The work carried out by PMs differed wildly
across the organisation, with some doing a fairly recognisable job whilst
others were little more than admin assistants. There was also no standard
project management methodology in place. Small wonder, then, that morale was
low and attrition rates high.
Setting the wheels in motion to establish a
company-wide methodology was the logical and easy first step – basing it
largely on PRINCE 2 and ensuring that all PMs gained PRINCE 2 certification.
What I considered to be far more important
was to create a meaningful career path for project managers, sending out a
clear message that their contributions are valued at OpenBet.
Given my history with the Association for
Project Management (APM), the APM’s Competence Framework was the logical
starting point.
APM’s Registered Project Professional (RPP)
process elevates 27 key competencies as the ones to be most closely evaluated
when assessing a candidate for RPP status. At OpenBet we identified a subset of
those, being the 20 most relevant competencies for PMs’ day-jobs in the
company.
We then encouraged PMs – and by that I mean
anyone on the PM career path from Project Administrator to Programme Director –
to complete a self-assessment measuring his or her experience against those 20
competencies. This enabled them, in agreement with their line managers, to
create SMART objectives targeted to boost their overall competence whilst at
the same time contributing to OpenBet’s goals.
Hand in hand with that we introduced the
notion of a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Log and encouraged PMs to
maintain one, logging a minimum of 35 hours per annum – the APM’s minimum
requirement.
All line managers were mandated to hold
one-to-one mentoring sessions at a minimum of once a fortnight, and they were
given personal objectives that ensured they also completed all mid-year and
end-of-year appraisals on time and to a high standard.
Finally, we introduced “Lunch & Learn”
sessions – a monthly gathering of the whole PM community with a guest speaker,
internal or external, to speak on a topic of interest at a one-hour session
where a finger buffet is provided. For example, we have had presentations on
the APM and on agile project management amongst other topics. We video these
sessions to ensure that anyone who cannot attend, e.g. we have PMs in Australia
and Canada, can catch up via the company wiki.
The response from the PM community has been
quite dramatic. At the first few meetings PMs were introducing themselves to
each other, such was the level of “partitioning” between the divisions. They
decided independently that completing a self-assessment, although private to
them and their line manager, should be compulsory for all PMs, and those PMs
lacking qualifications such as PRINCE 2 and MoR (Management of Risk) began
asking for training.
Their status has been raised within the
company and many are telling me that at last they feel “valued” and believe
there is a recognisable career path for project managers in OpenBet.
All of this has raised the standard we
require from our project managers and we are attracting and keeping excellent
people. Ironically, with a self-assessment matrix and a CPD Log we have armed
our project managers with a great “Sales brochure” should they want to move on,
and at the same time our attrition rate in the PM community has shrunk to zero.
That confirms to me my belief that if a company demonstrably values its people
it will reap the benefits.
Steve Syder is Director of Professional
Services at Openbet, the world's leading provider of interactive gaming and
betting solutions. He is a Fellow of the APM, an RPP Assessor and a contributor
to the 6th Edition of the APM’s BoK.
