Why You Should Start a Career in Change Management
There’s never been a better time to be a change manager. Thanks to increased digitalization, remote work opportunities, and evolving customer demands, businesses are in a state of constant change. So, if you’re looking to start a career in a field on an upward trend, then change management is right for you.
Change management helps a company to plan and execute cohesive change strategies. This leads to improved work processes and higher employee productivity. Half the battle of change management involves getting people to accept change.
Knowing you’ve played a crucial role in transforming change processes offers a great sense of achievement, especially when you convert change resisters to change champions.
If you’re forward-thinking, a natural leader, and enjoy the challenge of transforming mindsets, then change management might be the role for you. This article explains how to land a job as a change manager, the skills needed to thrive in the role, and the exciting future of change management.
How Can You Get Into Change Management?
The first step is making sure you have the right qualifications. Most change manager jobs require a Bachelor’s degree in business. Additionally, having experience in organizational psychology or business-related fields gives you a great advantage. Most positions also require specific knowledge and certifications in change methodologies.
What skills do I need?
The following skills will help propel your career in change management:
- Leadership
- Well-organized
- Problem-solving
- Interpersonal skills
- Able to oversee large projects
- Excellent communication skills
Change management careers are slightly unconventional. It’s not your typical line of work with structured duties but a flexible discipline requiring creativity. You’ll need to be a strong personality who can make quick decisions.
The Need for Practical Experience
Although you can get certifications as a change manager, practical experience sets you apart from the competition. This is common with all project management roles, where a qualification alone won’t suffice.
Anyone can learn the process, but it takes a particular type of individual to perform well in a change management position. Qualifications won’t help you secure staff buy-in or resources, nor will they help you gain the respect of stakeholders. You need practical experience to excel in organizational change management.
You learn communication skills in the real world. Meaningful interactions will drive successful change management. Some companies resort to throwing prospective change managers in at the deep end so they can learn on the job. Project management experience builds character and encourages you to take a proactive approach to organizational development.
Why Change Management?
Companies are growing every day; that’s the nature of business. As a change manager, your job is to ensure transformations run as smoothly as possible.
A company might be looking to create more remote work opportunities or install technology during a digital transformation. To help a company achieve its aims, change managers focus on the human side of transformation.
If you consider yourself a people person, who enjoys helping people grow, change management might be the role for you. Still not convinced? Here are some of the many reasons why you should choose change management.
Variety
Businesses are undergoing complex, large-scale transformations to keep up with the competition. The direction of change is different from one company to the next. You’ll work to change processes, tools, people, mindsets, and leaders. If you gravitate towards variety, change management can offer that.
Continuous Development
The nature of a change manager is to inspire continuous growth. This growth manifests as improved business processes, increased productivity, and a happier workplace. But change management also provides an opportunity for personal growth.
You’ll learn new skills and adapt to changes in customer demands and workplace standards. Each job will bring challenges and rewards. Change management offers a chance to develop continuously.
Delivery
A successful change manager delivers results. Organizations are always looking for ways to improve efficiency through new technologies, new business models, and solutions. But they often run into the problem of low engagement. Employees resist change and fail to adopt new ways of work, resulting in a low return on investment (ROI) for the company.
Your job as a change management consultant is to deliver a high ROI by increasing engagement in new processes. You’ll use a comprehensive change management strategy to train and support workers during a change initiative. You can take pride in knowing you’ve increased the likelihood of project success.
Leadership
Your role as a change manager will test your leadership abilities. Stakeholders will look to you to enact change across many teams. You’ll need strong leadership capabilities to help companies achieve their business outcomes.
Not only will you impact business operations, but you’ll also work to shift cultural attitudes within an organization. If change leadership is enforced correctly, your work as a change manager will influence a culture of change. You’ll also encourage a workforce to embrace future transformations.
Perspective
A career as a change management consultant offers a unique position to view how change transpires across an organization. You’ll see firsthand how small decisions impact large organizational changes. The knowledge gained from having this perspective is unlike any other role.
New & Emerging Paths In The Change Management Industry
We’ve highlighted emerging roles in the industry for ambitious change management consultants. If you’re looking for new change manager jobs to broaden your knowledge and expertise, these are the potential paths you can take.
Here are some exciting new opportunities in organizational change management.
Application of Advanced Change Management on Complex Projects
Companies with complex, large-scale change projects seek out project managers with advanced skill sets. They look for change managers with the best experience and know-how to apply the correct change management model to each job.
