What Does a Change Manager Really Do? Here is Everything You Need to Know about the Change Management Job Description.
As a Senior Change Manager, I have led and delivered large change management programs that have impacted 100,000+ employees, suppliers, and customers across Intel, Cisco, Apple, Capital One, HSBC, Accenture, Deloitte, and other global firms.
People sometimes ask questions like:
- Who is responsible to manage change?
- What is a business change manager?
- What does a change manager do?
- What is a change manager job description?
- What are the best business change manager job descriptions that really capture what change managers do?
- What is the role of change managers on a project or program?
This Change Manager Job Description guide answers all of these questions and a lot more. It includes change management roles and responsibilities, where to find change management jobs (if you are a change manager), change manager job description and how to hire change managers (if you are an employer, HR, or hiring manager), and change management job qualifications that potential employers are searching for on a change manager’s resume. It also provides answers to the often asked “who is responsible to manage change?” question.
Don’t hesitate to email me or the AGS team if you have any questions about change management team roles and responsibilities. As a Pioneer of best change management practices, tools, and templates, I am one of the biggest advocates of the global change management community.
Ogbe Airiodion
Senior Change Management Leader
What is a Change Manager? Change Manager Definition
A Change Manager is an individual who is responsible for planning, developing, delivering, and tracking change management deliverables including communications, training, stakeholder engagement, change impact assessment, organizational readiness analysis, coaching, resistance management, and change reinforcement.
A Change Manager can be certified, although certification is not as important as a lot of employers think. Throughout my tenure as a Senior Change Manager and Consultant, I continuously need to educate my clients that experience (which is the Art of change management) matters more than the change management certification (the Science of change management).
When I interview and hire Business or IT Change Managers to be part of my change management team, I focus on their experience and the extent of their change management expertise (what they have done, and how effectively) more so than whether they were Prosci certified or CCMP certified Change Managers.
When considering change management team roles and responsibilities for your organization the details outlined below will go a long way in helping you draft the best requirements for your change management positions.
Business Change Manager Presenting (Change Management Roles and Responsibilities)
Contact AGS – if after reading this guide, you still have questions about who is responsible to manage change management or if you have feedback about the change manager definition outlined above. We’ll love to hear from you. For the subject of your message, enter: “Questions about Who is Responsible for Managing Business Change.”
Change Manager Job Description for Roles in Change Management
The primary job role for an Organizational Change Management Lead or Change Manager is to design, develop, implement and manage change deliverables that will enable impacted users to successfully transition from their current state to a future state.
However, there are different job descriptions for change managers depending on the level of expertise that a hiring manager is looking for.
In the sections below, we provide the job descriptions and change management roles listed below:
- A Generic Change Management Job Description for any Industry
- Junior-to-Mid Level Business Change Manager Job Description
- Senior Change Manager Roles & Responsibilities
- Change Management Consultant Roles & Job Responsibilities
- Change Management Team Roles and Responsibilities
- Organizational Effectiveness Change Lead
Organizational change managers and practitioners who are searching for what a change manager does, as well as any HR recruiter or a hiring manager looking to hire a change manager, can leverage these job descriptions.
Do you have any feedback about this business change manager job description guide? Or questions about who is responsible to manage change? If so, contact the AGS Editorial Team. We will love to hear from you.
In addition to the organizational change manager definitions and descriptions provided in the sections above, you should also leverage the key qualifications outlined below to increase the success of what you are trying to achieve – whether that is to get a new job, understand what Change Managers do, progress in your career or fill an open change management role.
Generic Change Management Job Description for any Industry
If you are a recruiter, you can copy, make changes, and use the generic change manager roles and responsibilities job description below for your change manager job posting. If you are a change lead or any other change practitioner, this description will give you an overview of basic change management roles and responsibilities.
_________
Job Title: Seeking an Experienced Change Management Manager
Location: ____________ (For example: San Francisco, Washington DC, London, Berlin, etc.)
Duration: ____________(For example: Full-time employee | or for contractors: 3-6-12 months depending on the project)
Overview of Change Lead Position
<Name of Department> at <Name of Firm> (for example: Partner & Enablement Technology at Google) builds and supports tools and processes that drive Partner success. The team is looking for a Change Management Manager to drive the implementation of its new solutions.
