The development of change management has increased greatly in recent years, from its humble beginnings as a foundational understanding, to being considered a formalised discipline with organisations creating permanent positions for change professionals.
Today you are likely to find over 60,000 change management job roles available at any one time. Just a few years ago the number of roles with change management in their title was less than half this number. This growth in the number of available roles is a strong marker that shows the discipline is maturing rapidly.
Let's explore Prosci's Best Practices research a little further to uncover the trends in job roles:
Trend 1: Prevalence
The data tells us that around 50% of organisations have change management job roles but while 22% of those organisations report they have had those roles for more than 6 years, 57% of these organisations have only had change management roles in place for 3 years or less.
Trend 2: Location
The data tells us that 55% to 75% of organisations in Banking, Insurance, Finance, Services and Pharmaceutical are most likely to have change management roles especially if they are located in countries with high change management maturity (the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand).
The availability of roles is also correlated to the employee and revenue size of the organisation. The larger the organisation the more likely it is to have change management roles. Within a single organisation, 61% of respondents report change management roles being located within a single function, with HR or the PMO being the most popular functions.
Download: Change Management Job Trends
Trend 3: Roles and Titles
Whilst training and communications have long been the foundational change management activities for a practitioner, increasingly, the data tells us organisations are looking for individuals who can drive successful change adoption throughout the whole organisation on multiple projects/programs simultaneously.
63% of respondents report that on average they are supporting the change management activities on between 2 and 4 projects per annum, yet only 49% of respondents have permanent full-time, as opposed to part-time, change management job titles and roles.
Trend 4: Remuneration
43% of respondents report an average salary for a change management role in the range of $100,000 US to $150,000 with an overall average of just over $103,000 from all respondents.
Trend 5: Career Paths
The data tells us that less than 1 in 5 respondents reported that their organisations had a change management career path in place. Even though 73% of organisations also report that they are at or past the point of change saturation, i.e. where the volume and pace of change are more than the organisation is collectively able to absorb and adapt to extract full business value or ROI.
So what are the implications of this data on the options available to professionals looking to take the next step in their career path? How can you successfully differentiate yourself in this growing market? We offer the following 3 suggestions:
1. Consider adding a change management certification to your CV
If you're not already a Prosci certified change management practitioner, this is an important place to start. With more change management job roles being created every day, having something to stand out from the crowd could mean you have a better chance of landing the role. Find out more about the three-day programme.
2. Consider an Advanced Track from Prosci
Prosci have the following Advanced Tracks open to practitioners looking to take the next step.
1. Participate in the 1-day Prosci Enterprise Change Management Bootcamp from CMCGrow organisational capability and agility through the strategic deployment and internalisation of change management throughout your organisation, so that it becomes an organisational core competency.
2. Become a Certified Change Management Professional (CCMP) from ACMP
Again, if you're already a change practitioner, as an alternative and also a complement to your Prosci qualification, CMC recommend practitioners consider solidifying their experience and qualification independently by submitting themselves to the method-neutral CCMP qualification offered by the not for profit industry association ACMP.
More details of the requirements, process, costs and benefits of CCMP accreditation can be found at myccmp.org. With only 460 CCMP's qualified worldwide, this rigorous standard is one way to make yourself stand out in a crowd.