Head of Business Change
PLEASE NOTE: As part of our organisational changes, our ongoing structure and roles continue to be reviewed. While this role is being advertised, circumstances may change and the role could be withdrawn/amended. GRADE E At WHSmith Europe our people are at the heart of everything we do. They are the ones that go the extra mile for our customers, the ones that enable our growth. As we simplify the Group and focus on the markets and opportunities with the greatest long-term potential, we are strengthening how we design and land change across our UK business. This role holds accountability for the business change agenda end to end, across three things: designing the future way of working, leading its delivery into a live operation, and securing the adoption and benefit that justified the investment.
You will be UK-focused and accountable for the business side of our change portfolio. You will lead, not report. Where our initiatives touch how colleagues work, you own the solution design, you take the design decisions, and are accountable for landing them. Portfolio sequencing and the balance of change load across the business are decided by the Executive Team on the evidence you provide.
What You'll Be Doing:
Own the design of the future way of working for changes in scope, covering process, roles and accountabilities, decision rights and the operating routines that hold them together, built with the functions that will run them rather than for them.
Lead the business design authority across the portfolio, holding the integrity of the whole so that individually sensible designs do not add up to an incoherent job for the person in the store or the support centre.
Take and own the design decisions and trade-offs on the business side, resolving them at pace and escalating only what genuinely requires the sponsor.
Lead delivery of business change into the organisation, personally accountable for the business workstream on major initiatives, including readiness, cutover, hypercare and stabilisation through to steady state.
Own business readiness, defining the criteria that constitute ready, evidencing them and making the go or no go recommendation to the Steering Committee.
Produce the change impact and load assessment across colleague populations in stores, distribution and the support centre, and put it to the Executive Team so that sequencing decisions are taken with a clear view of what the organisation is being asked to absorb.
Own the change narrative and the diagnosis of readiness and resistance, running structured listening across the teams and treating resistance as design intelligence that changes the solution before go live, not after.
Design the behavioural interventions that make new ways of working stick, including incentives, defaults, role modelling, deliberate removal of the old process and reinforcement after go live.
Develop and coach executive sponsors and line leaders, building their capability to lead change personally and visibly rather than delegate it, and working with HR and L&D so colleagues can do the new work rather than simply be aware of it.
Own adoption measurement, defining what done looks like in behavioural terms for every initiative, measuring what people actually do rather than what they attended, and acting where adoption decays.
Hold benefits realisation to account jointly with the accountable executive, confirming that changed behaviour has converted into the financial outcome committed, and calling it clearly where it has not.
Build lasting change capability across the divisions through a common method and a network of change leads, so the organisation becomes less dependent on central support over time.
What we are looking for:
Proven track record of leading business change end to end in an operationally complex organisation, with evidence that the change was adopted and sustained, not simply delivered.
Proven capability in designing operating solutions they personally authored, covering process, roles and accountabilities, decision rights and the operating routines that hold them together.
Experience in leading a design authority across multiple concurrent initiatives, holding the coherence of the whole where individual teams optimised for their own scope.
Demonstrable experience leading business readiness, cutover and stabilisation in an environment that cannot stop trading, including ownership of the go or no go recommendation.
The discipline to assess change impact and load across defined populations, and the evidence base to shape sequencing decisions taken by someone more senior.
A rigorous approach to adoption measurement using behavioural or usage data, with examples of intervening or reversing course when adoption decayed after go live.
Experience holding benefits realisation jointly with an accountable business owner, including the willingness to confirm or dispute a benefit claim.
Practical fluency in behavioural and organisational psychology, combined with strong diagnostic listening and a narrative that lands with a frontline audience as well as an executive one.
The ability to deliver through influence rather than authority, taking design decisions at pace and applying a recognised change method pragmatically rather than as process.
How we reward our teams:
Hybrid Working Model from home and in the office
4pm Friday Finish
Flexible Working
25 Days holiday, plus your Birthday off, plus Bank Holidays with an opportunity to buy extra days holiday
Family Friendly Leave
Company Pension scheme
Annual Bonus based on company and personal performance
Competitive Salary and Car Allowance
Private Medical
Cycle to work scheme
Staff Discount Card for railway stores (subject to policy)
About us:
Celebrating over 230 years, we’re proud to have grown into a globally recognised brand present in over 30 countries – the air of familiarity people love and trust on their journey. As a diverse group of over 6,000 colleagues, we’re all on the same journey to a better business through our commitments to our planet, people and the communities we serve.
Our business operates from two key locations, In a vibrant area of London, close to Aldgate and Liverpool Street Station, while the other is located at Swindon's International Business Park, just off the M4 with excellent transport links and over 100 on-site parking spaces.
For WHSmith Europe, our mission is simple – to create value for our stakeholders by providing a platform for global brands across airports, hospitals, rail stations and other markets. Our operational environment is fast-paced and highly regulated, requiring exceptional standards of maintenance, compliance, health & safety and colleague welfare across every location.
We’re all about creating an inclusive and welcoming workplace where everyone can be themselves and do their best. No matter your background, age, disability, gender, gender expression, gender identity, race or ethnicity, marital status, religion, sex, sexual orientation or anything else that makes you, you—you’re welcome here.
We’re also open to flexible working where possible, so if that’s something you need, let’s chat. And if you need any adjustments during the selection process, just let our Talent Acquisition team know—we’re happy to help!