Senior Change Manager – Stakeholder Engagement & Adoption

JOB PURPOSE:

The Senior Change Manager ensures that new solutions, products, processes and technology deployments are understood, adopted and sustained so that they deliver their intended business value. The role closes the gap between what is built or deployed and what people use.

The role establishes and leads stakeholder engagement, organisational change management and adoption across people, processes and technology. It works with executive sponsors, client stakeholders, Product, Technology, PMO, Service Delivery and HR to secure alignment, address resistance, prepare users for change and monitor sustained adoption.

The role serves both internal transformation programmes and client-facing deployments by Heirs Technologies. Performance is assessed through stakeholder alignment, readiness, adoption, behavioural change and contribution to measurable outcomes and not the completion of communications or training activities.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

1. Stakeholder Engagement and Management

• Develop stakeholder engagement strategies and plans for internal programmes, product launches and client deployments.

• Map stakeholder influence, interests, expectations and change impacts; identify formal sponsors, informal influencers, supporters and resistant groups.

• Secure visible executive sponsorship and build trusted relationships with clients, business owners, functional leaders and end users.

• Run stakeholder consultations, workshops, demonstrations and structured feedback sessions; manage conflicting expectations and decisions.

• Establish Change Champion networks and equip managers and sponsors with messaging, decision briefs and engagement tools.

• Track alignment, stakeholder sentiment, outstanding concerns and engagement effectiveness; escalate unresolved risks and close feedback loops.

2. Change Strategy and Framework Ownership

• Design, document and maintain the HT change management framework, drawing on ADKAR and Kotter and adapting it to the delivery lifecycle.

• Develop proportionate change strategies and plans for each major deployment, covering people, processes, technology, capabilities, roles and operating models.

• Conduct change impact assessments, stakeholder analysis and readiness assessments early in each programme.

• Define change governance, sponsor responsibilities, decision rights, escalation paths, deliverables and readiness gates.

• Integrate change activities into programme initiation, design, deployment, hypercare and post-implementation review.

• Coordinate with HR on workforce implications and with PMO on programme dependencies, sequencing and cumulative change fatigue.

3. Adoption of Solutions, Products and Technology

• Lead the adoption workstream across new technologies, products, redesigned processes and ways of working for internal and agreed client scopes.

• Build adoption roadmaps from awareness and readiness through proficiency, active usage and sustained use.

• Agree adoption targets, measurement approaches and baselines with business owners and programme sponsors before go-live.

• Coordinate training, onboarding, user guides, SOPs and knowledge resources with Product, Delivery, HR and HT Academy.

• Provide a business readiness recommendation to the formal go/no-go forum; collaborate on hypercare, reinforcement and transition to business-as-usual.

• Identify underused features, legacy workarounds, capability gaps and adoption barriers; coordinate targeted corrective action with accountable teams.

4. Evangelism and Communication

• Lead compelling change communications explaining what is changing, why it matters and the value for each audience.

• Design and run communication campaigns, town halls, demonstrations, workshops and user engagement sessions.

• Equip executive sponsors, line managers and Change Champions to communicate consistently and reinforce new behaviours.

• Share early wins and evidence-backed success stories while ensuring honest communication about unresolved concerns.

5. Resistance Management and Stakeholder Feedback

• Segment stakeholder groups by support and readiness, then assess the root causes of resistance without assuming that concerns are unfounded.

• Design one-to-one engagement, coaching, process changes and product feedback interventions appropriate to each issue.

• Work with Product, Technology and business owners to resolve usability or process issues that hinder adoption.

• Monitor movement in stakeholder sentiment and the resolution of material concerns; maintain trust through transparent follow-up.

6. Adoption Measurement, Benefits Tracking and Reporting

• Define adoption success metrics, baselines and deployment-specific targets before release.

• Maintain dashboards using system usage, proficiency assessments, user surveys, process compliance and support data.

• Report adoption status, barriers, trends, corrective actions and decisions required to sponsors and management.

• Partner with business owners to link adoption with efficiency, revenue, cost, customer experience and approved benefits.

• Run post-implementation adoption reviews and capture lessons for the change framework and future deployments.

7. Portfolio-Level Change Coordination

• Maintain an enterprise view of major change initiatives, affected user populations, readiness, dependencies and capacity constraints.

• Coordinate standards, templates and governance with the PMO and relevant functions to make change management repeatable.

• Provide executive management with a consolidated view of material readiness, stakeholder and adoption risks.

KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS (ADOPTION SUCCESS METRICS)

Targets are illustrative only and will be calibrated for each deployment at the planning stage. Adoption metrics require a defined intended-user base, agreed data source and baseline. Business owners remain accountable for approved business-case benefits.

Dimension KPI How it is measured Target

Stakeholder Stakeholder alignment Sponsor participation, engagement milestones and stakeholder feedback Agreed by programme

Coverage Change plan coverage In-scope programmes with approved change and engagement plans Agreed by portfolio

Readiness Change readiness score Assessment of awareness, desire, knowledge, ability and support Go-live threshold agreed

Reach Activation rate Onboarded and active users / intended users Calibrated by deployment

Usage Active usage rate Relevant weekly or monthly active users / intended users Calibrated by deployment

Depth Feature / process utilisation Core features used and transactions following the intended process Calibrated by deployment

Proficiency User proficiency rate Users demonstrating required tasks or passing competency checks Calibrated by role

Speed Time to adoption Days from go-live to target adoption level Agreed by deployment

Resistance Adoption barrier resolution Material barriers closed within agreed timeframes Agreed by programme

Sustainment Legacy reversion rate Continued use of retired tools or unauthorised workarounds Trend towards zero

Support Adoption-related tickets How-to and access support tickets per 100 relevant users Declining as users stabilise

Value Benefits contribution Evidence of adoption contribution to approved business-case benefits Tracked with business owner

CHANGE MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK

The Change Manager owns a five-phase framework across people, process and technology, embedded in HT’s delivery lifecycle. Gates provide evidence for sponsor or programme governance decisions; the Change Manager recommends readiness but does not unilaterally approve technical go-live.

Phase Key activities Exit criterion / gate

1. Assess & Plan Impact assessment, stakeholder mapping, readiness baseline, change and engagement plans, adoption metrics Sponsor approves change plan and targets

2. Engage & Evangelise Sponsor activation, messaging, demonstrations, consultations, Change Champions Agreed awareness and engagement thresholds achieved Phase Key activities Exit criterion / gate

3. Enable & Equip Role-based training, SOPs, user guides, proficiency checks and support readiness Readiness recommendation documented; support model prepared

4. Deploy & Adopt Go-live support, hypercare, usage tracking, targeted interventions Adoption progress assessed; transition actions agreed

5. Measure & Sustain Dashboards, reinforcement, review of legacy workarounds, benefits tracking and lessons Ongoing ownership transferred; benefits tracked by business owner