Head: Change Management at Sanlam Group

What will you do?

• Business Change and Transformation is the internal consulting and project delivery capability of Sanlam that helps to transform the business by optimising the investment in, and delivery of strategic change.  
• Through our broad spectrum of disciplines, we are involved in various exciting initiatives from concept development through to delivery, involving business transformation, disruptive technology adoption, system replacements and enhancements, value optimisation, business development and much more.  
• An opportunity exists for an experienced Change Manager to join the Business Change and Transformation team to lead our change management capability. We have an established, proven change management capability supporting a business who appreciates the importance of the function.  We believe in creating an environment within which we support our change managers to function autonomously and to support their project and business owners in a way they deem fit for purpose to deliver value.    

What will make you successful in this role?

Key Responsibilities:

Change management chapter lead:  

• Lead the change management and transformation team, which is a chapter in the Lean Agile Centre of Excellence.
• In this role you will be contracting appropriate change management support to projects with internal stakeholders as required and allocating suitable change consultants to the projects in our portfolio.
• Promote change management by offering a value for money service to our business partners while providing attractive opportunities for the change consultants in the team.  
• Provide support and guidance to the change managers in the team through servant leadership, enabling them to deliver value-adding work.
• Support and develop their skills to incorporate the way of work of the Lean Agile Centre of Excellence.
• Responsible for the necessary HR, finance and reporting line management tasks relevant to the change management team.   

Change management consultant:  

• Form part of the team’s change management capacity and be allocated to one or more of our evolving pipeline of business initiatives requiring change management support.   

Sanlam Data and Digital Academy:

• The Sanlam Data and Digital Academy is a structured two-year graduate programme contributing to developing our workforce of the future.
• Responsibilities will include oversight of the SDDA and its core team and supporting the SDDA’s stakeholder relations within the wider business. 

Business Change and Transformation Manco:

• As the Head of Change Management you will form part of our Business Change and Transformation management team.  
• Within Sanlam Group Technology, Business Change and Transformation is supporting SGT’s mandate to drive digital transformation, efficiency and synergy across IT in Sanlam and as such, SGT has embarked on its own transformation journey.
• You will support the Executive Head: Business Change and Transformation with thought leadership and advice to help lead this change from within.  

Results driven areas:

• Provide value for money change management services to Sanlam’s project portfolio.
• You will be required to form strong relationships within the business and build credibility as a change management specialist across multiple stakeholder groups.
• You will show an appreciation for, and create visibility for others of, the complexity, ambiguity and interconnectedness of today’s business challenges.
• You balance a pro-active, results-orientated and practical mind-set with a collaborative approach which creates space for others to navigate change.
• You will be required to develop a deep understanding of each change initiative, and its impacted business areas and stakeholders, from both a technical and cultural perspective.
• You will be using your understanding and insight into the nature of the change and the impacted business to develop an appropriate change approach.
• You will facilitate the successful implementation of the change, which will require you to be involved in strategic change guidance and/or tactical and operational change tasks (e.g. communication and training) as necessitated by the specific initiative.
• You will build collaboration across multi-functional teams involved in the delivery of the change initiative.
• You are focused on adding business value

Qualification

• Relevant degree or diploma

Knowledge and experience:

• At least 10 years’ experience as a change manager on large change initiatives of which at least 5 years as the change lead
• Financial services and specifically life insurance industry experience will be an advantage
• Experience in line management across a team consisting of permanent, fixed term and contract staff will be an advantage
• Experience working with technical and management teams

Knowledge and Skills

• Change Management
• Project Oversight
• Reporting and administration
• Quality, Compliance and Accreditation
• Business Requirements definition

Personal Attributes

• Being resilient - Contributing strategically
• Decision quality - Contributing strategically
• Interpersonal savvy - Contributing independently
• Optimises work processes - Contributing strategically
• Plans and aligns - Contributing strategically

Core Competencies

• Communicates effectively - Contributing strategically
• Decision quality - Contributing strategically
• Drives results - Contributing strategically
• Being resilient - Contributing strategically
• Collaborates - Contributing strategically
• Cultivates innovation - Contributing strategically
• Customer focus - Contributing strategically