To quote Peter Garrett (in his glory days with Midnight Oil) “The time has come” and for change management professionals, that time is now! But this hasn’t been, and won’t be, an overnight thing. On the contrary, the evolution and proliferation of change management as a critical HR competence is going to shift the paradigm for organisations and human resources as HR becomes a well-understood commercial enabler.
To say that there is a growing demand for change management professionals is an understatement! 12 months ago, there were near to 300 change management positions advertised per month on Seek across Australia per month. Today, that average has doubled to approximately 600, possibly higher. If you have an HR/ OD background and demonstrated change management competence you are a wanted candidate! You are in demand!
Without sound change management, projects carry more risk of failure.
Back to the earlier point about the shifting paradigm for HR. As a result of perhaps the GFC, in many organisations, HR has become relegated to a less than strategic function – it has become branded as a cost centre again. But the short and long term strategic value that HR can deliver today through change management activities highlights the opportunity here. HR become indisposable, the most critical element to ensuring that organisational change is delivered to plan. Without sound change management, projects generally become higher cost, carry more risk of failure and the likelihood of individuals throughout the organisation embracing the change (and therefore making it a successful change) become less. For many organisations, this is a risk that cannot be faced, as change/ restructure/ new technology can be fundamental to their ongoing relevance and survival.
But change management isn’t new. In fact the very essence of change management “using systems, processes and tools to shift individual (and organisation’s) behaviours” has been a part of our civilisation since the very early days. Obviously, as society has become more sophisticated, so too has the science behind change management. It was the re-engineering practices of consulting firms from the last century who were the fore-fathers to what we now know today as change management. So really, since the mid 80’s, change management practices have helped drive organisation success.
The time has come for change management professionals.
So why the sudden increase in demand for this competence? Three words sum it up – “adapt to survive”. There are many examples of how this plays out:
- With the rate of change of technology, companies must holistically embrace new systems and approaches to doing business.
- With company profits under pressure, and Boards constantly asking for more from less, an organisation must look at how it can do things better – and quickly realise the gains.
- Australian companies have weathered the storm of the GFC and have fared surprisingly well… but this cannot last forever, and so we are now seeing many Australian companies biting the bullet and making the changes that they hoped they wouldn’t have to.
And there are many more. The one common skillset that works across all of these situations and assists in realising the goals of the change most effectively, is change management. And now, more than ever, our country needs the best change managers.
Change management is an exciting field and puts HR right at the table. Regardless of the size of change, the principles and practices of change management will improve the ROI. The time has come for change management professionals.
deliberatepractice is a specialised change management consultancy that assists companies to adapt and prosper.