A complete, editable change management plan for Australian businesses: risk-based, with every change screened and tiered by its risk, and the plan, policy and tools to assess, consult on, approve, make and review it, and to report it to leadership.
The Change Management Plan is a complete, editable change management plan for Australian businesses, for australian businesses that change how they work, and the operations, HR, IT, project and WHS managers who lead change. It is aligned to the model WHS laws, with notes on how Victoria, Western Australia and the Commonwealth (Comcare) differ, and to ISO 31000, AS/NZS ISO 45001, ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO/IEC 27001, with a cross-reference to each. It includes the change management plan, a policy, and a roles and approval authorities guide; an Excel change risk tiering tool on the same risk matrix as the WHS plans, with what each tier requires; screening, impact and risk, critical controls, organisational change and technology assessments, and consultation and approval records; and a readiness check, temporary and urgent change form, post-change review, change register and a governance dashboard and report. Everything is editable Word or Excel, delivered as an instant download.
Change is where control breaks down. New processes, plant, systems, structures and ways of working bring risks that existing controls were not designed for, and they can quietly remove a control that was working. Under the WHS laws, a business must consult its workers when proposing changes that may affect their health or safety, and review its controls before a change that could bring a new or different risk. Change carries more than safety risk too: the service, the cost, your reputation, the environment and your information.
This plan manages change as a whole-of-business risk: operational and process change; plant, equipment and facilities; technology and digital systems, including automation and AI tools; organisational change, including restructures, roles, staffing levels, rosters and hours, with their psychosocial risks; suppliers and contractors; legal and regulatory change; temporary and emergency changes; and the changes projects make. Each change is screened, then rated once for its inherent risk across six areas (health and safety, operations and delivery, financial, reputation, environment, and information and security) on the same risk matrix as the WHS risk register. Its tier, from Tier 1 to Tier 4, sets the level of assessment, consultation, approval, implementation control and post-change review. Temporary and urgent changes have their own path, with a time limit and a review after.
It is aligned to the model WHS laws, with notes on how Victoria, Western Australia and the Commonwealth (Comcare) differ, and to ISO 31000, AS/NZS ISO 45001, ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO/IEC 27001, with a cross-reference to each. It is written once for the whole of Australia and leaves the detail of each jurisdiction to your WHS management system. It is not ISO certification. Everything is editable Word or Excel, with a setup guide and a 90-day implementation plan. It is a framework to adapt and put into practice with your workers, not a substitute for doing so.
Delivered as one ZIP download. The files below are editable, and every Word document also comes as a PDF. Each download also includes Read Me First, a Product Overview, the Permitted Use Terms and Version Information (PDF).
| File | Format | What it is for |
|---|---|---|
| 90-Day Implementation Plan | Word (.docx) | A week-by-week plan for the first 90 days: list and tier the changes under way, bring the Tier 1 and Tier 2 changes under control first, then review and report. |
| Setup Guide | Word (.docx) | What to adapt before use, in order: the change coordinator and executive sponsor, scope, consequence thresholds, the tier table, approval authorities, specialists, and every placeholder. |
| Australian Law Cross-Reference | Word (.docx) | Maps the model WHS Act and Regulations provisions on consultation, reviewing controls before a change and psychosocial risks to where the pack covers each, with how Victoria, Western Australia and the Commonwealth (Comcare) differ. |
| Change Management Plan | Word (.docx) | The plan itself: the eight kinds of change it covers, what each tier requires at each step, roles, temporary and urgent changes, and how change is identified, assessed, consulted on, approved, made, reviewed and reported. |
| Change Management Policy | Word (.docx) | A short change management policy for the chief executive or owner to sign: the commitment, what is expected of everyone, and how the risk sets the level of control. |
| ISO Standards Cross-Reference | Word (.docx) | Maps ISO 31000, AS/NZS ISO 45001 (management of change), ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO/IEC 27001 to where the pack covers each. Aligned to, not certification. |
| Roles and Approval Authorities Guide | Word (.docx) | Who has duties when the business changes, the roles from executive sponsor to HSRs and workers, who does what at each step, who may approve each tier, and officers' due diligence. |
| Change Impact and Risk Assessment | Word (.docx) | Assesses the risks of the change and of making it, and its impact on controls, people, workload, competence, documents and systems, with interim controls, rollback and stop criteria. |
| Change Request and Screening Form | Word (.docx) | Raises a change early, before it is decided, and screens it: does it need assessing? A Tier 4 change is recorded in full on this one form. |
