The people of change management in the UN system

Change management practitioners who participated in the online survey for the State of Change Management in the UN System possess impressive experience and skills related to change management and are versed in a wide range of change management functions.

However, among those skills and functions targeted by the UN 2.0 Quintet of Change, they display noticeable gaps. While their experience in types of transformation predictably matches the most prevalent transformations being conducted across UN entities at the time of the survey, it ranks surprisingly low for the type “UN Reform”.

Change management isn’t a full-time job for everyone and respondents play different roles. Forty per cent of change management practitioners surveyed are in a change management leadership role. The majority spend less than half their time on change management activities.

What grade, role and job titles do respondents have?
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Among the 104 survey respondents, 35 per cent are senior professionals (P5-D2 level), 45 per cent are mid-level professionals (P3-P4), and 10 per cent are consultants. All leads of a central change management function (CCMF) who answered the survey (n=10) are senior professionals.

Change management role

Regardless of grade, forty per cent of respondents lead a change management or transformation unit, project or other unit involved in change or transformation:

  • 10 per cent are the lead for the central change management function in their organization;
  • 11 per cent are the change management lead for a unit, office or department other than the central change management function in their organization;
  • 17 per cent are the change management lead in their organization for a project outside the central change management function.

The job functions of the remaining 60 per cent are varied. They either work in the central change management function but not as its lead, elsewhere in the organization but with part-time responsibilities in the central change management function, or elsewhere in the organization with part-time responsibilities outside the central change management function.

Job titles
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Because it’s logical that a person’s role or subject of expertise is represented in their job title, we asked participants about theirs. Titles vary widely and can be divided into 10 categories. One third (n=27) of respondents’ job titles contain the words change or transformation and several refer to more than one function – change and innovation, for instance.

How much time do they dedicated to change management?
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Across all organizations change management is a full-time job for only about one-third of respondents. However, the amount of time respondents spend on change management differs by size of organization:

  • In organizations of more than 5,000 personnel, the percentage of respondents working 90 per cent or more on change management is 45 per cent.
  • In organizations of less than 5,000 personnel, it’s only 18 per cent.
How many people work on change management in the UN system?

We don’t currently know how many change managers exist within the UN system; nor do we know how many personnel have change management functions within their terms of reference or how many are guiding or driving change management outside their terms of reference. Their function is not always visible. They are spread across different teams, ranging from human resources, executive offices, strategy to business transformation and change teams.  

The first edition of the State of Change Management in the UN System was not a census. But 122 people engaged in the survey and 104 respondents completed enough for their data to be included in our analysis. We also know, thanks to some of these respondents’ answers, that there are many more change management practitioners across the UN family – not all of whom are identifiable by job title (see above) or self-identify as such. Subsequent editions of the State of Change Management in the UN System will aim to reach even more practitioners and analyze their perspectives. It is worth noting that UN organizations recognize the role of leaders and managers in change, and hence agreed to feature change management as a topic in the leadership and management programmes delivered by UNSSC for them. 

Full time Part time
45 0
13 Don't know
10 25
10 20
10 10
6 Don't know
6 1
5 20
5 15
4 0
3 Don't know
2 5
1 2
1 Don't know
Don't know Many people

+ 7 responses indicating "don't know" for both categories.

The number of people working on change management varies significantly between organizations. Surprisingly, many respondents who identified as the lead for the change management function for their organization did not know how many colleagues within their organizations also work full or part-time on change management. 

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How many years of experience do respondents have?
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The change management experience of those who responded to the survey ranges from less than one year to more than 10 years.

A majority of participants (58 per cent) have six or more years of experience in change management, with 41 per cent indicating more than 10 years of experience in this profession. 

Organizations with more than 5,000 personnel have the highest proportion of change management practitioners with four to five years of experience (24 per cent) while organizations with less than 5,000 personnel count more practitioners with less than one year of experience (10 per cent) and more with between six and ten years of experience (19 per cent).

Do respondents possess an official change management certification?
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Change management practitioners often transition to change management from careers in other disciplines. This may help explain why only about one third (32 per cent) of survey participants hold an official change management certification, while 65 per cent don’t.

Among those respondents who possess an official change management certification, Prosci is the most prevalent change management certification. 

Level of skills and experience in types of transformation and functions
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Survey participants were asked to indicate their ability for skills typically involved in the practice of change management. 

They are versed in a range of skills, expectedly ranking project management and change management as their top-level skills. Unexpectedly, however, 43 per cent of all participants report little or no skills in coaching. A large majority of respondents indicate not being skilled or having few skills in organizational psychology (73 per cent) and behavioural science (66 per cent). The latter was a skills area identified as “an important catalyst to better serve people and planet” by the Quintet of Change in the UN 2.0 internal transformation effort. 

Organizations with more than 5,000 personnel house a higher percentage of change management practitioners with little or no skills in these areas. These two skills are also absent from the range of team skills reported by leads of central change management functions, confirming a systemic gap in this area. 

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Level of experience in key types of transformation or change

Respondents were also asked to rate their level of experience in types of transformation occurring in the UN. Predictably, the level of experience matches ongoing UN transformations, but they are surprisingly low for some crucial types of transformation.

Notably, 64 per cent of participants report having little or no experience in the type ‘UN Reform’, 58 per cent indicate the same for workforce performance, and 44 per cent for organizational alignment. Moreover, 39 per cent of participants report little or no experience in culture change. This proportion goes up to 45 per cent in organizations of more than 5,000 personnel.

In contrast, 46 per cent of participants have advanced or expert experience in business transformation, and 40 per cent in new ways of working. 

Level of experience in functions of change management
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Lastly, respondents were asked to rate their level of experience in traditional functions of change management.

As expected, a majority of the 103 respondents to this question have advanced- or expert-level experience in traditional functions of change management. This includes project management (57 per cent), communications and engagement (56 per cent), strategy development (53 per cent) and managing a portfolio of change management initiatives (45 per cent). Organizations of more than 5,000 personnel have the highest number of participants claiming advanced- or expert-level experience in communications and engagement (64 per cent) and strategy development (60 per cent). Within organizations of less than 5,000 personnel, 60 per cent report project management at an advanced- or expert-level experience and 51 per cent, communications and engagement.

Across all organizations surveyed, the proportion of respondents who have advanced- or expert-level experience in "Institutional insight" is 40 per cent, almost the same as that of respondents who have none or some experience, 37 per cent. In organizations with more than 5,000 personnel, however, 48 per cent of respondents report advanced- or expert-level experience in institutional insight while 36 per cent report having none or little. 

Thirty-four per cent of all respondents have advanced- or expert-level experience in a building block of change management, change agent networks, while 30 per cent have none or some experience in it. 

The high proportion of respondents who have little or no experience in key functions of change management that are priorities in the UN’s Quintet of Change is concerning: 56 per cent in research, monitoring and evaluation and 31 per cent in innovation. Twenty-nice per cent of overall respondents have no or only some experience in another staple of change management, strengthening capabilities and coaching.