The Change Management Manager will collaborate with cross-functional teams at ______ (for example: Google) to deliver change management programs including impact analysis, stakeholder management, communications, training, and ensuring that new technology solutions are rolled out successfully and in a sustainable way.
High-level Change Manager Roles and Responsibilities
In this position, the Change Management Specialist will execute the strategy that makes complex change easy for our impacted users and stakeholders. You will conduct impacts analysis to help develop and execute the change management strategy and plan, working with project teams and business partners who are eager to make change happen.
Your change management plans will guide business partners to achieve operational success and drive adoption for end-users. Key to this role is your ability to build cross-function relationships, apply critical thinking, and take the initiative to drive results.
As a successful Change Management Manager, you will use influence and innovation to maximize change adoption and ensure a positive end-user experience for changes impacting people, process, and technology.
Other change management roles and responsibilities are referenced below.
Key Change Manager Responsibilities
- Create or significantly contribute to change enablement strategies and plans, including training and communications
- Conduct effective change impact assessments, readiness assessments, and stakeholder analysis
- Define, plan and execute change management plans to support communication and transition activities
- Develop, deliver and manage communication, stakeholder, training, engagement, adoption, and resistance management plans
- Integrate change management activities into project plans
- Ensure that information is communicated to impacted audiences throughout the duration of the program
- Manage stakeholder relationships
- Define and measure success metrics and monitor change progress
- Collaborate with project teams to ensure the successful execution of the end-to-end change management strategy
- Proactively identify and implement improvements to the change management strategy & methodology
- Build executive presentations and identify risks and issues relating to change management functions
Additional Change Manager Roles and Responsibilities
The ideal business change management candidate will have a demonstrated track record of:
- Managing effective internal strategic communications programs
- Comprehending detailed technical updates and translating them into consumable insights for non-technical teams
- Solid understanding of project management methodology
- Creating clear, compelling communication materials with a cohesive framework
- Analyzing and compiling data from multiple sources and pulling it all together into one output
- Providing thoughtful, structured recommendations to strategy managers and account teams
- Able to work with rapidly changing requirements
Required Skills & Change Management Experience:
- __X__ years of experience applying change management principles, methodologies, and tools for implementing change programs
- Experience developing readiness programs, training or stakeholder engagement
- A highly organized, energetic, and creative change professional
- Ability to handle ambiguity and can be flexible in their approach
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills with outstanding attention to detail
- An amazing communicator, who has impactful presence and can easily simplify messaging, and incorporate storytelling
- Bachelor’s degree
Desired:
- Prosci change management certification or designation
- Change Management Professional™ (CCMP™) certification
- Equivalent change certifications
The above change management roles and responsibilities template is a generic type of change manager job description that can be used and repurposed by anyone. Below we provide other change management job descriptions and job qualifications.
Junior-to-Mid-Level Change Manager Job Description
Job Title: Seeking an Experienced Change Management Analyst/Resource/Manager
Location: ____________ (For example: San Francisco, Washington DC, London, Berlin, etc.)
Duration: ____________(For example: Full-time employee | or for contractors: 3-6-12 months depending on the project)
Overview of Change Management Job Position
<Name of Department> at <Name of Firm> (for example: Unified Team at Microsoft is looking for a talented change management specialist with 2-5 years experience who can drive effective change management plans across the Microsoft Unified team and out to external stakeholders and field sellers. This opportunity includes support for communications and engagement. You will have a measurable impact in helping Microsoft expand their Unified business by executing against our game-changing support strategy.
The right change management specialist candidate will be joining a fast-paced, focused, high-caliber team with a footprint in multiple geographies, and will bring an adequate level of change management experience to the change management team.
