Description
Organizational Change Management Specialist
Xylem |ˈzīləm|
1) The tissue in plants that brings water upward from the roots;
2) a leading global water technology company.
Xylem, a leading global water technology company dedicated to solving the world’s most challenging water issues, is the leading global provider of efficient, innovative and sustainable water technologies improving the way water is used, managed, conserved and re-used. Our international team is unified in a common purpose: creating advanced technology and other trusted solutions to solve the world’s water challenges. We are committed to creating an organization of inclusion and diversity, where everyone feels involved, respected, valued and connected, and where everyone is free to bring their authentic selves and ideas.
If you are excited and passionate about helping us #letssolvewater, we want to hear from you!
The Role: The Organizational Change Management (OCM) Specialist will lead strategy and delivery to ensure new IT systems and software meet their project objectives, with a focus on Finance, Procurement and Supply Chain functions. This position reports to the Director of Organizational Change Management and Training for IT. The OCM Specialist is responsible for creating and implementing an OCM strategy, related plans, and delivering activities that maximize employee adoption and usage of new tools and processes while minimizing resistance. The OCM Specialist trains and mentors finance and business colleagues to support local OCM activities. The OCM Specialist works directly with the IT project and finance leads on implementation plans to integrate OCM, communications, and training milestones and activities into the project plan and is accountable for results. This role may be remote based.
Essential Duties/Principal Responsibilities:
- Apply a structured methodology and lead change management activities: Independently develops comprehensive change strategy and related plans to support the adoption and utilization of IT systems, products, and processes.
- Prepare key change roles: Coach and advise senior leaders, people managers, and project leaders to perform their roles in change. Train key change roles and OCM resources to identify and resolve resistance to the change.
- Assess change impact: Identify key stakeholders, conduct impact analyses, and assess change readiness. Interpret results, escalate potential issues and risks, and recommend solutions and best practices.
- Lead change management efforts: Develops and is accountable for the execution of change management tasks and workstreams.
- Manage delivery: Establish key change milestones and delivery timelines, partner with project managers, product owners, and finance leads. Train and mentor project, finance, and business colleagues responsible for change management activities to ensure quality and on-time delivery.
- Lead communication efforts: Lead development and execution of communications plan for internal corporate-wide and/or department-specific employee communications related to IT initiatives. Create and design all communications deliverables including, but not limited to, strategic presentations, executive memos, leader messages, manager tool kits and Frequently Asked Questions). Identify appropriate channels and tailor messages to segmented audiences. Develop creative methods for stakeholder communications. Partner with corporate and local communications teams to deliver regional and enterprise messages.
- Direct training efforts: Gather and document requirements, create or review training materials, prepare train-the-trainers, schedule training sessions, and support training delivery.
- Address resistance: Plan and work with change roles to identify and mitigate user resistance. Develop and implement change champions network plan and maintain engagement throughout project.
- Establish change metrics: Create and report user adoption metrics to report the effectiveness of the change management delivery. Gather lessons learned, recommend actions to address lagging metrics, and work with key change roles to engage users.
Minimum Qualifications: Education, Experience, Skills, Abilities, License/Certification:
- Undergraduate degree in business, change management, organization effectiveness, communications, or related concentration is required
- Prosci change management certification or equivalent (global issuer list)
- 7-to-10 years of OCM experience, including communications and training
- Fluency in English – written and oral
- Expertise in delivering and leading change management, communications, and training activities in global and matrixed organization
- Experience supporting multiple IT procurement and supply chain solutions such as SAP Ariba, GEP, or Coupa for global organizations
- Strategic thinker with an executive presence and the ability to work with and influence senior leaders
- Comfortable with ambiguity and able to logically assess and address risks and issues; escalate as necessary
- Work well under pressure and effectively and professionally navigates situations
- Superior project management skills (Waterfall and Agile) with demonstrated experience with on-time and on-budget delivery
- Able to manage a globally dispersed cross-functional or cross-departmental team
- Track record of delivering results such as user readiness and adoption, and return on investment
- Proficient with Microsoft 365 applications (SharePoint, Teams, Forms, Project, Stream, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint)
Preferred Qualifications:
- MBA or graduate degree in change management, organization effectiveness, communications, or related concentration required preferred
- Track record of mentoring internal and vendor team members to execute organizational change management activities
- Skilled in global finance, procurement, and supply chain functions
- Experience working in the manufacturing sector
We Offer You More Than Just “A Job”
- Professional Development – To advance the capabilities of our people, we offer a wide variety of experiences to support our employees’ professional growth and continuous learning.
- Total Rewards – We offer comprehensive programs for compensation, benefits, recognition, learning and development, work-life integration and corporate citizenship.
- Watermark – Watermark is our corporate social responsibility program working to provide education and access to safe water to ensure healthy lives, gender equality, and resilient communities. Employees have the opportunity to learn and volunteer on various water-related projects.
- Employee Networks – Our Employee Networks provide a professional, supportive network for employees from diverse backgrounds, including Women’s, LGBT+ and Allies, Veteran’s, People of Color and Allies, Hispanic Origin & Latin Affinity, Emerging Leaders, and Working Parents Networks.
Physical Demands/Work Environment:
(The physical demands and work environment described here are representative of those an employee encounters and must be met to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.)
- Regularly required to sit or stand, reach, bend and move about the facility
- May require travel to project sites.
- Employee use of personal protective equipment (PPE) may be required in certain situations.
- Employee must comply with all local regulations and published Company work rules as well as written instructions.
Work Environment:
(The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.)
- Office: Standard office equipment; work usually performed in an office setting free from any disagreeable elements.
- Regularly required to sit, stand, walk, and reach with hands and arms
- Will require travel to project sites
- Frequently required to communicate orally
- Ability to use hands and fingers dexterously to operate office equipment
- Vision abilities required by this job include close vision
- Employee use of personal protective equipment (PPE) may be required in certain situations
- Employee must comply with all local regulations and published Company work rules as well as written instructions
- Travel: Up to 25%
Xylem is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, national or ethnic origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, protected veteran status or other characteristics protected by law.