Change Management Consultant

Organizational Change Management Analyst/Readiness Liaison

Boston, MA// Mostly remote, 1 day per week onsite (4 times per month)

Working hours: 37.5 hours/week max

12 months contract with possible extension

Change Management Analyst/Readiness Liaison(s) are change management practitioners responsible for preparing agencies for rollout of the Commonwealth's new financial solution. They assess the readiness of agencies to adopt changing business practices and procedures, and provide support to agencies in these efforts. There will be 8-12 Readiness Liaisons working as change management analysts assigned to work with multiple agencies on readiness tasks. The 150+ agencies using the new solution will be organized into logical groupings, such as by Secretariat, business entity such as District Attorneys' Offices, or by business function, such as users of federal grants management. Each Readiness Liaison will be responsible for one or more of these groups.

These positions play a critical role in the program as there will be business process changes with the new financial solution The successful candidate(s) must have a solid understanding of change management principles, processes, methodologies, and tools, as well as strong organizational, analytical and communication skills. They should also possess the ability to motivate others and build trusted relationships with agency staff.

These positions are part of the Organizational Change Management (OCM) workstream and works under the direction of the CLIENT Readiness Team Lead who reports to the CLIENT OCM Lead. The Readiness Lead and Readiness Liaisons are responsible for creating and managing the end-user readiness strategy and plan.

Readiness Liaisons will:

• The Organizational Change Management Analysts/Readiness Liaisons are expected to clearly articulate the vision and rationale of the CLIENT Program to agency managers and the end-user community, promoting successful understanding and adoption of the new solution and processes across the enterprise. In order to do this successfully, a deep understanding of the new business processes that will be implemented with the new solution and how these differ from current practice must be achieved.

• Promote the adoption of new enterprise functionality supported by the new solution, which may replace existing agency applications in areas such as federal grants management or vendor management. Provide guidance to agencies migrating to the new solution, assisting them in understanding policy and procedure changes related to improved business processes, and emphasizing the importance of adopting and adhering to these new practices.

• Work with agencies to assess their readiness for go-live by maintaining a checklist of tasks that must be completed, such as user training, security provisioning, successful trial access to the new solution, and the ability to meet system requirements for desktops or other setups needed to use the solution successfully and optimally.

• Maintain a list of technical tasks that must be completed by each agency for go-live, including items such as interfaces to and from the new solution, data warehouse queries or extracts, and reports that the agency will need to run from the online system.

• Partner with CLIENT Technical workstream to outline a repeatable process to identify security role(s) for agency end-users to ensure they are provisioned prior to go-live of the new solution.

• Communicate clearly and concisely with diverse audiences, both orally and in written form. Be comfortable giving and receiving feedback. Ensure that communication materials are disseminated to agencies in a timely manner.

Specific Duties

• Experience working with organizations of size similar to the Commonwealth to assess impacts, identify changes needed, and implement an action plan to move from current 'as-is' process to new 'to-be' process.

• Experience evaluating the impact of the changes on each agency by collaborating with CLIENT functional teams, System Integrator (SI), and product vendors to gain a comprehensive understanding of the new or changing business processes.

• Participate in the development of a readiness engagement plan that details the tasks necessary to assure successful preparation of agencies and end-users to adopt the new solution; plan includes schedule of engaging with agencies, identify resources and barriers or areas of support.

• Assist in identifying a team of agency champions who will work with the Readiness Team to prepare their organizations for change. This includes providing support in security provisioning steps and other necessary tasks.

• Create and administer organizational change assessments to gauge agency impacts and readiness. Utilize the assessment results to inform updates for the project plan and rollout and deployment strategy.Responsible for facilitating change network meetings, including educational sessions with agency stakeholders and system end-users to prepare their transition from existing processes to the new enterprise-wide business processes and financial solution. Track attendance and engagement during these sessions and provide coaching to champions as needed on change management topics.

• Apply a structured approach to complete change readiness interviews. These interviews will help assess the readiness of individuals and teams for the upcoming changes.

• Create agency-specific readiness plans that include various aspects such as communications dissemination, organizational and operational readiness, technical readiness, and user security provisioning and training.

• Provide regular, timely status reports regarding current challenges, foreseeable problems, anticipated issues, or potential risks and offer alternatives, possible solutions or mitigation plans.

• Develop and maintain effective relationships with program team members, agency employees, and stakeholders.

• Partner with CLIENT Technical Workstream to manage and update a list of technical and operational readiness-related tasks that agencies must be complete prior to go-live including such items as interfaces to and from the new solution, data warehouse queries or extracts, and reports that the agency will need to run from the online system.

• Work with agency champions to provide post-implementation support, identify issues, and mitigate risks.

Required Skills

• Experience with transformational change initiatives and how to prepare people for technology change.

• Capable of building trusted relationships with front-line leaders and employees at all levels.

• Good business acumen and understanding of organizational issues and challenges.

• Ability to influence others and move toward a common vision or goal.

• Experience working with clients to assess impacts and identify changes needed to move from current "as-is” process to new "to-be” process.

• Excellent business interview skills with the ability to actively listen, analyze and synthesize information.

• Well-developed presentation, communication (oral and written) and interpersonal skills.

• Must be a team player and able to work collaboratively with and through others.

• Exceptional ability to excel in a fast-paced environment, consistently meeting deadlines while effectively resolving conflicts. Demonstrated experience in using computer-based tools including Visio, MSWord, Excel, Power Point and Outlook.

• Experience using Visio to create as-is process maps based on outputs from interviews or working sessions and overlay as-is process on new to-be process.

• Extensive travel to different state agencies, within the Commonwealth, may be required.

• The successful candidate will be an individual who has an energetic, can-do approach to work, who tracks and follows up on tasks independently, who seeks out additional work, and who recommends ways to improve upon current activities.

Preferred Skills

Basic understanding of financial business process functions particularly in large public sector organizations. Some functions include:

• Chart of Accounts

• GAAP reporting

• Federal Grants Management

• Project Management

• Asset and Inventory Tracking and Management

• Procurement and Contracting

• Billing and Accounts Receivable

• Data Reporting and Analytics.

Minimum Entrance Requirements

Bachelor's degree in related field with 3 - 5 years' experience with change management coordination in a large organization.