Change Management Job Description

The Change Management Specialist will play a key role in helping projects (change initiatives) meet business, schedule and budget objectives. This person will focus on the people side of change – including changes to business processes, systems and technology, job roles and organization structures. The primary focus will be creating and implementing change management plans that minimize employee resistance and maximize employee engagement. The Change Management Specialist will work to drive faster adoption, greater ultimate utilization and higher proficiency on the changes impacting employees in the organization such that business results are achieved.

Supervision:

While the Change Management Specialist does not have supervisory responsibility, this person will have to work though many others in the organization to succeed. The Change Management Specialist will act as a coach for senior leaders and executives in helping them fulfill the role of change sponsor. The Change Management Specialist will also support project teams in integrating change management activities into their project plans. Finally, the Change Management Specialist may provide direct support and coaching to front-line managers and supervisors as they help their direct reports through transitions.

Roles and responsibilities:

• Apply a structured change management approach and methodology for the people side change caused by projects and change efforts.
• Develop a change management strategy based on a situational awareness of the details of the change and the groups being impacted by the change.
• Identify potential people-side risks and anticipated points of resistance, and develop specific plans to mitigate or address the concerns.
• Conduct readiness assessments, evaluate results and present findings in a logical and easy-to-understand manner.
• Develop a set of actionable and targeted change management plans – including communication plan, sponsor roadmap, coaching plan, training plan and resistance management plan.
• Support the execution of plans by employee-facing managers and business leaders.
• Be an active and visible coach to executives leaders who are change sponsors.
• Create and manage measurement systems to track adoption, utilization and proficiency of individual changes.
• Identify resistance and performance gaps, and work to develop and implement corrective actions
• Create and enable reinforcement mechanisms and celebrations of success.
• Work with project teams to integrate change management activities into the overall project plan.
• Work with communication, training, HR and OD specialists in the formulation of particular plans and activities to support project implementation.

Skills and qualifications:

• A solid understanding of how people go through a change and the change process; experience with ADKAR is a plus.
• Experience and knowledge of change management principles and methodologies (example: Prosci certification)
• Familiarity with project management approaches, tools and phases of the project lifecycle.
• Exceptional communication skills – both written and verbal.
• Able to work effectively at all levels in an organization.
• Excellent active listening skills.
• Problem solving and root cause identification skills.
• Strong analytic and decision making abilities.
• Must be a team player and able to work with and through others.
• Ability to influence others and move toward a common vision or goal.
• Experience with large-scale organizational change effort.
• Change Management Professional designation is a plus (learn more about the new Association of Change Management Professionals and the Change Management Professional designation at the Prosci Global Conference or by visiting the new ACMP® website)
• Previous change management experience is a plus.