Senior Change Management and Training Specialist

at  OPTrust

Senior Change Management and Training Specialist
Type: Permanent
Location: Toronto (Hybrid)
Posting Date: January 24, 2025
Under Union Review
At OPTrust, paying pensions today, preserving pensions for tomorrow is our mission and business.
When you choose OPTrust, you join a team of smart, talented people who fuel our success and have a passion for pensions. Everyone at OPTrust – in Toronto, London and Sydney – makes a meaningful impact. Our culture is driven by team members with different backgrounds and perspectives creating an inclusive and fulfilling place to work for everyone. We work in a fast-paced environment, but we find time to have fun and give back to the community.

What OPTrust offers you

• Unique culture rooted in our core values – collaboration and teamwork, integrity, respect, flexibility, excellence and continuous improvement.
• A purpose-driven environment where we all work towards the common goal of paying pensions today and preserving pensions for tomorrow.
• Comprehensive benefits focused on your health and wellness, including dental, vision and extended health benefits, as well as membership in our world-class defined benefit pension plan.
• A flexible, hybrid work model.
• A dedicated inclusion, diversity and equity strategy with meaningful opportunities to participate, including our employee-led resource groups.
• Extensive professional development opportunities and learning initiatives including access to LinkedIn Learning, guest speakers, tuition reimbursement, professional association memberships, leadership development programs, a mentorship program, monthly professional development time and more.
• A competitive vacation package with additional work-life balance days.

About the role
Reporting to the Manager, Transformation, this role will be part of the team that is responsible for driving the multi-year and multi-million-dollar pension administration transformation at OPTrust (PATH). This transformation will include implementing a replacement pension administration system, converting the existing data and processes, managing organizational change/business transformation, achieving business goals/vision, vendor management, and maintaining engagement of the PATH team throughout the program.
The successful candidate will lead the planning and execution of the program’s education and training initiatives while supporting the program’s overall change management effort. This will include working with internal and external groups and stakeholders to ensure the successful delivery of the PATH program.
What you’ll do

Solution Development:

• Provide guidance to PATH team members in developing system solutions and details relating to plan requirements and processes, customization requirements, and other related business decisions
• Participate in User Acceptance Testing training and incorporate the results in training and development materials
• Support the Program Design team to resolve issues during the fit gap, development and testing phases of implementation

Change Management:

• Support the development and execution of a comprehensive change management activity plan for PATH – including:
• Characterizing the anticipated change on people, processes, and technology, resulting from the PATH Program
• Conducting a stakeholder analysis to assess overall organizational preparedness and identify specific stakeholder change needs
• Provides recommendations for anticipated challenges
• Develop detailed change management plans, based on the above assessment, to effectively influence and transform organizational behaviours and practices and proactively manage stakeholder resistance to change
• Supports and influences the change management plans to effectively transform organizational behaviours and practices, proactively manages stakeholder resistance to change
• Tracks and reports progress on the Change Management Plan to the Transformation team and relevant stakeholders
• Prepare reports and presentation as required for leadership and committees
• Ensure the delivery of critical path items from subject matter experts or business unit owners to the applicable stakeholders, this includes the ability to resolve and/or communicate issues as they arises
• Assist in developing stakeholder communication material that build awareness, understanding, and buy-in for the transformation initiative
• Build effective internal and external relationships to gather change management insights and best practices for PATH
• Lead or participate in inter-departmental committees, as required

Education and Training:

• Develop and execute education and training plan for PATH – including:
• Leading the identification of relevant stakeholders and determining their education needs
• Developing an effective curriculum and training plan to address each relevant stakeholder group and coordinating the development of supporting content
• Leading and/or ensuring delivery of the training for select stakeholder groups
• Developing an approach for creating business process manuals and documentation based on education best practices, coordinating other subject matter experts in the completion of the documents, and validate submissions to ensure adherence to standards
• Defining metrics to measure and monitor training effectiveness, user adoption and refining the training approach as needed

Other Responsibilities

• As a member of the PATH Strategy team, bring forward appropriate matters for discussion and approval
• Support building and sustaining a strong and positive culture within the PATH team
• Work with PATH team and others to integrate change management activities into the overall project plan

What you bring

• Performs other duties as assigned
• Ensure clear understanding and adherence of all OPTrust’s policies, procedures, guidelines as well as living our values and fostering an inclusive culture
• Strong business skills, including change management, stakeholder management, negotiation skills, interpersonal skills, education and training, project management, and / or project management
• Advanced analytical, problem-solving and decision-making skills, with a proven ability to identify and anticipate issues, and to develop insightful and creative solutions, while ensuring the risks and costs to OPTrust and stakeholders’ views are appropriately considered
• Strong community awareness and astuteness
• Superior interpersonal skills and strong ability to influence, collaborate and build positive and productive relationships with all levels of an organization and with different groups of stakeholders (e.g., internal OPTrust staff, OPTrust employers, pension plan members)
• Effective written and oral communication skills, demonstrating creativity as well as technical expertise, and the ability to communicate complex issues effectively at all levels and to a broad range of internal and external stakeholders
• Adapts easily to changing situations and demonstrates flexibility in juggling priorities with the ability to meet tight deadlines and successfully navigate in a fast-paced environment
• Strong leadership skills and excellent organizational skills
• Exemplify OPTrust’s values: collaboration and teamwork, integrity, respect, flexibility, excellence, and continuous improvement

Skills and Education required:

• Post-secondary education
• 7+ years hands-on experience in leading large scope and/or multidivisional projects, preferably within the pension industry (or equivalent experience)
• Experience in the pension or financial services industry preferred
• Experience working on a pension plan transformational projects is a strong asset
• Experience/Certificate in education and training is strongly preferred
• Experience in complex technology or system transformations, change management, consulting or strategy development is an asset
• Demonstrated record of success in change and program or product management is an asset
• Demonstrated success with leading the planning, execution and delivery of complex organization-wide projects involving multiple stakeholders and with leading various personalities through process and technology changes. Excellent project leadership, communication and inter-personal skills
• Experience with defined benefit pensions, gained through direct involvement in pension system delivery, pension administration, pension policy and / or actuarial practice, is a strong asset
• Project Management Professional (PMP) designation and/or agile/scrum (CAPM/CSM) certification and/or change management certification is an asset

Please submit your application via Workday by February 7, 2025.
Serving a membership as diverse as ours and investing in a global market means cultivating an environment that embraces inclusion, diversity, and equity in everything we do. OPTrust is an organization engaged in building on our unique and diverse strengths. We know a diversity of backgrounds, cultures, gender identities and perspectives are critical to achieving our shared goals.
If you require accommodation at any time during the recruitment process, please send a message to
careers@optrust.com
, or discuss your needs with the Talent Acquisition Consultant during the telephone screening. We will do our best to work with you and provide appropriate accommodation.
As an organization we’re seeking ways to respond to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Call to Action 92. We are working with the Canadian Council for Indigenous Business to build bridges with Indigenous communities and partners, and we have created an employee-led Reconciliation Working Group that will work with Indigenous experts to identify a path to reconciliation for our organization.
We thank all interested applicants, however only those under consideration will be contacted.

• As a member of the PATH Strategy team, bring forward appropriate matters for discussion and approval
• Support building and sustaining a strong and positive culture within the PATH team
• Work with PATH team and others to integrate change management activities into the overall project pla