Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Change and Communications Manager

🎯 Role Definition

The Change and Communications Manager designs and delivers integrated change programmes and communications strategies that drive adoption, minimize resistance and ensure measurable business outcomes. This role partners with business leaders, HR, L&D and IT to translate strategic initiatives into stakeholder-focused plans that combine change impact assessments, targeted engagement, multi-channel communication, training enablement and measurement of adoption and sentiment. The ideal candidate brings demonstrable experience in organisational change frameworks (e.g., Prosci/ADKAR), strong internal communications craft (storytelling, executive comms, campaign planning) and the ability to influence senior stakeholders to achieve sustainable behaviour change.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Internal Communications Specialist
Change Analyst / Change Coordinator
Organisational Development or HR Business Partner

Advancement To:

Senior Change & Communications Manager
Head of Change and Communications / Director of Change
Transformation Programme Director

Lateral Moves:

Employee Experience Lead
Learning & Development Manager
Stakeholder Engagement Manager

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Lead end-to-end change management for medium to large-scale transformation programmes, developing change strategies, governance, timelines and resourcing plans that align to business objectives and programme milestones.
Create and execute integrated communications plans (internal and stakeholder) that include audience segmentation, key messages, channel strategies (email, intranet, Yammer/Teams, town halls, video, social), cadence and content calendars to drive awareness and adoption.
Conduct change impact assessments and stakeholder mapping to identify groups affected by change, determine readiness levels, and design targeted interventions to mitigate resistance and accelerate adoption.
Develop and maintain a robust stakeholder engagement plan, building trust with senior leaders and sponsors through briefing packs, leadership talking points, coaching sessions and sponsor roadmaps that ensure visible and active leadership.
Design and deliver training enablement and adoption programs in collaboration with L&D, including train-the-trainer materials, role-based learning paths, job aids, quick reference guides and hands-on workshops to embed new ways of working.
Produce compelling, audience-appropriate content such as executive updates, FAQs, intranet articles, newsletters, video scripts and leadership presentations that clearly articulate the case for change and desired behavioural outcomes.
Manage the change communications calendar and channel mix to ensure timely, consistent messaging across all touchpoints and to avoid communications fatigue while maximizing reach and relevance.
Establish and manage metrics and KPIs to measure change effectiveness and communications impact (e.g., adoption rates, engagement metrics, pulse survey results, training completion, usage analytics), and provide regular insight-driven reporting to stakeholders.
Plan and facilitate change readiness and feedback mechanisms (focus groups, listening sessions, surveys, pulse checks) and use qualitative and quantitative insights to iterate plans and address barriers to adoption.
Design and implement risk mitigation plans for high-impact or high-resistance stakeholder groups, escalating issues proactively and coordinating cross-functional responses with programme leadership.
Serve as a trusted adviser to programme leads and business unit managers on change sequencing, packaging of benefits, and practical steps to operationalize transformation initiatives.
Create communication toolkits and templates for local leads and champions, including message maps, slide decks, email templates and event guides to ensure consistent and scalable deployment across regions or business units.
Lead and coordinate a network of change champions and ambassadors to build grassroots support, encourage peer-to-peer adoption and sustain momentum post go-live.
Manage external agencies or vendors for creative production, video, digital comms or specialist research where required, ensuring brand alignment, quality and ROI.
Drive cross-functional alignment between HR, IT, Legal, Security and business functions to ensure that communications and change activities are compliant, technically feasible and integrated across delivery streams.
Plan and execute high-impact launch events, town halls and roadshows (virtual and in-person), including logistics, speaker preparation, messaging flow and post-event follow-up to reinforce key messages and behaviour expectations.
Maintain a comprehensive change library: lessons learned, playbooks, campaign performance, templates and assets to increase repeatability and speed of future change initiatives.
Provide coaching and communications training to managers and leaders so they can role model desired behaviours, hold their teams accountable and respond to questions confidently and consistently.
Coordinate crisis and urgent communications in response to unplanned events related to the programme, ensuring speed, clarity and alignment with executive leadership and corporate PR where needed.
Translate technical or complex programme content into plain-language communications that are accessible to non-technical audiences and emphasize benefits, timelines and actions required.
Manage budgets for change and communications activities, tracking spend against plan and demonstrating value through outcome-focused reporting.
Build and maintain strong relationships with HR, legal, compliance and corporate affairs to ensure alignment on sensitive messaging, policy changes and regulatory communication requirements.
Champion continuous improvement by analysing campaign performance, stakeholder feedback and industry best practices to refine methodologies, tooling and content approaches for future programmes.
Oversee content governance and change collateral version control, ensuring that all communications are approved, on-brand and accessible to target audiences across international and multilingual environments.

