Change Management Consultant

Project Overview

This project supports Bill 5, Protect Ontario by Unleashing Our Economy Act 2025, and involves the rollout of a digital product to enable greater transparency and collaboration on Indigenous consultations throughout the province.

Key Responsibilities

• Work with organizations, by providing expertise, consultative advice, guidance and coaching, to build knowledge and expertise of change management principles, methodologies, and tools
• Help leaders and teams enhance their capabilities to understand how change impacts people, the reasons why people resist change and how to support people as they transition through change
• Be an active and visible coach to support leaders, partners and stakeholders in their role as change champions
• Partner and work collaboratively with key roles such as project managers, business analysts, process improvement specialists, change consultants and leadership to integrate change practices at all levels of the organization
• Develop and implement change management strategies, plans and framework
• Lead, develop, implement and/or provide input in the development of communication plans, sponsor roadmaps, stakeholder assessments, training plan, and resistance management throughout the lifecycle of the project
• Leads stakeholder management, including identification and analysis of key stakeholders, and the development of stakeholder engagement strategies
• Ensure the alignment of change management activities with participating stakeholders to remove change barriers, smooth the adoption process and contribute to problem solving resulting in successful implementation
• Ensure that clients/partners and stakeholders are actively engaged in the change, consulted with and communicated to
• Be able to articulate the purpose of change in a manner that makes sense to impacted stakeholders and provides a compelling picture of the new organization
• Build consensus among clients/partners and stakeholders on specific changes designed to better meet their needs
• Identify potential people side risks and anticipated points of resistance and develop plans to mitigate or address concerns
• Design and conduct change readiness assessments, evaluate results, and present findings to stakeholders to plan and carry out a change management strategy
• Administer measurement systems to track adoption, utilization, and proficiency of individual changes
• Develops an approach to embed/institutionalize the change to sustain the benefits achieved, including knowledge transfer, performance management, continuous improvement and other related practices

Qualifications & Requirements

REQUIRED

• Must be able to work 5 days onsite per week
• Minimum 10 years of organizational change management experience
• Minimum 5 years supporting enterprise business changes and/or digital transformation initiatives
• Experience developing user adoption and engagement strategies for enterprise applications
• Experience conducting organizational readiness and stakeholder impact assessments
• Certification in Prosci, CCMP (ACMP), or equivalent change management methodology
• Experience developing communication and training strategies and tactical plans
• Experience working in public sector, broader public sector, or comparable highly regulated environments
• Demonstrated experience leading change management initiatives supporting enterprise-wide business changes, CRM solutions, and/or digital platforms
• Proven experience assessing user adoption challenges, identifying barriers to adoption, and developing targeted strategies to improve user uptake, engagement, and business outcomes
• Demonstrated experience using recognized change management methodologies such as Prosci ADKAR, ACMP, Kotter, or equivalent
• Demonstrated experience building consensus, driving adoption, and fostering stakeholder alignment across business, operational, technical, and executive stakeholder groups

NICE TO HAVE

• Experience working within the Ontario Public Service (OPS) or comparable public sector organizations with complex governance and accountability structures
• Experience identifying and assessing change impacts to the organization’s business processes and technology solutions to drive business and people adoption
• Experience leading medium to large transformational change projects
• Experience working with project leads to apply a structured change management approach and methodology for the people side change across for assigned initiatives
• Experience understanding the program/project and related change management issues by identifying key stakeholders and how they will be impacted by the change
• Experience developing actionable and targeted change management plans that include communications, coaching, training, sponsorship and/or other resistance management activities
• Experience defining and measuring success metrics and monitor change progress to track adoption, utilization and proficiency related to changes
• Experience managing the change management process, and applying change management best practices to support the project or initiative
• Experience coordinating efforts with other subject matter experts, including communications specialists, training specialists, and human resource consultants during implementation
• Ability to influence others, at all levels within the organization, and move towards a common goal

EVALUATION CRITERIA

Change Management Strategy, Adoption and Execution Expertise - 50%

• Demonstrated experience leading change management initiatives supporting enterprise-wide business changes, CRM solutions, and/or digital platforms.
• Proven experience assessing user adoption challenges, identifying barriers to adoption, and developing targeted strategies to improve user uptake, engagement, and business outcomes.
• Experience conducting stakeholder impact assessments, organizational readiness assessments, change impact analyses, and change risk assessments.
• Demonstrated experience developing comprehensive change management plans aligned with technology enhancements, business process changes, and service delivery objectives.
• Experience developing and executing change management plans that include championship, stakeholder engagement, communications, training, resistance management, and reinforcement activities.
• Experience supporting changes associated with the implementation of new product features, enhancements, releases, or functionality upgrades while minimizing business disruption.
• Demonstrated experience using recognized change management methodologies such as Prosci ADKAR, ACMP, Kotter, or equivalent.
• Experience establishing adoption measurement frameworks and tracking user engagement, system utilization, business readiness, and change effectiveness metrics.
• Demonstrated success improving adoption, utilization, and user experience within complex multi-stakeholder environments.

Stakeholder Engagement and Communication Skills - 30%

• Demonstrated experience building consensus, driving adoption, and fostering stakeholder alignment across business, operational, technical, and executive stakeholder groups.
• Experience developing stakeholder engagement strategies and managing diverse stakeholder interests in complex environments.
• Proven experience developing communication strategies and communication plans to support changes to enterprise solutions and business processes.
• Demonstrated ability to develop effective communication materials, including executive briefings, presentations, newsletters, FAQs, user guidance, release communications, and change updates.
• Experience conducting stakeholder consultations, workshops, focus groups, interviews, and feedback-gathering sessions to identify adoption opportunities and concerns.
• Experience developing learning and training strategies, training plans that can include practical videos and demonstrations and role-based learning approaches for new and enhanced functionality.
• Ability to work effectively in a team environment, build strong relationships with other individual project contributors and teams and respond positively to diverse perspectives.
• Experience advising project teams and business leaders on communication approaches, engagement tactics, and adoption activities.
• Ability to drive and support executive alignment by securing leadership commitment to the change vision, adoption goals, success measures, and key decisions required to scale the product across the enterprise.
• Ability to communicate complex technical and business concepts clearly and effectively to technical and non-technical audiences.

Governance, Performance Measures and OPS Context - 20%

• Demonstrated experience proposing governance structures, steering committees, working groups, executive committees, and formal approval processes.
• Experience establishing KPIs and performance measures to assess user adoption, stakeholder engagement, business readiness, and change effectiveness.
• Experience leveraging quantitative and qualitative data to assess adoption trends, user behaviours, and opportunities for continuous improvement.
• Experience developing executive reporting, dashboards, and progress updates related to organizational change and user adoption.
• Experience conducting post-implementation reviews, lessons learned assessments, and continuous improvement activities.
• Experience working within the Ontario Public Service (OPS) or comparable public sector organizations with complex governance and accountability structures.
• Demonstrated understanding of public sector service delivery, privacy, accessibility, compliance, and stakeholder management considerations.

Key Skills & Competencies

Microsoft Dynamics, CRM, Prosci, ADKAR, ACMP, Kotter, Change Management, Stakeholder Engagement, Organizational Readiness, Impact Assessment, Adoption Measurement, Communication Strategy, Training Strategy, Data Analysis, KPI Development, Governance