Working As Change Manager: All That You Need To Know

There are innumerable job opportunities available with just a click over the internet. If you have no idea about what exactly a change manager is? Let us tell you. Ever wondered about the possibilities of how companies manage the constant changes that occur daily, these changes can be anything and can also lead to a mess which in turn can be the biggest hurdle for a company’s growth.

Despite adhering to the popular trends of business management, there is a change manager who accompanies, monitors and supervises processes of operational changes. They work in such a manner that all the changes that are being carried out in the workplace are undertaken efficiently and straightforwardly without any discrepancies. The nature of the company or industry depends on how well they go through the changes and how it responds and tackles them with proficiency.

Working as a Change Manager

Change managers are employees who lead change management programs. In any company or industry, there are a lot of changes that take place. Changes in the political, global or technical areas are necessary for any company to adopt new working techniques for growth and development. These employees are certified in conducting these structured changes. They initiate documents and authorize change processes in a company. Their day-to-day tasks include the strategic design of organizational development, justifying changes and restructuring and estimating the costs, effects, advantages, and possible risks.

• They are in charge of developing an appropriate change plan which will be required to carry out the changes in the company. The plans will be based on situational analysis as well as conflict analysis.
• Their responsibilities include documentation, constant exchange, and continuous monitoring of all aspects of a process.
• Conducting individual discussions and team meetings and managing internal corporate communication.
• They ensure that there is a balance of interest and help the manager implement the following necessary changes which are needed for the smooth functioning of the company.

Here are some of the tasks that come under the Change Manager job description:

1. Designing the strategic approach to manage changes and support operations.
2. Leading the change management activities with a structured process.
3. Training and communication activities in the company. Training activities include designing specialized training resources to the appropriate user base.
4. Evaluating the impact of the change and organizing the readiness for the change to limit the potential risk that comes with the change.
5. Providing actionable guidelines on reducing the impact of the change.
6. Coordinating with the CAB ( Change Advisory Board) for the changes that have a higher risk of affecting the company.
7. Authorizing minor changing requests.
8. Providing post-implementation reviews on the decisions and performances.

What is a CAB?

It is a team that controls the course of changes which take place within the company. It involves high-level members from different domains which includes security, operations, development, networking, service desk, and business relations. There is also an Emergency Change Advisory Board (ECAB) which is a body within the CAB that deals with the emergency changes that occur and that needs immediate action.

ECAB body assures that there are necessary resources available to make the right decision at the right time and that will be the process of communicating it with the managers and other people working in the company. The ECAB has a similar role to the CAB but they are focused on emergency changes.

Skills required to be a Change Manager

Firstly you require a Bachelor’s degree in the field of Business Administration and Management and further a Master’s Degree in Change Management which is the basic qualification needed in this business management field. It requires professional experience as well and so this role must have a prior practical experience in Change management. Apart from these, having certified in the fields related to Change management can elevate your resume and can increase the possibility of you getting a job. There are a lot of certificate courses available over the Internet like 

1. Change Management Certification Training Program
2. Change Management
3. Change Management Institute

You can go through these links and enroll yourself and increase the credibility of your resume. Change Management functions are distributed in teams and these teams have different roles as the changes which are taking place can be different and it will not be possible for a particular team to carry out all the working procedures. Individuals within these teams will be responsible for carrying our specific roles considering their skills and background experience.

Different roles are:

1. The change approver is responsible for initially approving the change request before it is sent to the change manager and CAB for a final decision.
2. Change requestor who is responsible for initiating, preparing, and submitting a change request. The change requestor also discusses the impact assessment by collecting data and communicating it with other company stakeholders.
3. Change owner who is responsible for checking that the necessary tests have been carried out so that the change request is followed by appropriate urgency.

What is the salary of a Change Manager?

Lastly, the question arises, what will you be paid as a change manager? 

We are sure you must be curious to know this. Now depending upon the responsibilities of a change manager, it keeps varying as the change process can be both a long-term process as well as it can be a short-term process as well depending on the changes and how professionally it is dealt with. It also depends on the company, and how much resources they have to adapt to the necessary changes.

So factors such as the size of the company or industry, resources, and experience play a major role in this. The starting salary of a change manager is around $52,000 gross per year. The average salary is around $90,000.  The salary may also differ on the seniority level as well the average salary of a senior change manager rises to over $135,000.

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