Every year as a management team we do a resource performance assessment of each employee based on their job description. The job description, however, was created at the time of that resource hiring, which means it could be outdated. In previous blogs we have suggested that constant change is a necessity to keep a company growing. This begs the question ‘How can a company continue to grow if the resources are not growing or changing?’
Training is a great incentive for many employees and is considered a perk but there needs to be an assessment and feedback and an evaluation process. Changing the employment contract is not generally an easy task but somehow we need to be able to get the newly trained employee to begin using the new information in their day to day tasks.
We see more companies making changes in technology (large projects such as an ERP deployment) and they are handled like IT projects while in fact these are organizational change projects with the technology adding significant additional complexity. The changes in technology required mean changes to processes and changes in process mean changes to operations and that means changes to people’s day to day activities. An annual review of resource requirements will add value to the next years overall business strategy. Does this job even still exist in its original form or has it changed so drastically that we need to augment the job description to accommodate the new functions resulting from change to the business strategy, goals and objectives?
One of the outcomes of large scale process change projects, such as the ERP, is that roles and responsibilities are altered so dramatically that existing jobs are no longer necessary. Or the jobs have changed to the point that the staff no longer want, or are capable of, continuing to do that job. If the resource requirements exercise is done annually we can make the small changes early in the strategy so that we can retain the staff rather than going through the arduous task of replacing a key resource in a desperate attempt to keep business as usual operations functioning.
This kind of early planning is not common in transition projects because they are deemed to be IT projects and traditionally IT organizations do not concern themselves with resource issues. When IT organizations need resources they hire contractors to backfill. Resource planning is not generally a focus.
Project resource management is an important part of major transformational projects. More time needs to be spent on resource planning and deciding on resource requirements. It is well worth the investment.
Project resource management is one of the offerings provided by Logixsource. Our specialty lies in handling technology and the complexity it brings to any organizational change. Contact Heather Cartwright or Scott Savage to learn how we can help you navigate change.