Secondary Functions

Support ad-hoc communications and change requests from business leaders, tailoring quick-turn communications or FAQs in response to stakeholder needs or programme pivots.
Act as subject matter expert for intranet and collaboration platforms (SharePoint, MS Teams, Confluence), advising on content structure and user experience to improve discoverability of change resources.
Contribute to internal engagement surveys and analytics programs by defining relevant questions, interpreting results and recommending targeted follow-up actions.
Assist with development of recognition and reward strategies that reinforce desired adoption behaviours and celebrate success across the organisation.
Coordinate with marketing and PR teams for any external-facing change communications that may require brand and reputation considerations.
Participate in programme governance forums, steering committees and design working groups to represent the stakeholder and communication perspective.
Provide mentoring to junior communications or change professionals and support capability building within the function.
Maintain awareness of sector trends, new digital communication tools and change methodologies, proposing pilots to test modern approaches (e.g., microlearning, chatbots, interactive video).
Support localization and translation workflows for multinational roll-outs, ensuring messages retain meaning and cultural relevance.
Assist with creation of executive-level dashboards and slide decks summarising progress, risks and next steps for inclusion in monthly programme reporting.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Proven expertise in change management methodologies (Prosci, ADKAR, Kotter or equivalent) with documented application to enterprise transformation programmes.
Strong internal communications planning and execution skills including channel strategy, audience segmentation, content calendars and campaign optimization.
Experience creating measurable change and communications KPIs and using analytics tools (Google Analytics, SharePoint/Web analytics, email campaign metrics, Tableau/Power BI) to track adoption and engagement.
Excellent presentation and executive communications ability — preparing CEO/C-suite talking points, slide decks and briefing notes.
Skilled in stakeholder mapping, RACI design, change impact assessments and the creation of sponsor engagement plans.
Proficiency with common workplace tools: Microsoft 365 (PowerPoint, Word, Excel, Teams, SharePoint), Adobe Creative Cloud basics (Illustrator, InDesign) or equivalent content tools.
Familiarity with digital communication platforms and tools such as intranets, employee apps, email campaign platforms (Workday, Mailchimp, Campaign Monitor), and collaboration tools.
Experience developing learning and enablement materials (job aids, eLearning storyboards, train-the-trainer kits) in partnership with L&D teams.
Content creation and editorial skills: writing clear, concise, audience-focused copy; scripting videos; producing FAQs and newsletters.
Budget management and vendor management experience for creative, digital or research suppliers.
Knowledge of project management fundamentals and ability to work within Agile or Waterfall programme structures.
Experience managing multi-region or multilingual rollouts and coordinating localization/translation processes.
Competency in measurement frameworks such as adoption dashboards, pulse surveys, A/B testing of messages and ROI modelling.

Soft Skills

Exceptional stakeholder management and influencing skills with ability to gain buy-in from senior leaders and cross-functional teams.
Strong strategic thinking and the ability to translate business objectives into practical communications and change tactics.
Excellent written and verbal communication with an emphasis on clarity, storytelling and persuasive messaging.
High emotional intelligence, empathy and the capacity to manage resistance and complex interpersonal dynamics.
Resilience and adaptability in fast-paced, ambiguous transformation environments.
Collaborative mindset with proven success working across HR, IT, L&D and business operations.
Strong facilitation and coaching skills for leader rehearsals, workshops and sponsor sessions.
Analytical curiosity and data-driven decision making — comfortable interpreting survey results, engagement metrics and adoption data to refine approaches.
Attention to detail and strong organisational skills, able to manage multiple concurrent workstreams and deadlines.
Creative problem solving and a pragmatic approach to making change achievable and measurable.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor's degree in Communications, Business, Human Resources, Organisational Psychology, Marketing, or related field.

Preferred Education:

Master’s degree in Organisational Development, Communications, Business Administration (MBA) or equivalent advanced qualification.
Accredited change management certification (Prosci Practitioner, APMG Change Management) or certifications in communications/PR.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Communications, Journalism or Public Relations
Organisational Development, Psychology or Human Resources
Business Administration, Marketing or Management

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

5–10+ years of experience in change management, internal communications, or organisational transformation; at least 3 years leading cross-functional change programmes.

Preferred:

Experience leading enterprise-wide transformations (digital, ERP, cloud migrations, organisational redesigns).
Demonstrable track record of measurable adoption outcomes and engagement improvements.
Experience in matrixed, global organisations with stakeholder exposure at executive levels.
Familiarity with modern digital communications, content production and measurement platforms.