A little Project Management in HR can go a Long Way

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Now that the holidays have passed, we are all beginning to settle into our routines at the office while taking charge of new initiatives, objectives and for most of us an overabundance of work.   HR unlike some other functional areas in business is filled with a combination of both project and non-project based work. Whether it is a large job fair, recruitment campaign, annual compensation roll-out, the maintenance of employee data, or managing the entire facet of employee relations, it is safe to say we have our hands full.  Over the past few years, I have found myself applying some project management principles to my HR projects and even to my operational work just to manage the sheer volume of HR related endeavors under my responsibility. What I have found is that there are many ways that HR can benefit from the structure of projects most often used by project managers.  <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

For instance, project managers use a variety of techniques to break down work in smaller, more manageable components called work packages as part of a Work Breakdown structure (WBS). These work packages allow anyone in the organization to see what work needs to be done to complete deliverables at the lowest possible level.  While it may seem to be an arduous task to perform this function, I have found it to be very valuable when a team is working together to ensure that nothing slips through the cracks and that everyone is aware of who is responsible for each individual component, the costs associated with their completion and resources needed. Where might this have value?  Imagine applying these techniques to the annual compensation review process. Even if part of your process is automated, understanding the work involved at the lowest possible level in a form other than a to-do list ensures that every possible task associated with the compensation review is completed and any individual that may assist in the process completely understands without explanation the work that needs to be done.

Once the work packages are created, costs and resources required to complete the activities can be added which is an excellent way to measure the costs and resources needed to complete a specific endeavour, such as the annual compensation review, a job fair or recruitment campaign.  By being better able to quantify the amount of work involved in a particular process or project it becomes significantly more clear the amount of actual work and effort involved which then allows HR to take a more strategic look at how work is being performed to ensure that it is the most effective and efficient as possible.

At Adequasys, we bring the this project management discipline to our implementations, which decreases the amount of time to implement and ensures maximum customer success.  Contact us for more information.