| Change Risk Tiering Tool | Excel (.xlsx) | An Excel tool that rates each change's inherent risk across six areas on the risk matrix and gives its tier, with the consequence scales and what each tier requires. |
| Critical Controls Impact Check | Word (.docx) | Checks, before the change, every critical control it could remove, bypass, weaken or alter, and how each will be verified after it. |
| Organisational Change and Psychosocial Risk Assessment | Word (.docx) | Assesses the people risks of a restructure or a change to roles, staffing, rosters or hours before the decision: workload, role clarity, support, job security, consultation and fairness. |
| Technology and Digital Change Checklist | Word (.docx) | The questions particular to a new or changed system, software, automation or AI tool: what it decides, safety functions, security and privacy, workers, testing and fallback. |
| Change Approval Record | Word (.docx) | Records the decision at the authority the tier sets: what must be ready before deciding, the decision, the conditions and the post-change review dates. |
| Consultation Plan and Record | Word (.docx) | Plans and records consultation with the workers affected, their HSRs and other businesses before the decision: what was shared, what they said, and what changed as a result. |
| Document and System Update Checklist | Word (.docx) | The procedures, permits, registers, plans and system settings a change makes out of date, updated before it goes live. |
| Implementation and Communication Plan | Word (.docx) | How the change will be made: tasks, who needs to know what and when, interim controls, the rollback and the stop criteria. |
| Pre-implementation Readiness Check | Word (.docx) | A go or no-go check before a change goes live: approval conditions met, consultation done, controls verified, training, documents, rollback and stop criteria ready. |
| Temporary and Urgent Change Form | Word (.docx) | The shorter path for a temporary change, a critical control bypass or an urgent change: minimum checks, approval, a time limit and the review after. |
| Training and Competency Impact Checklist | Word (.docx) | The competencies, licences, training and supervision a change needs before it goes live, for every role it affects. |
| Change Governance Dashboard | Excel (.xlsx) | An Excel dashboard of lead and lag indicators for change, quarter by quarter, with the Tier 1 and 2 changes listed by name. |
| Change Governance Report | Word (.docx) | The quarterly report to leadership: what is changing, whether the changes are under control, temporary and urgent changes, what went wrong, and the decisions needed. |
| Change Register | Excel (.xlsx) | An Excel register of every change: kind, tier, status, approval, go-live, temporary end dates and post-change review dates, with overdue dates flagged. |
| Lessons Learned Record | Word (.docx) | Records what the change taught the business and what changes because of it, fed back into the tier table, the assessments and the plan. |
| Post-change Review | Word (.docx) | Checks, at the intervals the tier sets, that the change works as intended and its controls are in place, used and working, before it is closed. |
The plan is the core; each folder is one part of the change lifecycle. The tier set at screening decides how much each later step needs, and what is learned in the post-change review feeds back into the next change.
Before you adopt it, adapt the plan to:
Before you use it
You need to manage the risks of the changes you make, and a written plan is the clearest way to show how you do it. Under the WHS laws, a business must consult the workers who are, or are likely to be, directly affected when it proposes changes that may affect their health or safety, and give them a real opportunity to contribute before the decision. It must also review its controls before a change at the workplace that is likely to bring a new or different risk. Psychosocial hazards can arise from how work is designed and managed, so a restructure or a new roster needs the same care. The plan sets out how you meet these duties and who does what, and gives you the records that show it.
It should cover every kind of change and follow each one from start to finish: raising it early and screening it, a risk rating that sets how much control it needs, assessing its risks and what it does to the existing and critical controls, people, workload, competence, documents and systems, consulting before the decision, approval at the right level, planning the communication, training, interim controls and rollback, a readiness check before go-live, verifying the controls and reviewing the change afterwards, a path for temporary and urgent changes, and reporting to leadership. This plan has a part for each, with the tools to do it.
Tracing what a change to the task, the environment, the people or a control does to the risk, and checking the controls still work, before the change is made. It asks six questions: what is changing, why is it changing, what could go wrong, which controls are impacted, who needs to know, and how will effectiveness be verified. This plan applies those questions to every kind of change, not only health and safety, and scales the effort to the risk: a Tier 1 change gets a full assessment, formal consultation, executive approval and reviews at set intervals; a Tier 4 change gets a screening and a check that it worked.
No. Health and safety is one of six risk areas. The plan also covers operations and delivery, cost, reputation, the environment and information security, and every kind of change, from new plant to a restructure or an AI tool.