Change Management Roles and Responsibilities
The change specialist responsibilities will include:
- Developing and broadcasting awareness communications
- Driving engagement with field sales teams to develop an understanding of the future state solutions
- Creating and maintaining appropriate content channels and tools including newsletters, emails, FAQ pages, online content, and others as appropriate for impacted users’ engagement and enablement
- Ensuring that stakeholders are aware of new solutions, updates, changes, and projects across impacted teams
- Documenting change impacts, current process mapping, and changes to processes
- Completing change management assessments
- Identifying and managing anticipated resistance
- Supporting the Senior Change Management Lead or Senior Program Manager
- Support training efforts and delivery
- Support and engage senior leaders
- Track and report change management adoption and successes
Preferred change management skills and qualifications should include:
- BS/BA or equivalent experience required
- Master’s degree in communications or related field preferred
- Prosci change management certification
- 2-5 years change management experience
Contact the AGS team if you have additional feedback or questions about this change management experience and change manager role guide? Are there additional change management skills you’ll like to see listed in the sections above? If so, let us know.
Senior Change Manager Lead Skills, Roles & Responsibilities
What does a Senior Change Manager do?
A Senior Change Management Lead or Manager is often someone with an extensive level of change management experience, and is responsible for leading all aspects of a change management program. He or she engages with senior leadership and executives to gain buy-in, and in some cases, a Senior Change Manager will also manage other change management practitioners.
A Senior Change Management Lead generally has a minimum of 7-10 years of experience in implementing change management principles, tools, models, and processes to increase the success of change programs.
Sample Senior Change Management Lead Qualifications (Examples of Change Manager Responsibilities to List on Job Postings/Resume):
- 10+ years of experience leading ___________ (for example: 10+ years of experience leading consumer banking strategic transformation programs for consumer-facing banking functions – with significant subject matter expertise in core banking processes)
- Prior expertise in _______ (for example, prior experience in commercial banking-related process and operating model redesign, major banking reorganizations)
- Substantial experience with large scale global change adoption programs people and organizational change
- Experience in planning and managing complex projects, combining process, organizational change, and technology workstreams
- Exceptional, highly polished written and oral communication skills, able to develop executive-level presentations for EVP and Board level audiences
- Facilitate senior-level meetings to surface and resolve sensitive issues and drive alignment
- Consult and coach project teams
- Create actionable deliverables for the five change management levers: communications plan, sponsor roadmap, coaching plan, training plan, resistance management plan
- Coach impacted managers and supervisors
- Manage communications, training, and stakeholder engagement
- Responsible for the success of all change management deliverables
- Experience leading initiatives with global remote and onsite teams
Required Sr. Change Manager Lead Skills:
The ideal candidate will also have the additional change management experience lists below.
- Experience managing large scale organizational change initiatives
- Experience managing and building cross-functional project and change management teams
- Experience leading multiple projects and supporting various business initiatives
- Experience as an OCM – Change Management Lead for large enterprise-wide business transformations
If you believe you have the change management experience qualifications referenced above, send a copy of your resume to ______ or click _____ here to apply for this change management manager role.
Regards,
<Name of job poster>
What Does a Change Management Consultant Do? Consulting Roles in Change Management
A change management consultant is a professional who works as part of a consulting firm, or who works as an independent change management contractor. A change consultant plays a key role as part of the transformational team and works with project managers, SMEs, program leads, and key sponsors to implement change management best practices and consulting methods and will be focused on leading the people side of change for the transformation initiative.
Change manager roles and responsibilities – consulting/contractor
In the sections above we addressed the “who is responsible to manage change?” question, as well as discussed the various change management expertise and experience often required by employers. In this section we address the question “what does a change consultant really do.”
A change manager is often a full-time employee of an organization. But what if the individual is a contractor or part of a consulting firm? In this case, what will be the key roles and responsibilities of a change management consultant?
The Change Manager (consultant) will work to drive higher proficiency and faster adoption of changes impacting internal and external audiences to ensure optimal results are achieved. A change consultant plays a key role in ensuring and driving critical activities (change initiatives) to meet business and program objectives.
This role focuses on moving impacted audiences from the current business state to the desired future state as quickly and efficiently as possible, including: changes to business processes, systems and technology, job roles, organization structures, and enablement.
While the Organizational Change Management Consultant may not have supervisory responsibility, this person will be required to work cross-functionally with many others to succeed.
