Human resource management
Contents |
Abstract
Human resource management is a branch off the "Human behavior" aspect in Project Management. Human resource management is a tool for managers to best allocate their human resources possible. There has been a lot of focus on human resources in the latest years as competition grows, and therefore all screws tightens in all parts of an organization. This includes human resources as it is an aspect that has not fully been mastered yet. The idea with Human resource management is to maximize the output of the employees, not only short term, but also long term. Long term and short term do not necessarily align, there are also other aspects such as, what members and personalities are with in the team, what are the company values, are the goal/tasks identifiable for the individuals. All these things creates a complex web of just some of the important identifiable when managing human resource. Another thing is the growing complexity in jobs, and the wider requirements with often the same resources. This is due to the growing level of automation even in administrative jobs. To get ahead of others, managers must manage the human resources to every individual fullest potential.
There are different levels of human resource management when it comes to projects; Plan Human resource, Acquire project team, Develop Project Team and Manage Project Team. All 4 have to be in order to have a successful team, that improves the quality of a project, and improve their own ability for future projects. [1] [2]
Introduction:
One of the things all, change management tools have in commend is the description of a Team, or the description of the necessity of the "right" team. This is done in 4 steps according to A PPMBOK guide[2] First step is the Plan of human resource made from the project management plan. From the Plan of human resources can the acquiring of project team begin, which then leads to a Develop project team, where the human resources are delt within the project. The last step is the Manage project team which looks at the management for the team and how to make the team work.
Big idea:
Plan Human resource:
Input:
According to PMBOK Guide is the planning of human resource management based off of three things. All three elements are necessary to start planning the human resources:
1. Project management plan - Which is the project plan that describes the project life cycle and how each phase will be executed. It also describes the criteria of how to successfully complete the different tasks with in the change. There should also be a description of how communication among stakeholders is preformed.
2. Activity resource requirements - Is a estimate of the resources needed for each task, this includes equipment, supplies required and human resource. It is through this description that requirements regarding what team members are necessary to carry the change can begin.
3. Organizational process assets and Enterprise Environmental factor - This includes information about the organizational culture, and structure. The Human resources that are within the organization and the geographical position of these members. if the right man for the job, in a department in another country, some issues could occur. [2]
Structure:
It is then needed to document each members roles and responsibilities, this way it becomes clear what and where all members belong in the project. There are multible ways of formatting this structure, such as hierarchical, matrix and text-oriented. each one has its advantage. It is as an example a lot more common to see hierarchical structures in USA and perhaps more matrix structures in Denmark. The overall goal for any chart is assign a function with an activity and thereby showing where all the different responsibilities lies.
To sustain the best possible planning of human resources, many approaches can be made. Organizational theory, expert judgment and meetings are different tool that can help gain knowledge and improve the way members interact with others.
Meetings
It is important that the team members gain insight in each others function, and that everyone reach a consensus of how the Human resource plan is distributed between members. It is also a great way see how well the group Dynamics work.
Expert judgment
When picking the right candidate for a function, it can be useful have an expert to list the primary skills required for the function and then the establish a view of how much effort should be put into meeting projects objectives. Based off of this a member should be found within an organization. Always identify the risk associated with any staff choice, as this person could be needed in another project in the future.
Organizational theory
Organizational theory is used to understand the people/team and how they behave. Choosing the right people for a group, or the right group for a person, can optimize cost, time and effort need to create the human ressource plan in the first place. It is important to understand the individuals and their goals, go understand how and what will happens if some are put into a team. Also keep in mind that the organizational structure can have high relevance depending of the people and shared values. Another thing is the role of the leader/manager this person will also have to be able to control the team to insure strict alignment with the project. [2]
Output:
The overall output from the human resource planning should be a chart of all functions and with a description of what each functions role and responsibility are within the project. There should also be a staff management plan that describes the different team members need for resources during the project. The information on this plan should be updates during the execution of the project, to keep track of resources and to plan ahead.
From the planning phase should it be clear what each team members needs are to fulfill their tasks. Some might need training or permission to able to deliverer what was promised. The Human Resources Plan must based off of all this also present a schedule or time table of how and what resources are used within the team. The more detailed the easier it is to do a risk analysis of the project, both on cost and time. [2]
Acquire project team:
When acquiring a team some basic considerations should be made by the manager.
