How many change management resources do I need?
- Kerrie Smit
- Jan 24, 2024
- 3 min read
Updated: Sep 4
The size of your change management team is a critical factor for a smooth and successful project rollout. But how do you determine the right number and type of resources? The answer isn't a single number; it's a calculation based on several key factors.
Here, we'll break down the key considerations to help you determine the right resourcing level for your project, from strategic alignment to the complexity of the change itself.
The 5 C's: Factors That Influence Your Change Management Resourcing Needs
Determining your team size starts with a clear-eyed assessment of your project's characteristics. Consider the following:
Complexity: A simple update to a single software system requires far fewer resources than a global reorganisation impacting multiple departments, processes, and technologies. The more complex, multi-faceted, and fast-paced the change, the more resources you'll need.
Coverage: How wide is the change's impact? The number of affected stakeholders, teams, and locations—especially if they're remote or global—will directly influence the number of resources you need. A small, local project has different resource demands than a company-wide initiative.
Context: Every organisation has a unique history with change. A company that is change-fatigued or resistant to new initiatives will require more effort, patience, and resources over a longer timeframe to build trust and ensure adoption.
Criticality: Is this a mission-critical, high-visibility, or high-risk project? Projects that are strategically important to the business must be properly resourced to mitigate risk and avoid failure. If the cost of failure is high, it's wise to invest more in your change management team.
Cash: Budget is often the biggest constraint. It's still too common for change management to be seen as an expense rather than a benefit. However, viewing change management as an investment that secures the project's success can help justify the necessary funding.
Phase-Based Resourcing: A More Agile Approach
Instead of a fixed team size, it's often more effective to scale your resources with the project's lifecycle. Your resourcing needs will naturally fluctuate.
Early Stages - Planning & Design: The focus is on strategy, planning, and stakeholder analysis. You might need a core team to design the change strategy, communications, and training plans.
Mid-Stages - Execution: This phase is resource-intensive. As you roll out communications, training, and engagement activities, you'll need more resources to handle the increased demand and ensure all key touch-points are covered.
Late Stages - Sustainment: The focus shifts to embedding the change and measuring its effectiveness. The team can be scaled down to a smaller group for support and monitoring.
This flexible approach prevents you from being either over-resourced during slow periods or scrambling to find people during critical, high-demand phases.
A New Procurement Model for Agile Resourcing
Traditional hiring models—such as full-time employment or fixed-term contracts—can be rigid and make it difficult to adjust your team size as needs change. They can also be a challenge when you're facing constraints like a limited budget or the need to get started quickly on a smaller scale.
Agile change management resourcing, like the model offered by Agencia Change, provides a solution. It allows you to procure expertise just-in-time, bringing on resources for a specific task or timeframe. This approach offers several advantages:
Improved Agility: You can bring on resources quickly to assess an idea or advance an initiative without a long-term commitment.
Cost Control: You only pay for the resources you need, when you need them, making it more cost-effective, especially in the early stages of a project.
Right-Sized Team: You can access the specific skills and experience required for a particular phase, without the overhead of a full-scale team.
By thinking strategically about your resourcing and exploring more flexible procurement models, you can assemble the right team to ensure your change initiative succeeds.
Contact us for more on flexible change management resourcing options.
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