The success of an organization often lies with whether or not you have the right people in the right roles at the right time.  According to Harvard Business Review, 88% of organizations with more than 100 employees, rely on assessment tools for external hiring.  These assessments can measure competency, work ethic, personality, situational behavior and more recently added - emotional intelligence.  But how often is an employee assessed post hire? 

​Ideally, an employee will continue to grow and move within an organization and therefore the attributes that were assessed at hiring, may not be the attributes that are needed most for the current role being performed. In leadership roles, additional areas of measurement can be based on demonstrating leadership qualities, adherence to an organization’s core values, presentation skills, project management and stakeholder management.

We break down our employee assessment objectives into four categories and review the performance against them twice a year with each employee.

1. Client: objectives that relate to the performance of client activities, regardless of whether it is billable or non-billable
2. Internal: objectives that relate to the performance of company specific activities, typically organizational or internal department support
3. Personal: objectives that relate to what the employee wants to achieve within a project or activity or an area of personal or interpersonal development that the manager desires for the employee
4. Leadership: objectives that relate to an employee’s activities that demonstrate their mastery of our organization’s selected leadership attributes of communication, decision making and judgement, developing self and others, respect and passion

Each category of objectives has a different weight depending on the role of the employee.  For example, a client facing employee has a higher client category weighting in comparison to an internal employee that has a higher internal category weighting.  We believe that there is not a one size fits all approach to performance management, which is why we developed a performance assessment structure that is consistent but adjusts to fit the role of the employee, where they are today.

Ensuring your employees fully understand and agree with the expectations that you have for them as they grow and move within the organization is vital to enabling the overall organization’s success.   With clear objectives, all parts of your organization will be working towards the same goals based on the attributes that matter to your organization and culture.

What process does your organization use to assess an individual’s performance?

A comprehensive PMO Framework is critical to guide a project successfully through its lifecycle, from beginning to end.  A PMO Framework we have used with clients has 4 project phases: Concept, Initiation, Delivery and Close. 

Having a clear project methodology, processes, and tools and templates enable project managers to guide their teams through the project phases.  An easy and frequently used PM tool is their Checklist.  They can refer to this tool many times during the day to make sure they are doing all the critical work needed during the project phase in which they find themselves.

Key project activities during the first phase of a project, Concept Phase, are listed in our Project Management Checklist below.

Concept Phase:

• Confirm Project Scope
• Create Project Scope Statement
• Identify Key Project Team Roles
• Identify & Confirm Project Customer(s)
• Identify & Confirm Stakeholder(s)
• Assemble the Project Steering Committee
• Develop High-Level Project Timeline
• Draft Document to Present to Steering Committee / Project Governance Process for Go/No-Go Decision

 
Although the Concept Phase involves a lot of work, it is worth spending the time and effort and is critical to setting your project up for success.

Are there any other activities you recommend in the first phase of a project?

Key IT projects fail more often then they succeed.  The top factors of project failure relate to leadership, project vision, organizational communication, distrust of change, and feelings of non-involvement.  In short, people issues.  Organizational Change Management (OCM) is a critical success factor for large enterprise-wide initiatives.  OCM is a framework to manage the effect and perception of changes brought about by the initiative to organizational roles and responsibilities.  In other words, OCM address the human side of change.
 
Organizational Change Management has to be managed as effectively as the project itself.  We prescribe a dedicated change team for critical projects that have high impact. The change team should ideally include the following roles:

• Change Leader – Act as the overall program manager of the change effort
• Change Manager(s) – Manage change for individual functional areas
• Change Analyst(s) – Prepare, schedule and distribute change communications
• Subject Matter Experts – Possess specific tool and framework expertise and help train employees

 
OCM for a project must be fully integrated into the overall project governance so that project managers can take appropriate action regardless of whether issues are related to the deployment of technology or to ensuring employees are aware of and supporting the change effort.
 
A dedicated change team:

• Increases the probability of project success
• Manages the people side of change
• Provides a single point of accountability & responsibility
• Complements project efforts

 
How do you perform the functions of OCM in your projects? 

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• Initial Level

At the lowest level of maturity we usually find limited project governance or executive sponsorship, poorly defined or not adhered to project management (PM) processes, and lack of consistent tools, processes or training.  Project success often hinges on a few extremely motivated individuals.

