Change Management & Adoption Lead

Affinia; Stratford-upon-Avon; Hybrid; GBP 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Extra holidays

Pension scheme

Death in service

Membership support

Paycare claims (Dental/Optical)

Job summary

Affinia is seeking a Change Management & Adoption Lead to own the colleague journey during acquisition integration. You will design and deliver change and adoption across communications, engagement, training and readiness to move colleagues from awareness to confident new-world operation.

You will build a network of local champions, run sentiment measurement, and partner with across functions to ensure smooth integration and sustained adoption.

Qualifications

• Proven experience leading change management and adoption on complex business change.
• Grounding in a recognised change methodology (e.g. Prosci/ADKAR).
• Experience designing communications and training/readiness across a colleague journey.
• Experience measuring colleague sentiment and adoption and acting on insight.
• Strong interpersonal skills and senior stakeholder coaching ability.
• Highly organised, autonomous, with multi-change delivery capability.

Responsibilities

• Own the change management and adoption approach for each integration.
• Design clear communications and engagement across the colleague journey.
• Build and lead a network of local integration champions.
• Coordinate training and business readiness for new systems and processes.
• Run colleague sentiment and adoption measurement with baseline and pulse tracking.
• Collaborate across teams to align messaging and embed change ownership.
• Track adoption to embed improvements in the toolkit and approach.

Skills

Change management

Stakeholder engagement

Communication

Emotional intelligence

Project coordination

Education

Change management certification (Prosci/APMG CIPD)

Tools

Prosci/ADKAR

Job description

Job title: Change Management & Adoption Lead

Reporting to: Head of Integration & Technology (line manager); assigned to the Integration Programme Director for integration programme delivery.

Hours: Full time Mon-Fri 9am-5.30pm (37.5 hours per week)

Location: Hybrid working. Home base tethered to an Affinia or Wilson Partners office by agreement; willingness to travel across Affinia and Wilson Partners sites as the integration programme requires.

Affinia is the UK’s largest purpose-led, purpose-built Accountancy firm, focused on building stronger, more valuable relationships. With over 1,600 colleagues across London, Midlands, East Anglia and South East England we are dedicated to supporting our clients, colleagues and communities.

We advise businesses, public sector organisations, charities and individuals throughout the UK and internationally across six Service Lines - Accountancy & Advisory, Tax and Planning, Audit & Assurance, Corporate Finance, Payroll and Corporate Recovery. Our team also offer in-depth section expertise across a number of sectors, ensuring our clients receive the best short to medium and long-term advice, tailored to them. We are committed to delivering excellence in every aspect of our work, adapting to the evolving technology and regulatory landscape while consistently exceeding client expectations.

Our people are our most valuable asset. We are therefore committed to supporting our colleagues throughout their professional development, providing guidance and training at whatever stage of their career they join us.

Purpose Of The Role

We are seeking an experienced Change Management & Adoption Lead to own the colleague journey through acquisition integration – the discipline that turns structural change into genuine adoption. This role ensures that people joining and moving through the organisation feel informed, respected and supported, and that new ways of working, systems and processes are embraced rather than merely imposed.

Working alongside the integration team, People & Culture, Marketing and Communications, Service Line and Enabling Function leads and the acquired business leadership, you will design and deliver the change and adoption approach across each integration – the communications, engagement, training and readiness activity that carries colleagues from announcement through to confident, embedded new-world operation. You will build and lead a network of local integration champions, and you will stand up colleague-sentiment measurement, including baseline and pulse tracking, so that adoption is monitored, risks surfaced early and interventions targeted where they matter most.

This is a unique opportunity to place colleague experience at the centre of a dynamic, acquisitive organisation – building a change and adoption capability that is as much about emotional intelligence as delivery mechanics, and that becomes a genuine differentiator in how the organisation welcomes and integrates new teams.

Accountabilities

Change Strategy & Planning: Own the change management and adoption approach for each integration, assessing change impact across people, process and systems and building the plans that move colleagues from awareness through to adoption. Ensure change activity is sequenced with, and enabling of, the wider integration plan.

Communications & Engagement: Design and deliver clear, honest and well-timed communications and engagement across the colleague journey, working with Marketing and Communications and business leadership. Balance the reassurance of continuity with candour about what is genuinely changing, protecting trust and countering “them and us” sentiment.

Champion Network: Build, equip and lead a network of local integration champions across sites, giving each integration visible, trusted advocates on the ground and a fast feedback loop between colleagues and the programme.

Training & Readiness: Coordinate the training and business-readiness activity that equips colleagues to operate confidently in new systems, processes and ways of working, ensuring readiness is evidenced before go-live and support is in place through the transition.

Sentiment Measurement & Insight: Stand up and run colleague-sentiment and adoption measurement, including baseline and pulse tracking, turning insight into targeted intervention and giving leadership a clear read on how well change is landing.

Stakeholder Management: Work across the integration team, Enabling Function and Service Line leads and acquired business leadership to align messaging, surface people risks and embed change ownership beyond the programme, coaching leaders and managers to act as effective change sponsors.

Adoption & Continuous Improvement: Track adoption through to embedding, capturing lessons and continuously improving the change and adoption toolkit, templates and approach so that each successive integration lands more smoothly than the last.

Skills And Experience

• Proven experience leading change management and adoption on complex business change, ideally in a high-growth or integration environment.
• Strong grounding in a recognised change methodology (e.g. Prosci/ADKAR or equivalent), applied pragmatically to live delivery.
• Demonstrable experience of communications, engagement and training/readiness planning across a colleague change journey.
• Experience designing and running colleague-sentiment or adoption measurement and turning insight into action.
• Excellent interpersonal and influencing skills, with high emotional intelligence and the ability to build trust quickly at all levels.
• Strong stakeholder management, with the credibility to coach senior leaders as change sponsors.
• Highly organised and self-motivated, comfortable operating with autonomy across multiple concurrent changes.
• Previous experience in professional &/or financial services; previous accountancy sector experience would be beneficial.

Desired Experience

• Experience within an M&A or post-acquisition integration environment.
• Recognised change management certification (e.g. Prosci, APMG Change Management or CIPD-related qualification).
• Experience building and leading a change-champion network across multiple sites.
• Experience working in a private equity-backed environment.

Core Benefits

At Affinia, our culture is driven by ambition and a commitment to positively impact all the communities we serve. We are dedicated to the success, development, and wellbeing of our colleagues, helping them achieve their goals and seize the opportunities that come with our growth. Alongside a flexible and inclusive work environment, we offer the following core benefits:

• Opportunity to purchase 3 extra days holiday per year.
• Auto enrolment Pension Scheme with True Potential.
• Death in Service.
• Professional membership support.
• Paycare – claim money back for Dental / Optical / Professional Therapies
• Dress for your Diary Policy.

Please note that this job profile is not an exhaustive list of duties but merely an outline of the key components of the role. You may be required by your line manager to take on additional responsibilities when requested.

Affinia is committed to being an Equal Opportunity Employer. Our policy is unequivocal: we do not tolerate discrimination based on age, disability, sex, race, religion, or belief, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy, or maternity, or sexual orientation. We pride ourselves on being an inclusive organisation that actively promotes equality of opportunity for all, valuing the right mix of talent, skills, and potential. We welcome applications from a diverse range of candidates, and selection for roles is based solely on individual merit.

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