Change management tools are the methods and software that help you plan, communicate and embed organizational change. They come in two kinds: methodological tools (change impact assessment, stakeholder map, ADKAR model, change champions network) that structure the approach, and software (project management, employee engagement surveys, communication, digital adoption platforms) that supports it day to day.
Key takeaways
- Change management tools combine methodological frameworks, such as impact assessments, stakeholder maps and the ADKAR model, with software.
- Software covers four needs: managing the project, communicating, measuring engagement and getting new applications adopted.
- A digital adoption platform guides employees inside their applications and measures how they actually use them.
- Choose tools by need first, then check integration, data security, ease of use and reporting.
Change Management: The Indispensable Asset
Recent years have profoundly altered the relationship many employees have with work and their company. For instance, in 2016, Gartner's "Workforce Change" report showed that 74% of employees were willing to change their work behaviors to support organizational change. This figure drastically dropped to 38% in 2022. This paradigm shift presents a real HR challenge in terms of management, long-term employee retention, and recruitment. Simultaneously, we are witnessing the rapid and spectacular deployment of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, Big Data, IoT ("Internet of Things"), automation and robotics, and digital twins, which demand extreme agility from companies across all sectors. This tension makes change management indispensable, and while it requires a robust strategy to succeed, it can be facilitated and accelerated through the implementation of internal tools that will support employee digital adoption and the planning of innovative and ambitious projects.
What are change management tools?
Change management tools fall into two families. Methodological tools structure the approach; software supports it day to day. Before choosing an application, most change teams rely on a few proven frameworks:
- Change impact assessment: for each group of employees, it lists what changes in tools, processes, roles and culture, and sizes the support each group needs.
- Stakeholder map: it ranks stakeholders by influence and level of support so you can tailor communication to each of them.
- ADKAR model: developed by Prosci, it breaks individual change into five elements: Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability and Reinforcement.
- Change champions network: employees in each team who test the new tools, report friction and help their colleagues.
- Change curve: based on the Kübler-Ross change curve, it helps managers anticipate emotional reactions and adapt their message at each stage.
These frameworks are explained in our guide to change management models. The software tools below put them into practice.
The Best Tools for Managing Your Change Initiatives
monday.com for HR, a Versatile Platform
monday.com, configured for HR teams, is a platform that centralizes all HR issues: recruitment tracking, employee onboarding processes and progress, leave management, and evaluations. It also offers automation for certain repetitive tasks, and its open API can be connected to Jira, Gmail, Salesforce, and more.
- Advantages: The tool's great versatility, addressing HR issues while also offering broader functionalities like project management.
- Disadvantages: The deployment and customization phase can be tedious.
- Target Audience: This is an agile and robust tool suitable for both startups and large corporations.
Notion, the Tool Favored by Teams
Upon its launch, Notion was primarily a tool for managing documentation for technical and design projects. Its playful and highly intuitive interface quickly made it a favored tool among employees themselves. Since then, many features have been added, expanding its capabilities. Today, Notion is a comprehensive project management tool that enables, among other things, the creation of tracking workflows, task automation, and content drafting and summarization with its built-in assistant, Notion AI.
- Advantages: Its playful interface and relatively low learning curve.
- Disadvantages: Requires strict role management.
- Target Audience: Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) that value team agility and autonomy.
Peakon, for Taking the Pulse of Your Teams
Peakon, acquired by Workday in 2021 and now sold as Workday Peakon Employee Voice, is a tool primarily aimed at HR. It allows for evaluating and tracking employee engagement and quickly implementing HR strategies. For employees, it offers, for example, pulse surveys or the option to leave comments. HR, in turn, can view real-time dashboards and obtain precise reports and analyses.
- Advantages: A specialized tool for HR.
- Disadvantages: Pricing can be high.
- Target audience: Peakon is primarily aimed at medium to large companies managing large teams.
K-NOW, for successful onboarding and accelerated adoption
K-NOW is a Digital Adoption Platform (DAP) that facilitates employee onboarding and training on all internally deployed tools, from CRM applications to ERPs, HRIS, and CMMS. It's intuitive, with a low learning curve for both HR departments and employees themselves. Combined with K-VALUE, it also measures how each application is actually used and pinpoints the steps where users struggle.
- Pros: K-NOW offers onboarding for over 400 applications (Workday, SAP, Salesforce, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics, Cornerstone, Google Workspace…)
- Disadvantages: The tool runs in the web browser; there is no dedicated desktop application.
- Target audience: small and midsize businesses and large enterprises. K-NOW boasts strong references: Orange, Airbus, RATP, Crédit Agricole, BPCE, Safran…
Jira, for leading the most ambitious projects
Jira is a project management tool originally designed for technical teams, offering a ticketing system to manage incidents and efficiently assign them to operations teams. Today, its functions are more generalist: the tool offers a complete range of features for real-time management of ambitious technological projects.
- Advantages: Jira offers comprehensive and customizable dashboards that enable real-time project monitoring and management.
- Disadvantages: The tool requires a certain amount of time to master and become familiar with to be used to its full potential.
- Target audience: companies with significant challenges related to project prioritization and associated tasks.
How to choose the right change management software
No single application covers an entire change program. Start from the need, then compare a few options against simple criteria:
| Need | Type of tool | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Plan and track the project | Project management (Jira, monday.com, Notion) | Adoption by business teams, not only by the project team |
| Measure engagement | Employee surveys and pulse tools (Workday Peakon Employee Voice) | Survey frequency and follow-up on action plans |
| Communicate and co-design | Intranet, enterprise social network, collaborative whiteboard | Avoid multiplying channels |
| Get a new application adopted | Digital adoption platform, software simulation | Compatibility with your applications and measurement of actual usage |
Also check integration with your existing systems, data security and hosting, ease of use for non-specialists and reporting capabilities, and involve a few end users in the selection so the tools fit how teams actually work. For the last need, see our criteria for choosing a digital adoption solution and how RATP supports its users.
Frequently asked questions
What are the main types of change management tools?
Change management tools fall into two groups. Methodological tools, such as change impact assessments, stakeholder maps, the ADKAR model and change champions networks, structure the approach. Software tools support it day to day: project management platforms, employee survey and pulse tools, communication channels and digital adoption platforms that guide users inside new applications. Most change programs combine both.
What is the difference between change management software and a digital adoption platform?
Change management software serves the change team: planning tasks, tracking milestones, mapping stakeholders and sharing progress. A digital adoption platform serves end users: it guides them step by step inside their business applications, provides contextual help at the moment of need and measures actual usage. The first manages the change; the second gets it adopted.
What is a change management toolkit?
A change management toolkit is a ready-to-use set of templates and guides that a change team applies on every project: impact assessment grid, stakeholder map, communication plan, training plan, readiness survey and adoption dashboard. Many organizations build their own toolkit from a recognized framework so that every project follows the same steps and produces comparable data.
How do you measure the success of change management?
You measure change management success by the actual, lasting use of what was deployed: share of active users, use of key features, errors and support requests, employee satisfaction and business outcomes. Track these indicators before, during and after go-live so you can adjust support where adoption stalls. See how to measure digital adoption.
Is change management outdated?
No, but it is evolving. Organizations now face continuous, overlapping changes rather than one-off projects, and employees are less willing to absorb them, which fuels change fatigue. Change management is therefore becoming more continuous, more data-driven and more embedded in daily work tools, with in-app guidance and usage analytics complementing communication and training.