• Developing Level

In the second level of maturity most fledgling PMOs start to have tools and templates and some processes but not all projects use them.  By the third level, Defined, we usually find a formal project management framework that has been adopted by all and a PMO organization focused on consistent, predictable project performance.  PM processes are established, projects are reviewed regularly by a governing body and people are being trained and mentored, equipping them with the right skills for the projects they are assigned to.

• Defined Level

What is most exciting at the third stage, is that an organization starts to reap significant benefits from their PMO.  They can more reliably count on the project timelines and budgets and know that, with their guidance, their teams are equipped to succeed.   Executives can start comparing projects based on the same, standard metrics allowing them to make critical decisions around resource allocation, budgets, schedules and critical milestones. 

• Managed & Optimized Levels

By the fourth and fifth maturity stages, the organization relies heavily on transparency into their projects’ progress and objectives in order to make business decisions.  The PMO data and information are key to the organization’s operation.

Once you have determined what level of maturity your PMO is performing at, you may identify areas or aspects that are lagging – for instance you may be collecting standard project data monthly onto a paper template, but would benefit by developing a database to collect project data and metrics so all have access and can compare projects on-line, real-time.  Or maybe you identify areas that can mature to the next level, for instance you have an IT PMO but the entire organizations’ projects could benefit from its structure and methodology! 

Work with your PMO, project governance team and project managers to determine which efforts would benefit your organization the most and prioritize the efforts creating a roadmap for near-term, mid-term and long-term accomplishments.  Most organizations never get to the highest level of PMO maturity; the effort and cost to get there outweighs the benefits to some.  Either way, a review of your PMO’s maturity will give you insights into what is working well and what could benefit from improvement.  A Roadmap can help your organization keep its eye on the ball and reap the rewards of an increasingly mature PMO.

Does your organization periodically assess the maturity of your PMO?  Do you have a PMO Roadmap for continuous improvement? 

Are you about to undertake a transformation or organizational change effort and are wondering how to manage the change? 

Here are some simple, yet critical, elements for any effective organizational change management approach, tailored to your organization.
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The initial phase of our framework is the PLANNING PHASE; it is the first and most important phase of your entire approach.Thorough planning is key to creating an effective change management framework that will work for your change effort.  During this phase you will ask yourself:  Who will be affected, what will change, and how will they change?

WHO: Identify your Stakeholders.

• Stakeholders are anyone affected or impacted by the anticipated change

WHAT: Understand what is changing and WHY? 

• Do you have a “Case for Change”?

Your Case for Change needs to clearly articulate to the stakeholders why the change is needed, how it will affect them, and what the expected benefits are?

• What will change for People, Processes & Technology?

Document the current state, document the expected future state and perform gap analyses: what is going to change?  This is the way you will track and report the progress of the change effort – from the current state to the future state.  Identify or develop Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), tailored to measure the unique changes you expect.
For the “People” component, look at: roles & responsibilities, skill sets, training needs, job category and salary changes.  For “Processes”, understand what will change and how – how will the new processes be documented, and how will your stakeholders be trained on the new processes? And, for “Technology” – look at any new or changed technology and understand how it will affect the processes and the people.

HOW: How will the change actually be made?

• Change Leaders (Champions of the change that have authority and the respect of employees), should be identified.
• A Governance Process, with a Steering Committee, can provide the clear escalation path for issue-resolution, and,
• A Methodology and standard Tools will be required to track and communicate the change.
• A Feedback Loop, (a process for receiving feedback from those being affected by the change), will allow for tweaks to the change that may be required throughout the effort.
• A Stakeholder Engagement Plan keeps the different stakeholders involved and informed so that there are no surprises.
• And finally, a Communication Plan – identifies who to communicate to, how frequently, and using what vehicles of communication.  Newsletters, brown bag informational meetings, and visibly posted Dashboards of progress are common vehicles used during change.

Ideally, the planning phase should occur before the actual change begins.  But, if you have already embarked on your change effort, you can still back up and make sure you have adequately covered all of the key elements listed above.

How does your organization plan for a change effort?  Do you have any additional suggestions?