Current trends show that more organizations are taking on complex change initiatives. A recent McKinsey survey demonstrates the need for large-scale change management. Their data shows that organizations that took 24 or more actions achieved a 78% success rate.
These companies involve a higher number of employees in their projects. So, they require change managers to oversee more responsibilities. Advanced change managers will soon be in high demand.
These emerging change management positions can take your career to the next level.
Capability Deployment with Advanced Change Management
Organizations are looking to increase their change capabilities. They need help improving their agility, building better strategies, and planning around potential risks.
These businesses are looking for highly skilled change professionals with the experience to improve their change management efforts. Advanced deployment leaders meet the criteria. The trajectory of the change management industry points to an increase in these positions in the coming years.
Instruction and Facilitation of Advanced Change Management
Change projects must involve everyone within an organization to achieve the best results. Employees need to accept and engage with change, and they need to know how to change. Change managers train and support employees throughout the process to meet business objectives.
According to current trends, training is becoming a top priority for organizations. Companies look for instructors to coach change leaders, hold training events and create change management training programs. Consider a career as an advanced change instructor if this sounds like the fit for you.
5 Trends in the Global Market for Change Management Jobs
Now that the global market recognizes change management as a leadership discipline, more companies are hiring permanent change managers. Current estimates say there are around 60,000 available positions, much higher than a few years ago.
To prepare for a career as a change management consultant, you need to know the industry’s future. We’ve looked at five global market trends for change management jobs.
Location
Most finance, service, and pharmaceutical companies with change management consultant roles are set to grow in the coming years. These positions are most likely found in countries with high change management maturity, like the USA, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
Roles & Titles
Larger organizations are making room for multiple change management consultant positions. There’s also an increase in the amount of investment into employee onboarding and training for these roles, opening up opportunities for coaching roles alongside consultancy.
Prevalence
Change management lead roles have boomed over the past three years, with many companies creating permanent positions for change project managers. After the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses worldwide realized the importance of adaptability. As a result, organizations have sought out change managers to oversee their transformations.
Remuneration
With the variety found in change management, it can be hard to pin down the average salary. But based on research from Indeed, the average salary for a change management role in the USA is $58,364 per year. According to their labor statistics, top companies, including Meta, pay upwards of $140,000 annually.
Career Paths
As we’ve explored throughout this guide, there are multiple directions you can take as a change manager. You could become a change management consultant, start your own consultancy firm, or transition to a change management analyst. Within the role of change manager, there is endless variety in the projects you’ll be working on, always room for more complex business administration projects.
Prospective Career Paths In Change Management For 2022
Looking at prospective career paths in change management, we discover several ways to expand your knowledge and experience in 2022.
Change Management Certifications
Qualifications are a great jumping-off point. The Change Management institution (CMI) certification is an affordable option for those looking to learn the ropes of change management. Their courses begin at $525 at the foundational level to $1050 for the master level.
For a modern approach to change management, the ADT certification is ideal. They offer a 14-hour, leadership-orientated course for around $1495. Depending on your learning needs, there is a course for everyone.
Prosci Advanced Track
If you’re a fast learner hoping to get stuck in a change management consultant role as soon as possible, consider the Prosci Advanced Track. Prosci offers a range of certifications that guide students through the ADKAR model for organizational change.
Prosci is a well-respected industry leader in change management education. They’ve crafted an advanced track certification based on years of research on change management strategies. The knowledge and skills you gain will help you tackle the diversity of change management challenges.
Become A Certified Change Management Professional (CCMP)
The CCMP is a stamp of approval, letting an organization know that you can implement large-scale change for meaningful growth. The change management certification has become a standard in the industry. If you prefer a practical approach to training, this may be the best prospective path for you.
Becoming a Certified Change Management Professional means you have the skills and the experience to strengthen your resume. The practical focus of the CCMP means you’ll feel familiar working within an organization, taking a hands-on approach to guiding their change initiative.
Changing Attitudes About Change
The role of a change manager is to change attitudes toward the change process. The current state of the business world requires a shift in the mindsets of executives and employees alike. Effecting change capability by transforming people’s work is no easy task, but the rewards are plentiful.
Any good change manager knows that you must approach change holistically to achieve meaningful results. This means changing processes, business models, and employee behaviors simultaneously. Change can be gradual, but if it isn’t widespread, then the entire business stalls.
If you can picture yourself in a future position, tackling the issues we’ve mentioned above, then change management is the role for you. Take the plunge and start a rewarding career as a change management consultant today.