In one recent assignment as Director of Programmes & Projects the role of PMs there took me by surprise. The organisation had little understanding of project management – thankfully, because that’s why they needed me!
The work carried out by PMs differed wildly across the organisation, with some doing a fairly recognisable PM 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 the APM Body of Knowledge (BoK) and PRINCE 2 and ensuring that all PMs gained PRINCE 2 certification and began to prepare for APM qualifications.
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 within the organisation. These were some of the things I did:
1. Used the APM’s Competence Framework
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. 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 the organisation’s goals.
2. Introduced Continuing Professional Development
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.
This process is a two-way street; project managers give genuine consideration to their own development and the company has to show commitment to training and development.
3. Made line management a service
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.
This made the project managers feel valued and gave more evidence of the organisation’s commitment to their development.
4. Introduced “Lunch & Learn” sessions
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 (sometimes known as “Brown bag” meetings). 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 overseas PMs, can catch up via the company wiki.
Attendance was optional but we always saw a very high turn out, and I don’t think it was because of the quality of the catering.
The response from the PM community was 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 at the company.
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 the 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.
Over to you – what have you or your company done to improve and motivate a group of subject matter experts?
No comments:
Post a Comment