First: Always be aware of who to effectively negotiate with to get the human resources for the project that is being set up. This is important as key players/members might be hard to acquire from an organization.
Second: If the right members can not be acquired due to other factors, such as economical or unavailability, the project must then be carried out with alternativ members, this could affect the entire team. Insufficient human resources could lead to delayed projects or in worst cases have the project canceled.
Input
The input is the Human resource plan that has all the roles and responsibilities defined. The other thing needed to start setting up the team is the organizations members and their availability and skills. If there is documentation of future struggles or necessity this can be taken into consideration too.
Multi Criteria decision analysis
There are multiple tools to link supply and demand in human resource when acquiring a project group. One is highlighted -Multi-Criteria decision analysis-.
It is a system that lets the different kandidats be evaluated within the different criteria that are found necessary for the position. It also allows for a factoring in which of the different criteria that are most important. Which means if experience and charisma are rated a lot more important than age and education, these factors will way in higher, then trying to find the right candidate for a position. Figure 1.0 illustrates how its done.
The good thing about this multi criteria decision analysis, is that it allows hard numbers to tell you who is the right candidates for the prosition, and also allows the manager to pick any number of criteria and which of the criteria that factors the most.
Figure 1.0
Output
The output that should come from this are Project staff assignments, resource calendars and updates upon the original project management plan.
The staff will be assigned the different positions and the resource plan can then be made from this knowledge too. The more detailed the assignments the better the plan.
Develop Project Team:
The key when developing a project team, is to have them enhance each other and bring motivation to the project, resulting in a overall higher project performance.
Input
When developing the project team(s) is it important to have established the Human resource management plan and the acquired project team. From these the human resource plan, staff assignments and resources calendar brings the knowledge to Develop the project teams. based on this information can different tools be used you assemble these team, to enhance the performance of the full project.
Tools
Training
There are two sides to which training can lean. First there is the direct training that follows typically education, classrooms, on-job training and online courses. But there is also the indirect training that comes secondly from the direct education. This is the behavior in a work place or how to operate the tools learned in real life. Indirect training has to be constantly updated. The updates could come from observation. Training cost should be included in the project budget, even though the skills that is taught to the employees can last must longer than the project.
Collaboration
Perhaps the most important tool for a team is team-work. And to form this team-work, ground rules and colocation can be necessary. Ground rules, is basic behavior, displayed and told to the team. This creates an opening for the group to establish a set of rules and therefore bring them a sens of a team, form the beginning. The other tool "colocation" is to put everyone in the team in the same location to then make the team-work become a short-cut then running the project, resulting in improves communication and better team work. It must be noted that there are some downsides to this, as this also encourage small-talk, and enable members to go in depth with things, as they get interrupted.
Recognition and Reward
As a manager of a team, rewards and recognition has to be a part of the rutine. People are motivated if they fill involved and valuable. Some systems base their rewards and recognition on the money, this is seen in the salles industry, there part of the sales are directly put in your pocket. Other systems, gives titles to show recognition others have employee of the month Nothing is wrong as different people want/need different types of recognition and rewards. But as a general rule, a managers should give rewards all the way through the project, instead of waiting till the end.
Output
Team performance assessment criteria should be determined, and put into the development if the project teams. The performance should be measured by the criteria that is set up and how well these have been achieved. Criteria such as:
- Staff turnover rate
- Budget constraints
- Project schedule
Based on the criteria, can the manager then find out, what training help, and where should there be improvement in staff, skills or communication.
Manage Project Team:
Limitations:
There will have to be a fine line between what is necessary for a project and what is not. Although all of what is stated in this article will benefit the project, it shall be considered in regards of what cost? It might become a too detailed plan for a small project. The multi criteria analysis is perhaps not important at all, as there are an obvious candidate for most jobs in reality. And should then only be use in circumstances where the candidates are not obvious. Another thing is the information needed, will most often not be available beforehand, as the information or data to do these analysis don't exist, and must then be created, this could slow down the process too much, to become a reality.
