Director Change Management & Communications

You are as unique as your background, experience and point of view. Here, you’ll be encouraged, empowered and challenged to be your best self. You'll work with dynamic colleagues - experts in their fields - who are eager to share their knowledge with you. Your leaders will inspire and help you reach your potential and soar to new heights. Every day, you'll have new and exciting opportunities to make life brighter for our Clients - who are at the heart of everything we do. Discover how you can make a difference in the lives of individuals, families and communities around the world.

Job Description:

About the role

• The Director of Change Management & Communications is responsible for developing and executing comprehensive strategies that support key strategic initiatives across SL Canada. This role requires a strategic thinker who can develop a best-in-class change management plan, covering all possible scenarios, and actively manage plan to opportunistically pivot the plan to maximize end goal achievement and ongoing strategic vision. The Director will also act as the lead on all communications and co-lead on training material development.

What you'll be doing

• Change Management:

  • Develop, lead, and execute the change management capability, taking both a strategic and hands-on approach to assess stakeholder impact, risk, and change readiness for key initiatives across SL Canada.

  • Implement and maintain a holistic change management plan across all initiatives to align and ensure appropriate sequencing to introduce change that minimizes disruption and maximizes adoption and business impact.

  • Identify adoption barriers and execution risks, and work with relevant partners/stakeholders and business owners to overcome them.

  • Ensure smooth transition of change to ongoing ‘business as usual’ teams.

  • Define and measure success metrics and create reporting and dashboards to monitor change progress, including tracking of dependencies across all initiatives.

• Strategic Execution:

  • Create and maintain a total change view that comprises key strategic change and transformational initiatives by collaborating with key internal teams.

  • Support project portfolio execution to ensure alignment with strategy, alignment of resources, and target timeline.

  • Transform strategic vision into executable initiatives and activities and orchestrate delivery with partners and other functions across the Canada Business Group.

  • Proactively identify potential risks and challenges in the transformation process, developing mitigation strategies and recommending pivots to accelerate efforts when necessary.

• Communication:

  • Develop comprehensive communication strategy aligned to key change.

  • Develop and deploy communication to the appropriate channels for the target audience and ensure accuracy and timeliness of communication delivery. Also ensuring complex transformation concepts are easily understood and embraced across the organization.

  • Inform key stakeholders on change management strategies and support a unified approach/process across the SL Canada business and support teams.

• Training and Knowledge Management:

  • Partner with SMEs to develop and implement training based on skills, knowledge, and behaviors necessary to implement changes, tools, and technology.

  • Co-lead the development of training materials and ensure they are aligned with change management strategies.

  • Grow the change management community within SL Canada by providing training, coaching, and support to partners on best practices.

  • Develop and track key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the progress and success of transformation initiatives.

What you'll need to succeed

• Change Management certification or designation (e.g., Prosci Certification, Association of Change Management Professionals (ACMP), or Change Management Institute (CMI)) preferred or equivalent experience.

• University degree in business or related discipline.

• Minimum of 8 years of relevant business experience, ideally within insurance, wealth management, or financial services.

• Proven experience in managing large-scale organizational transformations, preferably in the financial services sector including project planning and progress reporting.

• Demonstrated ability to break down strategic visions into actionable components and create comprehensive transformation roadmaps.

• Proven ability to coach and mentor to facilitate effective change.

• Strong business acumen with the ability to use data to inform decision-making.

• Knowledge of adult learning principles and experience delivering training sessions would be an asset.

• Strong influencing and relationship management skills in partnering with peers and senior management towards cultural change and the introduction of new concepts.

• Ability to empathize and take different stakeholder lenses.

• Strong ability to use Microsoft Office suite, particularly Excel and PowerPoint.

• Proven experience in project management, including project planning and progress reporting would be an asset.

• As this position is posted in several locations, we specify that bilingualism (French, English, both oral and written) is required for Quebec only as the position includes managing both French and English-speaking staff (Quebec and outside Quebec) and providing daily support to the team.

The Base Pay range is for the primary location for which the job is posted. It may vary depending on the work location of the successful candidate or other factors. In addition to Base Pay, eligible Sun Life employees participate in various incentive plans, payment under which is discretionary and subject to individual and company performance. Certain sales focused roles have sales incentive plans based on individual or group sales results.

Diversity and inclusion have always been at the core of our values at Sun Life. A diverse workforce with wide perspectives and creative ideas benefits our clients, the communities where we operate and all of us as colleagues. We welcome applications from qualified individuals from all backgrounds.

Persons with disabilities who need accommodation in the application process or those needing job postings in an alternative format may e-mail a request to thebrightside@sunlife.com.

At Sun Life we strive to create a flexible work environment where our employees are empowered to do their best work. Several flexible work options are available and can be discussed throughout the selection process depending on the role requirements and individual needs.

We thank all applicants for showing an interest in this position. Only those selected for an interview will be contacted.

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