Change Management Consultant

Northwestern Mutual•Franklin, WI

2d•$89,360 - $154,200•Hybrid

About The Position

Leads small to medium change management efforts, focusing on the people side of change and influencing behavior. This includes efforts involving changes to people, processes, technology, and/or culture to realize business outcomes and benefits. The role creates an integrated approach and implements change management, communication, and training plans to minimize employee/field resistance and maximize engagement to drive adoption of change. Collaborates with leaders, stakeholders, sponsors, and project teams to develop overall plans for navigating change, identifying the scope and impact of change.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Business, Human Resources, Communication, or a related field.
Minimum of 5 years of relevant professional experience.
In-depth understanding of how people go through change and the change process.
Experience and knowledge of change management principles and methodologies.
Strong communication and stakeholder management skills to influence others and ability to articulate vision, strategy and solutions that best meet business objectives.
Familiarity with project management approaches, tools, and phases of the project lifecycle.
Entrepreneurial mindset that supports the ability to lead in new and ambiguous situations.
Ability to build relationships and effectively execute in a collaborative and matrixed environment.
Excellent active listening, root cause identification, and interpersonal skills.

Nice To Haves

Change management experience supporting an operational business partner preferred.

Responsibilities

Applies NM change methodology and process to deliver the people side of change required to achieve desired business outcomes.
Identifies potential people-related risks and anticipated points of resistance and develops and recommends specific plans to mitigate or address concerns.
Develops change management plans and activities, including training, communication, and sponsorship. Designs and implements actionable and targeted change plans to meet deliverables and achieve stated objectives, using established tools and techniques. Guides others to execute the plans to drive adoption and optimize business benefits.
Manages potential impact of changes to people, process, technology, organization, and culture.
Partners with project and business leadership to identify scope and impact of change.
Identifies and escalates change plan gaps or deficiencies within projects or business groups and provides updates to leaders as needed.
Educates, influences, aligns, and coaches sponsors, leaders, and project teams to drive effective change, manage resistance, and optimize project success.
In partnership with the enterprise change COE, acts as an active member of the change practitioner network to share and advance change competencies of the company.
Adopts and promotes common NM enterprise-wide change process, methodology, and language.
Creates and oversees measurement systems for change success, e.g., adoption, utilization, performance standards, etc.