Human Resources Management

Project human resources management helps the team do its best work. The project manager coordinates the project while the team plans it. Assign roles and responsibilities formally, document human resources activities, and keep confirming that the people you need are available.

The project team consists of the project manager, the project management team, and other team members. The project management team includes the team members who assist the project manager with project management activities.

As the team grows, human resources responsibilities increase. Much of this work falls in the Executing Process Group. Identify team members, define their roles and responsibilities, set up a system for rewards and recognition, improve team members’ competencies and performance, and track individual and team performance. Improving competencies is a critical responsibility of the project manager. Team building is required and should be planned formally in advance.

Roles and Responsibilities

Identify the roles of management, team members, and other stakeholders and make their responsibilities clear. Use tools such as a responsibility assignment matrix.

Project Sponsor or Initiator

The sponsor provides the project’s financial resources. A sponsor could be a customer, senior management, or another party. Management serves as a protector of the project.

Human Resources Responsibilities of the Project Manager

• Determine what resources the project needs and negotiate with resource managers for the best available resources that fit those needs.
• Create a project team directory.
• Write project job descriptions for team members and other stakeholders, and make sure all roles and responsibilities are assigned clearly.
• Identify the training team members need for their project work and make sure they receive it.
• Create a formal Human Resource Plan that explains how the team will participate and what roles people will perform.
• Place team members’ performance reports in their official company employment records.
• Send letters of commendation to team members and their managers.
• Make sure team members’ needs are addressed.
• Create a rewards and recognition system.

Develop Human Resource Plan

The process defines team members’ roles and responsibilities. Assign those responsibilities clearly alongside the project activities each person is expected to complete.

Organization Charts and Position Descriptions

Tools for recording and communicating roles include responsibility assignment matrices, organizational breakdown structures, resource breakdown structures, and position descriptions.

Responsibility Assignment Matrix

A responsibility assignment matrix cross-references team members with the activities or work packages they will complete.

RACI Chart

A RACI chart is a form of responsibility assignment matrix that makes roles more explicit. RACI stands for Responsible, Accountable, Consult, and Inform.

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ARMI Matrix

An ARMI matrix is an alternative to a RACI matrix. ARMI stands for Approver, Resource, Member, and Interested Party.

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Position Descriptions

A position description is a written job description for project work.

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Human Resource Plan

The Human Resource Plan is an output of Develop Human Resource Plan. It sets out when and how to add team members, manage and oversee them, and release them from the project. It includes roles and responsibilities, project organization charts, and the Staffing Management Plan.

Staffing Management Plan

• Staff acquisition plan
• Resource calendars
• Staff release plan
• Staff training needs
• Rewards and recognition
• Compliance
• Safety

Rewards and Recognition System

Planning rewards can take considerable effort. Set up the system before project work starts. Rewards and recognition are among the most effective ways to motivate people and gain cooperation regardless of whom they report to. This is especially important in a matrix organization.

• Say “thank you” more often.
• Give awards such as Team Member of the Month.
• Give prizes for performance.
• Recommend team members for raises or desirable assignments.
• Send notes to team members’ managers about outstanding performance.
• Plan milestone parties or other celebrations.
• Arrange training for team members.
• Reward people by assigning them to activities they have been waiting to work on or taking them off activities they dislike.

Acquire Project Team

Identify any preassigned team members and confirm their availability. Negotiate for the best resources for the work, hire new employees as needed, work with virtual teams, and manage the risks of scarce resources.

Preassignment

When people are assigned to the project in advance, the project manager works with those team members.

Negotiation

When you need to negotiate for people from within the organization, take these steps.

• Understand the project’s needs and priorities within the organization.
• Explain what the resource manager gains by helping the project. This is the WIIFM, or “What’s In It For Me?”
• Ask for the best resources only when the project needs them.
• Demonstrate why the project needs the stated quality and quantity of resources. The network diagram and project schedule can help make the case.
• Work with the resource manager to handle situations as they arise.

Virtual Teams

Virtual teams work without meeting face-to-face. This makes it possible to bring together strong team members from different parts of the world.

Halo Effect

The halo effect is the tendency to rate someone high or low across all factors based on an impression formed from a single factor.

Develop Project Team

Develop Project Team takes place during project execution. It generally reduces turnover, improves individual knowledge and skills, and improves teamwork.

Team Building

Team building helps people work together in the project’s best interest, improving project performance. The project manager guides, manages, and improves team interactions, trust, and cohesion. Start early, make team building part of all project activities, and give it sustained attention throughout the project. Creating the WBS is one way to build the team.

Teams go through five stages of formation and development.

1. Forming. People come together as a team.
2. Storming. Disagreements arise as people learn to work together.
3. Norming. Team members begin to build good working relationships.
4. Performing. The team becomes efficient and works effectively together.
5. Adjourning. The project ends and the team disbands.

Team building can include taking classes together, milestone parties, holiday and birthday celebrations, trips outside work, creating the WBS, and involving everyone in planning exercises.

Training

Training improves skills and reduces total project cost and time by increasing efficiency. Charge training costs to the project and document training in the Human Resource Plan.

Ground Rules

Ground rules establish standards and expectations. They can address the following situations.

• Honesty in all communications.
• How to resolve conflicts and escalate issues.
• Whether interruptions are allowed and how to interrupt someone appropriately during a meeting.
• The consequences of arriving late.
• How to handle phone calls, email etiquette, and reading text messages during meetings.

Clear expectations can prevent conflicts and problems. Ground rules are especially important for virtual teams.

Co-Location and War Rooms

Co-location means bringing team members in each city into the same office space or room. It improves communication and reduces the impact of conflict because the people involved are nearby. It also strengthens the project team’s identity with its members and with management in a matrix organization.