Change management roles and responsibilities
Change Management Team Roles, Responsibilities Skills and Qualifications
- A solid understanding of how people go through change and the change process
- A successful, proven track record with large-scale organizational change efforts
- Demonstrated leadership and pro-active thinking
- Familiarity with project management approaches, tools, and phases of the project lifecycle
- Strategic and tactical thinking, with focused attention on details, results, and execution
- Ability to build and maintain strong relationships with team members
- Orchestrate organizational adoption of new processes requiring behavioral and cultural change
- Excellent written communication and training development skills
- Excellent communication, influencing, and organization skills supported by strong problem solving, conflict resolution, and decision-making skills
- Strong organizational and time management skills
- Ability to work effectively at all levels in an organization and have the ability to present to executive management
- Must be a team player and able to work with and through others
- Ability to clearly articulate messages to a variety of audiences
- Ability to establish and maintain strong relationships
- Forward-looking personality with a holistic approach
- Organized with a natural inclination for planning strategies and tactics
- Problem-solving and root cause identification skills
- Able to work effectively at all levels in an organization
- Must be a team player and able to work collaboratively with and through others
- Acute business acumen and understanding of organizational issues and challenges
- Familiarity with project management approaches, tools, and phases of the project lifecycle
- Experience with large-scale organizational change efforts
- Ability to influence others and move toward a common vision or goal
- Can work autonomously while maintaining results-driven objectives
- Experience with managing project teams with complex multi-project deliverables simultaneously
- Experience and knowledge of change management principles and methodologies (example: Kotter methodology, Prosci ADKAR, and many more)
- Communication expertise
- Change Management Professional certification such as Prosci and CCMP
- Expertise in Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint (PC users) | Expertise in Page, Numbers, and Keynotes (Mac users)
- Self-motivated and proactive with excellent problem solving, critical thinking, and team collaboration skills
- Understanding of collaboration, content, and program tools like Slack, ConnectMe, Quip, SharePoint, etc.
- BA or BS degrees. Masters sometimes preferred
Contact AGS if you have additional feedback or questions about: what is a change manager, who is responsible to manage change, or what are the key roles in change management.
Organization Effectiveness Lead – Job Description
The below are examples of what an organizational effectiveness business change management lead does.
- Provide thought leadership
- Identify organizational impediments to successful change adoption and enablement
- Lead business change management planning, design, development and execution
- Support impacted employees, leaders and managers in their change efforts to maximize change adoption and absorption
- Conduct enterprise-wide organizational change readiness
- Coach change sponsors and agents using formal and informal leadership development intervention
- Develop change management plans including communications, training, engagement and change reinforcement
- Coach leaders on effective sponsorship and change leadership
- Assess and monitor change adoption and behavior shifts
- Willing to travel up to 75%
What is a change manager?
A Change Manager is a professional responsible for the planning, development, execution, and monitoring of change management plans and activities including communications, training, stakeholder management, change impact assessment, business readiness analysis, and change reinforcement.
What does a change manager do?
A Change Manager can be certified or non-certified, and they are responsible for managing all aspects of a business change program including delivering effective communications, training, stakeholder management, change impact assessment, and tracking successful change management adoptions.
What is the role of change managers?
Change Managers develop and execute change management plans and strategies to increase adoption of a business change, including changes to processes, technology, tools, policies, and job roles.
What are key roles in change management?
Key roles in change management includes conducting change impact analysis, assessing and managing key stakeholders, developing and implementing effective communication plans, creating and delivering training and engagement. Lastly, key roles involve reinforcing the change.
What does a change management consultant do?
A change management consultant works for a consulting firm or works as an independent consultant for clients. Change consultants plan, deliver, and manage change management plans including communications, engagement, and training to increase change adoption at their clients’ organizations.
For finding the best change management jobs and career, see below:
- Change Management Jobs, Career Path & Salary
- Top 10 Best Change Management Consulting Firms for Consultants
- Finding the Best Change Management Jobs
- Change Management Consultant | Pay Rates, Getting In & More
- Change Management Jobs vs Project Management Jobs
- Change Management Project Manager | Pay Rates & More
- Why Change Management? Everything You Need to Know
If you have any questions or feedback about this article on what Change Managers do, click here and let us know: Contact Airiodion Global Services today.
Note: Content on OCM Solution's ocmsolution.com website is protected by copyright. Should you have any questions or comments regarding this OCM Solution page, please reach out to Ogbe Airiodion (Change Management Lead) or the OCM Solutions Team today. OCM Solution was previously known as Airiodion Global Services (AGS).
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