Yes. A restructure, a change to roles or staffing levels, or new rosters or hours changes how work is designed and managed, which is where psychosocial hazards come from. The plan's organisational change assessment looks at workload, role clarity, job control, support, job security, fatigue, relationships and fair consultation before the decision, and puts the risks into your psychosocial risk management plan's register so they are managed once.
All of Australia. It is written to the model WHS laws, which most jurisdictions have adopted, with notes on how Victoria (with its own OHS laws), Western Australia and the Commonwealth (Comcare) differ. For the detail of your jurisdiction, it points to the WHS or OHS laws where you operate and to your own WHS management system.
No. No plan can do that on its own. Your duties are met by managing the risks of each change in your actual workplaces, so far as is reasonably practicable, in consultation with your workers. The plan gives you the structure and the tools to do that, and a record that you have. Using the plan does not by itself make a workplace compliant with WHS or OHS laws, it does not replace the consultation the law requires before a change, and it is not ISO certification. It supports the work of managing the risks of change; it is not legal advice.
No. The plan is aligned to ISO 31000 for the risk method, to AS/NZS ISO 45001 for management of change, and to ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO/IEC 27001 where they apply, with a cross-reference to each. Certification is done by an independent certification body, against the standard itself.
It sits under your WHS management system. Our NSW WHS Management Plan states the minimum steps for managing change so it stands alone; this plan goes further, for businesses with frequent or higher-risk change. The documents you adopt name no other product: where you have contractor or project procedures, the plan works with them, and where you do not, its own steps apply. See the WHS Management Plan.
Usually, yes. The plan only works when the people who run it know how. The Risk Management packages cover management of change at every level, from workers who recognise when a job has changed to supervisors, practitioners and officers, the Critical Control Management Practitioner package covers verifying critical controls, and the toolbox talks brief the crew when a change touches a critical risk. See the Risk Management training packages.
The plan is licensed for internal use by the purchasing organisation. A WHS or HR adviser can set it up for a client that has bought it; using it with other clients needs our written permission. The simplest way is for each client to buy its own copy, which you then adapt with them.
Yes. Every document is supplied in Word (.docx) or Excel (.xlsx), so you can add your logo, change the wording and adapt it to your workplace. The copyright notice must stay.
Yes. The plan must be adapted to your organisation, your work and the hazards you find, in consultation with your workers, before it is adopted. The setup guide lists what to change, and the 90-day implementation plan the order to do it in.
Yes. Every price in the store includes GST, so $299.00 is the total, including $27.18 GST. Your receipt is a tax invoice showing the GST.
As a ZIP download. Card purchases can be downloaded straight away from the confirmation page and by a link we email you. Download links expire after 14 days for security; you can request a new one at any time.
Yes. Use Request an Invoice to order through your normal procurement process, with a purchase order number and quantities if you need them. The files are released once payment is confirmed.
Yes, across your own organisation. The documents are licensed for internal use by the purchasing organisation. A consultant, labour hire business or training provider supplying them to clients needs separate written permission.
Your rights under the Australian Consumer Law are not affected. See the Refund Policy for how we handle a document that is faulty, not as described, or not what you ordered.
Licence and legal information here is general. It may not be correct in your jurisdiction: please check with your local WHS or OHS regulator.
Ordering for a business or several sites? Request an invoice. Other questions: contact us.
The plan sets up the system; training gives the people who run it what they need. The Risk Management packages cover management of change at every level, from workers who recognise when a job has changed to supervisors, practitioners and officers; the Critical Control Management Practitioner package covers verifying critical controls; and the toolbox talks brief the crew when a change touches a critical risk.
A practical introduction for every worker: hazards and risk, the hierarchy of control, and checking the job before it starts.
For supervisors and managers who plan the work, lead the risk assessment and decide whether a job goes ahead.
A full day on broad-brush and task risk assessment, the hierarchy of control, risk registers and management of change.
For executives and directors: risk appetite, risk reporting, assurance and the questions that test whether controls are working.
Editable risk register, risk matrix, assessment, change and review tools for running WHS risk management.
A full day on bowtie analysis, selecting critical controls, performance standards and verification programs.
For workers who clean, clear, maintain or adjust plant: why every energy source must be isolated, locked and proved dead before hands go in.
For workers who use or work near machines: how moving parts injure, how guards work, and why a guard is never removed or bypassed.
For anyone who works around forklifts, trucks, loaders or utes: how people are hit by mobile equipment, and the habits that keep pedestrians and machines apart.
For every worker and regular contractor: what the alarms mean, how to evacuate, where to assemble, and what the wardens need from you.
For every worker, and especially shift workers and long-hours workers: what causes fatigue, how it affects safety, and what the business and worker each do about it.