A war room is a central place for project coordination and for creating materials such as the WBS, network diagram, and schedule.

Rewards and Recognition in Practice

During Develop Project Team, the project manager appraises performance and provides rewards and recognition appropriate to each team member, as defined in the Human Resource Plan.

Team Performance Assessment

The project manager uses formal and informal assessments to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of the team as a whole.

Manage Project Team

Developing a team improves its capability. Managing a team involves the day-to-day work of leading people. Encourage communication, stay in touch, observe what is happening, and work with other organizations. Use negotiation and leadership skills, maintain an issue log, complete project performance appraisals, make sound decisions, and influence stakeholders. Actively look for conflicts team members cannot resolve themselves and help resolve them.

Observation and Conversation

Pay attention to the tone of emails and phone conversations, including in virtual teams. Talk to people regularly to understand how the project is going alongside what the reports tell you.

Project Performance Appraisals

A project performance appraisal is an evaluation of an employee’s work by a supervisor. A 360-degree review also takes feedback from subordinates and coworkers, giving a clearer picture of actual performance.

Issue Log

Use an issue log to manage issues involving team members and stakeholders before those issues affect the project.

Powers of the Project Manager

Getting people to cooperate and perform can be difficult, especially in a matrix organization. Project managers draw on several forms of power.

• Formal (legitimate). Comes from the project manager’s position.
• Reward. Comes from the ability to give rewards.
• Penalty (coercive). Comes from the ability to penalize team members.
• Expert. Comes from technical or project management expertise.
• Referent. Comes from charisma or reputation, or from people liking or respecting the project manager or wanting to be like them.

Management and Leadership Styles

Situational leadership means choosing a style that suits the people and work at each point in the project life cycle.

• Directing. Tell others what to do.
• Facilitating. Coordinate input from others.
• Coaching. Help others achieve their goals.
• Supporting. Provide assistance along the way.
• Autocratic. Manage from the top down, with the manager free to decide what to do.
• Consultative. Use a bottom-up approach and influence to achieve results. Ask for people’s opinions and serve the team.
• Consultative-autocratic. Seek team members’ input and retain the authority to decide.
• Consensus. Solve problems as a group and make decisions based on group agreement.
• Delegating. Set goals and give the team enough authority to complete the work.
• Bureaucratic. Follow procedures exactly.
• Charismatic. Energize and encourage people as they carry out project work.
• Democratic or participative. Encourage the team to take part in decisions.
• Laissez-faire. The French term can mean “allow to act,” “allow to do,” or “leave alone.” The manager stays out of the team’s day-to-day work and manages or consults when necessary. This can suit a highly skilled team.
• Analytical. Rely on the manager’s own technical knowledge and ability. Analytical managers often make technical decisions and communicate them to the team.
• Driver. Give directions constantly and use a competitive attitude to drive the team to win.
• Influencing. Emphasize teamwork, team building, and team decision-making. Work with the team to influence how the project is carried out.

Conflict Management

Conflict is inevitable when many stakeholders have requirements, the project manager has limited power, and resources must come from functional managers.

To prevent avoidable conflicts, tell the team where the project is headed, its constraints and objectives, what is in the project charter, and what key decisions and changes have been made. Assign work clearly without overlapping responsibilities, make assignments interesting and challenging, and follow good project management and planning practices.

The seven sources of conflict are listed below in order of frequency.

1. Schedule
2. Project priorities
3. Resources
4. Technical opinions
5. Administrative procedures
6. Cost
7. Personality

The people involved are usually best placed to resolve a conflict. The main techniques are:

• Confronting (problem solving). Solve the real problem so it goes away, leading to a win-win result.
• Compromising. Find a solution that gives both sides some satisfaction. The lesson describes this as a lose-lose result because neither side gets everything it wants.
• Withdrawal (avoidance). Retreat or postpone the decision. Withdrawal is usually a weaker choice for resolving the conflict.
• Smoothing (accommodating). Emphasize areas of agreement.
• Collaborating. Bring together different viewpoints to work toward consensus.
• Forcing. Push one viewpoint at the expense of another.

Problem-Solving Method

1. Define the underlying problem.
2. Analyze it.
3. Identify possible solutions.
4. Choose a solution.
5. Implement it.
6. Review the solution and verify the improvement.

Other Human Resources Concepts

Expectancy Theory

Employees remain productive when they believe their effort will lead to effective performance and receive the rewards they expect for their accomplishments.

Arbitration

A neutral party hears and resolves a dispute.

Perquisites (Perks)

Some employees receive special rewards, such as bonuses, gain sharing, or desirable offices.

Fringe Benefits

Fringe benefits are standard benefits formally given to employees, such as educational benefits, insurance, and profit sharing.

Four Motivation Theories

McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y

McGregor believed workers fit into two groups, X and Y.

• Theory X. Managers who hold this view believe employees need constant supervision. They see employees as incapable, inclined to avoid responsibility, and likely to avoid work when possible.
• Theory Y. Managers who hold this view believe employees are willing to work without supervision, want to achieve, and can direct their own efforts.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Maslow’s pyramid has five levels, from physiological needs at the base through safety, social, and esteem needs to self-actualization at the top.

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David McClelland’s Theory of Needs (Acquired Needs Theory)

This theory holds that each person is motivated most by one of three needs. Manage people differently depending on which need motivates them most.

Herzberg’s Theory

Herzberg’s theory distinguishes hygiene factors from motivating factors. Poor hygiene factors can undermine motivation. Improving them usually fails to increase motivation on its own. Examples include working conditions, salary, personal life, relationships at work, security, and status.

The work itself motivates people through factors such as responsibility, self-actualization, professional growth, and recognition.

Planning for people and acquiring, developing, and managing the project team all affect the next area, communications management.