Salary Range – $120,000 – $150,000 

There is a growing understanding of how critical Change Management professionals are in supporting people through change to achieve high levels of adoption and embedment.

This is particularly evident with regard to technology projects such as digital transformation, technology upgrades and mergers and acquisitions.

Many businesses are investing in their change teams, building practices (framework and artifacts) and rethinking where the change function should sit within their organisation to drive better outcomes for both their company and employees.

Here are a few hot topics within the change function worth considering. But first lets define the key functions and purpose of a Change Manager.

What is the role of a Change Manager?

A change manager plays a key role in ensuring that organisational projects and initiatives meet objectives on time and on budget by increasing employee adoption and usage (source Prosci).

Change managers focus on the impact of change – importantly they aim to minimise the negative effects and maximise the benefits of organisational change.

The practice of change management as it relates to technology provides an important set of controls that can reduce financial loss due to systems outages or changes, reduce lost productivity through the change process, and enhance overall availability of systems.

How can Change Management support Technology Projects?

As you well know, technology changes are some of the biggest challenges to implement within an organisation. Change management formalises the process of technology projects and provides an effective model for management.

This includes:

• Senior-level sponsorship of the project, articulating the goals and the company’s commitment to the change
• Strategic communications to communicate the change before, during and after the change process to different stakeholders and through appropriate channels
• Training prior to launch of the new software, systems and or processes and a high level of support during the change as users learn and implement the change.

Project-to-Project or Enterprise change management – what’s better?

Many leading organisations are shifting from a project-to-project application of change management to institutionalised change management processes, capabilities, and competencies as a competitive differentiator and organisational culture drive. This method is called Enterprise Change Management.

Instead of applying change management to one project after another, under the Enterprise model companies build organisational change management capabilities and competencies to address change as an ongoing and organisational-wide processes.

This allows for people from the very top of the company to the front line personnel to be considered and involved in leading change.

How can we humanize change?

Using behavioural economics to better understand how to connect change to human behaviour can be a powerful tool in achieving desired organisational changes while keeping employees engaged with the process.

The best change professionals have the ability to frame change as an opportunity for both the company and employees to learn and grow.

This article from Deloitte on Humanizing change: Developing more effective change management strategies is a great start for practitioners and strategic leaders alike.

Building the talent pool

In this talent-short market many businesses are broadening their scope when hiring change professionals and driving change within their organisations.

Change resources can come from many fields including operations, technology, customer service, support / admin, training, and even recruitment and with the right support and training can go on to be incredible change professionals or change champions. 

PROSCI is a key qualification

The most in demand skill or training within the change profession is the Prosci’s Change Management Certification Program. It gives participants the knowledge, skills and tools to drive successful change initiatives—no matter how complex or urgent.

Candidates with this certification are highly sort after due to the models results-oriented approach to managing change based on the mantra that company-wide change happens one person at a time! 

Newcastle Change Community of Practice

If you are a change professional, based in Newcastle, and are interested in meeting other like mind people in your profession you can join the Newcastle Change Community of Practice here. The group meets regularly to discuss key issues and topics related to change management. We look forward to seeing you there.

If your looking to build your change management function or seeking advice on salaries contact Clare Weir on [email protected] or 0438 412 252 today.