​If you’ve been considering a career change, then a career in change may be just the thing.

We’ve seen a shift in 2023 as teams continue to adapt to hybrid-working, putting more pressure on change managers to get internal messaging right. New structures, new tech, new ways of work: It’s vital that organisations consider human behaviour and can communicate a clear message for anything new to succeed.

As such, there’s been a surge in demand for strong change managers, but the candidate pool is relatively small. So, if you’re transitioning to a career in change management, here’s what you need to know.

What is change management?

Change management is the structured approach to planning and implementing change in an organisation. That could be related to things like an org restructure, the introduction of new technology and systems, or strategic culture change.

Most change won’t succeed without employees adopting new ways of working. This is why project management of the change and communicating information about the change go hand in hand.

Why is communication such an important skill for change managers?

Effective change management requires One of the most critical aspects of change is clearly communicating what is changing and how that affects the audience. Three things generally happen when people are kept in the dark about what a new project or change process will bring:

1. They tend to make up their own opinions about what is going to happen and how they’ll be affected (and it probably won’t be a positive view).
2. They’ll feel disconnected and disengaged with the change process, and perhaps feel devalued as they aren’t being included in conversations and planning.
3. When people aren’t included, they become sceptical and resistant to change efforts, negatively affecting achievement of the desired change, and potentially causing long term damage to engagement.

We’re seeing a mid-level push for change managers in a candidate-short market. There aren’t enough ‘technically qualified’ change specialists, so we’ve been working with clients to identify candidates with highly desirable transferable skills.

What transferable skills suit a change role?

Change managers require experience with the end to end management of a change project, including the development of change management plans. However, while previously seen more for their project management skills (which remain essential), there’s now greater emphasis on communication and marketing skills to effectively manage and communicate the change process in an increasingly virtual environment.

The current demand for change managers requires them to be strong communicators with maybe a marketing or design thinking/human centred design lens. These approaches put the end-user in mind and ensure the team is constantly re-evaluating the change messaging for stronger employee engagement.

How can you incorporate human-centred design principles in change management?

One practical way to incorporate human-centered design principles in change management is to make the employee the focus of the solution. This can be achieved through various methods such as conducting design thinking workshops, involving employees in the co-creation process, creating journey maps, or developing personas that give a deep understanding of the most important factors. By including just a few of these innovative techniques, you can enhance the customization of any change plan.

Current market for change roles and salaries

You can expect to see the following salary range for change managers in 2023:

Interested?

I have several opportunities for change managers who are superstars at producing change communication that provides an accurate and understandable context of why the changes need to occur.

Get in touch with me, Alex Smith to learn more.