Change Management Specialist Spotlight

You can’t make progress without change. Those new processes and ideas can make people uncomfortable though, so Change Management Specialists develop a plan to help the affected people in a company accept and embrace operational changes, new tools and new processes in a reasonable period of time.

What a typical day looks like:

Before change takes place, Change Management Specialists can be found working as part of a project team identifying different ways people will be affected, conducting impact and change readiness assessments, and highlighting which groups might need more support to get onboard. Once they have figured out how the suggested change might affect employees and other stakeholders, they develop an overall change management strategy and plan.

This strategy often includes a roll-out plan that highlights training schedules, communications processes and leadership support that will help ease the transition. They work closely with Communications, IT and Human Resources representatives to help share information about why the change is happening and the impact it will have to the organization and the employees. They may even facilitate stakeholder workshops as part of the rollout.

They also provide assistance, direction and coaching to organizational leaders, mid-level managers and other stakeholders on how to handle “people change” issues that may come up. 

After the change happens, they support the organization leaders, employees and stakeholders and make sure the changes to how and what work is done are: adopted and used with accuracy and proficiency.

Change Management Specialists work in an office setting and usually work standard office hours. There are occasionally field visits involved if job sites or remote offices are affected by the suggested change.

The kinds of problems Change Management Specialists solve at work:

A Change Management Specialist not only has to plan ways to streamline the change process for a company, but they also need to adjust that plan as change progresses. They monitor employee sentiment, progress against goals and timelines and change the plan as needed to make sure the change is successfully implemented.

Skills used most on the job:

Change Management Specialists interact with many different people across the organization, so they need to have excellent communication skills. They are also strong project managers, and analytical thinkers.

Change is good. At least, it can be. Change Management Specialists are there to help their company’s employees, managers and stakeholders adjust to changes in a seamless and painless way.