Project Management for HR Projects – the Executing Process

Goal of Project Execution:  Synchronize all moving parts of the project

So, the goal of the executing process is to synchronize all the moving parts of your project and make sure everyone is in the right place, at the right time, with the right skills needed to get the job done on time and on budget.  Here are the critical elements of the project execution process that were discussed during the Lunch Break.

• Coordinate and Manage People & Resources – ensure the team members have the time and skills to accomplish the tasks they are assigned.  If they don’t, you’ll need to address training that might be necessary to get them up to speed.
• Manage the Cohesion of the Project Team – once we have all the right people with the right skills on the team, how well do they work together?  If this is their first project together, then maybe integrating some team building exercises to help get them to know one another will help break the ice.  If they’ve already worked together, access the current working relationships and if there any issues you need to address ahead of time.
• Implement Methods – now it is time to implement the processes and methods agreed upon in the project plan.  To include…
• Managing Deliverables – outputs that can be measured and marked complete to show progress, and…
• Managing Quality – to ensure that your resources are completing tasks with the needed level of quality to reduce errors and costs associated with poor quality.
• Communicate Plan and Progress – communicating the plan, progress, and changes along the way to those that need to know is critical to keeping everyone on the same page.  But more importantly is communicating the right information at the right time to the right people.
• Document Lessons Learned – lessons learned are essential to improve quality and increase efficiency and output.  Communicate with your team what works and what doesn’t so they can get their tasks done.  responsible for documenting lessons learned and forecasting for future needs of the project based on changes or progress
• Forecast Future Needs – forecasting will help you to foresee changes that might happen (for example, a re-structuring of the organization or change in leadership could change your project).  Staying on top of the internal and external environment will poise you in a more proactive position, rather than reactive.
• Manage Risks – Finally, while risk management covers the risks associated with the outcome of the project (meaning was the intended result the actual result).  It also covers the risk of your human resources.  What happens if a key team member leaves?  You may have to adjust the project plan, increase the budget, or update the schedule until you find a replacement.  Something has to give.

Bottom line…it all comes down to Human Risk Management which is the balance of finding and nurturing talent while minimizing the risk associated with the unpredictability of human beings.

Executing Your Performance Management Program

First, let’s do a quick recap of our Performance Management Project:

You: Facilities manager of a university conference building

Project: Build an employee performance evaluation process, outcomes will determine the merit increases for each employee

Current environment:

• Last evaluation was over 2 years ago
• Turnover is high with college students
• Current raise structure is based on seniority
• 23 Employees (13 Assistants, 10 Managers including you)
• Some employees consistently go above and beyond, some don’t – improve performance

At our last Lunch Break on the planning process, we discussed the various milestones (or parent tasks) that the project could be broken down into.  The key pieces for our project include the electronic evaluations, training program, performance reviews, and the communication strategy.

And of course at this point in the project, not all of these are happening at the same time according to your project plan.  But as project manager you’ll have to know when to initiate each piece and when to pull in those key team members to get each part completed.

ELECTRONIC EVALUATIONS

By this time, you have already selected the online evaluation tool and the person with the technical expertise to build the evaluation.  Now, we have to make sure that the evaluation provides quality results and that it will reliably document each employees performance and is in compliance with internal and external regulations.

Critical Questions:

• Who will be the final voice on the approval of the evaluations?  Are they still available?  Have their needs or instructions changed since you began planning?
• Once the evaluations have been “put on the street”, who will monitor the completion rate?
• Who has access to view the completed evaluations?
• What if someone shows / discusses results or the evaluation they gave of someone else?
• What if evaluation is faulty, something doesn’t work right?

All of these “what ifs” might seem a bit intimating, but if you cover them all in the planning phase in your Risk Management Plan, you will have a much better idea about how to handle these things, the impact they can have on your project, and how to work through them.

TRAINING PROGRAM

So while the evaluation is being built, you will want to get your employees trained on this new process.  Maybe you’ve been hearing some grumbling and questions so you want to get this done to help calm nerves and get the employees on board.

As HR professionals, we know difficult it can be to schedule a “required” training program and get everyone to show up.  And unless it’s mandatory (and even then that doesn’t guarantee 100% attendance) it’s very difficult to get everyone at one training.  With that in mind, you’ll have to schedule two training programs to give the employees an option of which one to attend. Of course, having more than one training program gets us into a situation of making sure the information is delivered equally, and all employees understand the process.

Critical Questions:

• Quality of presentation and is it easily replicable.
• Quality of information provided to the employees.
• Monitoring the effectiveness of the training.
• What will you do if one person doesn’t show up?

Again, address these issues before they happen.  Knowing how you will work around them if they do happen puts you one step ahead of the game.

PERFORMANCE REVIEW

This part of the project probably won’t start to ramp up until half or most of the evaluations are completed.  It doesn’t really make sense to get started on this if the evaluations incomplete, because you can’t deliver the results until then.  But still it is important to keep this timeframe in your mind so you know when to engage the team to start on this part.

Critical Questions:

• Does the manager who will be delivering the results understand how to read the report?
• Is the evaluation yielding the correct results, and results that make sense and are fair across the board?
• Again, what if someone shares their results?

COMMUNICATION STRATEGY

Finally, the communication strategy is an integral part of the execution process because it will hold the other pieces together and keep you moving forward.  Your communication strategy will support the completion of the evaluations – because the employees will understand the value of the evaluations, their role, when they need to be completed by, and so on.  The method and manner the performance review meetings happen will also impact the outcome and perception by stakeholders of the value of this new process.

Frequency and timing can be critical because operations will still trying to run their day to day processes. So even though you may be communicating a lot, make sure you are communicating the right information at the right time.

Critical Questions:

• How / when will you communicate the next step to the employees?
• Who needs to be involved when?
• Do you have the right tools and people in the right place to follow your plan?

Bottom line, the better educated your stakeholders and team are of the process, the more likely things will run smooth and expectations will be met.

Practicing Human Risk Management

For this Lunch Break, the key HR Project Management Take-Away Tip is to learn to practice Human Risk Management, instead of Human Resource Management.

At this critical time in your project, you will never be so dependent on your human resources than at this very moment.

Look back at the critical questions we have just gone through – the majority of the tasks have a heavy reliance on someone else to get the task done.  So what if they don’t?  We’ve got to be proactive to make sure things stay on track, and manage the risk associated with the unpredictability of human beings.

Revisit the HR Project Management Rules of the Road

• You are already doing HR projects every day!
• Your project needs will vary, so be flexible and open-minded
• You don’t have use every tool out there, but it helps to know what is available to you
• Start out small and simple
• Phases are your phriend (misspelling fully intended for humor sake)

Project Execution Check List

• Each step of the project is clearly defined with measurable deliverables.
• Each team member understands their role and that their work performance will be monitored and tracked for completion.
• I have thought through all possible “what ifs” and am prepared to adjust with the needs of the project.
• I actively practice Human Risk Management to balance the needs of my team and the needs of the project.
• I have established specific quality check-points for each milestone.
• I have procured the necessary tools and resources to complete each task and to manage the project progress (online project management tool).
• I actively communicate with stakeholders and team members according to the communication strategy to keep them in the loop of project progress.
• I regularly monitor, document and communicate lessons learned to my team.

Our next HRL Lunch Break is Thursday, February 9th, 2012 – same time – 1:15 – 1:45 ET and our topic is “From CRM to ERM: Employee Relationship Management”.

To check out and register for upcoming events, check out our Calendar

Have a question?  Send us a message!

Thanks for reading – hope to see you next time.