizations where CEOs communicate a compelling, high-level change story, and 6.3 times likelier when senior leaders share aligned messages.”

26. Transformations that explained the rationale are 3.1 times more likely to report outperformance

In McKinsey’s 2023 survey, “respondents whose transformations explained the rationale are 3.1 times more likely” “than others to report outperformance” against competitors.

27. 29% of UK employees say their workplace doesn’t communicate change clearly

In the same 2023 Censuswide survey for Oak Engage, “almost a third (29%) of employees say their place of work does not communicate change clearly.”

28. Only 40% of US employees feel listened to on how changes are rolled out to their team

Eagle Hill Consulting’s 2025 Change Management Survey, run by Ipsos among 1,448 US employees, found that “only 40% feel listened to regarding how to roll out changes to their team.”

Change management ROI and measurement

No primary study gives a single ROI percentage for change management, so these figures show what researchers measured instead. To set up your own measures, see how to measure change management.

29. 51 percent of respondents whose organizations monitor KPIs report implementation success, against 13 percent without

McKinsey’s 2018 survey of 1,528 participants found that “Among respondents who say that their organizations monitor KPIs as part of implementation, 51 percent report success,” “compared with only 13 percent who report it where KPIs are not monitored.”

30. Organizations with better than average healthy change adoption report two times higher revenue growth

According to Ingrid Laman of Gartner, “Organizations with better than average healthy change adoption report two times higher year-over-year revenue growth rate.”

31. Less than half of executives (47 percent) believe they can extract and maintain the planned value from their next transformation

In KPMG’s 2016 study, “less than half of executives (47 percent) believe they can extract” “and maintain the planned value from a future transformation initiative.”

32. More than a third (34%) of US employees who experienced change say it wasn’t worth the effort

In Eagle Hill’s 2025 survey, among US employees who had experienced workplace change in the past year, “more than a third (34%) believe those changes were not worth the organizational effort.”

What the numbers mean for change management

Three patterns run through these figures.

• Change is constant. Most large organizations report being in some phase of transformation, and most executives now see it as continuous. A change plan built as a one-off project meets a workforce that is already absorbing the last one.
• Most change falls short, though not by the margin the folklore suggests. No study supports the 70% claim. The measured figures are sobering enough: fewer than one in three executives report lasting gains, and only a third of leaders say their last change achieved healthy adoption.
• The people side decides the result. Trust, workload, communication, and training recur across the barriers and across the practices that improve the odds. Few of these figures measure strategy or software. Most measure whether people took up the new way of working.

That’s the reframe. The gap between a change plan and its result is usually adoption: whether people can do the new thing inside the tools they use every day, and whether leaders can see it happening. Measurement matters as much as method, since organizations that tracked KPIs reported success nearly four times as often as those that didn’t.

This is where WalkMe fits. WalkMe’s change management page describes the aim as to “help employees master change in the flow of work, reducing the need for ongoing training and support.” When the change is to IT systems themselves, controlling it is a separate discipline, covered in the guide to IT change management software.

Make the next change one that sticks

Change works when people can do the new thing inside the tools they already use, and leaders can see whether they are. The figures above show what happens otherwise: value is lost during and after implementation, trust in change drops, and adoption stalls. They also show the cost of not measuring, because you can’t close an adoption gap you can’t see.

If you need the method, start with the change process. If your change lands inside enterprise software, WalkMe’s goal is simple: “Make change work for you.” To see how WalkMe supports employees in the flow of work, explore WalkMe for change management.