Why Do Companies Need to Hire Impact Analysts for Business Sustainability?

5 min readMar 24, 2022

In a disruption era where the significant rise of digital technology brings about changes at all levels of society, businesses are urged to quickly adapt in order to sustain. From making adjustments in their internal environment to adopting innovations to enhance their capacity, a variety of measures can be taken by organizations in response to those changes. However, it should be borne in mind that every decision or policy comes with some risk of failure in its implementation, which may lead to disadvantageous results for the business. Therefore, it is crucial for companies to hire some people, mainly to analyze the impact of change being proposed. People with this job are known as impact analysts.

Nowadays, impact analysis has become such an in-demand job as companies around the world strive to sustain amidst any challenges facing them by carefully planning changes and innovations that can impact both their business and the community. In a policymaking process, an impact analyst is mainly in charge of figuring out what might have to be created, adjusted, modified, and/or thrown away, as well as to estimate the effort in regards to implementing the policy. Not just large and medium businesses, micro and small businesses such as boutiques, coffee shops, photography studios, and translation services too need to conduct impact analysis to help them sustain and thrive. Wanna learn more about this job and how it can contribute to your business? Let’s check it out!

What an impact analyst does and how you can fit for the job

Image 1: The process of impact analysis

Source: Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids

There are five tasks that an impact analyst has to perform in sequence in a project. First and foremost, they need to define the order in which the tasks should be completed and interleave them with the current action plan. Second, they need to determine whether the planned change is on the critical path of the project. Since every change most likely consumes resources, an impact analyst should plan to avoid/minimize affecting tasks on the current critical path so that the entire project’s completion date will not slip. Third, they have to estimate the impact of the change on the project’s costs and timing. Fourth, they need to determine the change’s priority by defining the approximate cost, benefit, technical risk, and penalty compared to other optional requirements. Fifth, they finally have to create the report of the impact analysis and submit it to all company stakeholders for them to take the obtained information into consideration as they decide whether the change request should be approved or not.

Suppose you are interested in being an impact analyst, you shall equip yourself with knowledge on how to properly conduct an impact analysis before applying for this job. Therefore, it is highly advisable that you take an impact analyst course or training that provides comprehensive learning modules and credible certifications that will be valuable for your job applications. Below are some recommended impact analyst certification courses/trainings which you can enroll in:

Why is it so important?

“For every action force, there is a reaction force equal in strength and opposite in direction” — Newton’s Third Law of Motion.

Every business is dynamic to change and they need to keep improving and innovating in order to gain more returns and market share. However, whether companies achieve their goals or not, an impact will be made on people, the environment, and society which will react in kind. If a company does not prepare for responses, a significant risk will show. For instance, as the climate change becomes more serious, it is required for companies to make an analysis on their waste as regulated by the government or they may be sanctioned.

By conducting an impact analysis we can figure out the main business functions and make predictions of changes or disruption consequences that will be implemented or have been implemented. For example, in developing the Wear OS which is a version of Android designed for smartwatches and wearables, Google would need to conduct an impact analysis to measure its prospects such as how much the Wear OS would probably attract global wearables manufacturers to purchase the license. Apart from that, having analysis on impact also allows information gathering that is crucial in developing strategies for recovery and limiting the loss potential.

Furthermore, it will help companies in :

Identify business process
Areas of improvement recognition
Financial and technical assets protection planning

As every business can be disrupted with unwanted things like suppliers’ failure and cyber attacks, a thorough plan to minimize risk by analysis is becoming more demanding. A response toward a reaction occurring in dire straits will be less effective as it will be arbitrary and random. Moreover, due diligence conducted by an impact analyst will also result in a more confident action due to a well-thought-out plan, in which management decisions and judgments in responding reactions will improve. Besides, it will enable operational prioritization from the urgency level, which is critical to a business’s success. As a matter of fact, problems are part of business development, while ignoring them will threaten solvency and long-term survival.

Well, How can it affect the job outlook in the future?

Image 2: impact analyst salary

Source: Glassdoor

According to Glassdoor Survey, in the USA, the average pay for an impact analyst is $63,859 each year, which is the midpoint from the highest $114,000 to the lowest range of $36,000. As the impact will gain more exposure in the future, the need for analysts in effects on the environment and other forms of analysis will likely increase.

Written By:

Wennie and Muwaffiq Rosyadi

References

Wiegers, K. (2021, August 12). Best Practices for Change Impact Analysis. Jama Software. Retrieved March 13, 2022, from https://www.jamasoftware.com/blog/change-impact-analysis-2/#:%7E:text=Impact%20analysis%20is%20a%20key,about%20which%20proposals%20to%20approve

Zhao, J. (2021, September 23). Business Impact Analysis: What to Know [2021]. Hyperproof. Retrieved March 13, 2022, from https://hyperproof.io/resource/business-impact-analysis/

Mathew, M. (2022, February 19) Impact Analysis in Software Testing. Retrieved March 7, 2022, from https://www.guru99.com/impact-analysis-software-testing.html

Glass Door, Retrieved March 8 2022, from https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/impact-analyst-salary-SRCH_KO0,14.htm

Why Do Companies Need to Hire Impact Analysts for Business Sustainability?

Written by Narc Executive