Project Human Resource Management

What is Project Human Resource Management?

Human Resource Management depends upon several structured processes mixed with interpersonal skills, including. It basically means utilizing all the people involved in your project to the best of their ability. Being able to effectively manage all the different personalities and the skills that they offer so that the project has the ability to succeed. There are several different aspects to acquiring a functioning project team. They are:

1. Human Resource Planning - by identifying and documenting the project roles, responsibilities and reporting relationships you will be able to bring different aspects of a project into smaller focused groups.
2. Acquiring the Project Team - involves getting the needed personnel assigned to & working on the project. A project would be dead in the water if there were no one qualified to perform the tasks entailed for the project.
3. Developing the Project Team - by building individual and group skills to enhance the project performance overall is an indispensable necessity. This can often be a challenge when building a project team.
4. Managing the Project Team - keeping track of team members performance, while encouraging them and keeping them motivated is fundamental. Being able to resolve issues and conflicts quickly and effectively is a requirement of a project manager.

There are several motivation theories that have been developed over a number of years and used with substantial success. The 2 most common ways of motivating people are with intrinsic motivation, when people participate in an activity for their own enjoyment. An extrinsic motivation causes people to do something for a reward or to avoid a penalty.

Some of the most acclaimed theories for motivating people break down the idea behind how humans function. Knowing how we operate on a human level, and understanding what motivates people to do the things they do is paramount in human resource management. Let's face it- there are several types of personalities that we all deal with in our lives. Some we like, some we don't. Learning how to build a rapport with the different types of people and the personalities that all come together in a team will be a major element to project management, as well as the ability to perform empathic listening skills. Knowing each team members personal goals and needs will help to provide appropriate motivation and maximize the teams performance. A few of the defined theories that can be implemented into project human resources are:

1. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs - people's behaviours are motivated by a sequence of needs. Knowing what motivates each individual in a team is crucial. (See chart below)
   
2. McClelland's Acquired-Needs Theory - is based on people's individual need for achievement, affiliation & power.
3. Thamhain and Wilemon's Influence and Power - power is the potential ability to influence behaviour to get people to do things they wouldn't otherwise do. Some different examples of types of power are: coercive, legitimate, expert, reward and referent.
4. Covey's 7 Habits to Improve Effectiveness - is a concept where 7 steps are followed to produce synergy: the concept that the whole is equal to more than the sum of all its parts. The 7 steps are:

• Be Proactive
• Begin With The End In Mind
• Put First Things First
• Think Win/Win
• Seek First To Understand, then to be Understood.
• Synergize
• Sharpen The Saw

Being able to keep the project organized and timely will require you to keep track of people and their functions using different charting methods. An organizational breakdown structure for larger projects will be of great value for the team. Knowing who is responsible for what and who to report to is vital in project management. Communication is foremost and the chart below can help you and your team stay on track by keeping the appropriate people informed as to the progress of the project.

Another way to help keep the project moving along while steering around the different personalities in a project is to formulate a RACI chart. RACI stands for:

• Responsibilty
• Accountablity
• Consultation
• Informed

Team development is critical to help people work together more effectively to improve project performance. There are many team building activities that can enhance your projects productivity. Social outlets, monetary rewards and recognition systems can all lead to positive results in the project overall. Being able to communicate effectively with all people involved in a project will be of utmost importance. The 2 crucial skills of a good project manager are team development and team management.

Reflection

This reflection is going to be quite negative because the company that I worked for had no Human Relations Department and knew little about dealing with people. It is the example that sticks out most in my mind.

In Project Management, it seems to me, the project user is one of the main sources of information about what the job needs to run smoothly and efficiently. The company I worked for seemed to have no desire to include the user in any changes.

Case in point; both my machines were being moved to a new location within the building. I was not consulted on either move and ended up running one machine while standing in the isle way. This may not seem like a big problem but the tow motors used this isle to deliver 10 foot bars of steel to the machines opposite me. They used an electric tow motor for this job which could not be heard over the noise of the machinery. There were a few occasions that I was almost struck by the tow motor while running my machine. Their answer was to install a flashing light and beeper on the machine so I would know when it was behind me. Although this safety feature should have been installed anyway, management made sure I knew they were dissatisfied with the situation, including my concerns.

The other machine was being relocated to another unsafe location and when I tried to let them know I was concerned for my safety, I was ignored. Once set in place I refused to run the machine and the plant manager was informed. I showed him that a person going up the platform to load the machine was in danger of injury from the overhead crane. It was at this point they asked for my input on machine placement.

Another example is when the same company was mandated to implement QS9000 into their system. Teams were developed to do certain jobs, such as, developing report forms and documentation procedures as well as building storage containers to hold the log books that were to be updated every day along with various other tasks. During a plant meeting we were all told how we were all a part of the team and each and everyone of us was just as important as the next. Once we received our certification there was a large sum of money allocated for bonuses. The distribution of this money was done in the worst fashion possible. Those who were friends of management received a $500.00 bonus and those who weren’t got nothing. Needless to say this made the morale with this particular employer as low as I’ve ever seen to this date.

Coupled with the attitude of management and their extrinsic way of running things it was not an enjoyable place to work and I was glad to be able to leave there. I’m sure that they were happy when I left as well; lack of respect breeds lack of respect.