By Dr. Mario Vaccari
Faculty member, Transportation and Logistics Management at American Public University
A project manager must be able to develop and implement a human resource management plan that promotes knowledge sharing, team motivation and cooperation, and skills building, while at the same ensuring project success.
Many organizations do not take into account the importance of identifying, acquiring, and sustaining human capital when managing projects. An effective project manager must have the skills needed to develop a high performing team that will meet customer requirements.
A project manager must be able to meet schedules, stay within budget, minimize risks, and ensure quality. Developing a project team provides team member motivation, enhanced skills, increased team work, less turnover, and an overall increased project performance.
Some critical tasks in developing an effective human resource management plan include:
- Create a list of required skills by team member position
- Determine and document roles for each project area
- Determine a reporting structure
- Develop a realistic staffing plan based on the project timeline and needs
- Create a hiring and release plan
Additionally, a training plan must be developed and built into the overall project timeline to ensure that skill gaps are not present.
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The project manager has to establish an enthusiastic project culture that supports a positive team spirit, motivation, empowerment, and communication. An enthusiastic culture will, in turn, encourage sharing of ideas, listening to others’ input, willingness to participate and cooperate, and open lines of communication.
As part of managing human capital, a project manager needs to establish some ground rules to include acceptable team member behavior, communication expectations, and conflict handling and resolution. These ground rules must be enforced to ensure fairness and to minimize low morale.
In order for these factors to be accomplished, a project manager must have the skills needed to identify and select the right team members, maintain and support team members, motivate and lead, and inspire team members to achieve project goals and objectives.
About the Author: Dr. Mario Vaccari works as a project manager for LED-FastStart, which is ranked the nation’s No. 1 workforce development program. For over four years, he has managed several logistics and manufacturing projects across Louisiana. The rest of his work experience has been in the operations, supply chain, logistics, and training/development fields. Additionally, Dr. Vaccari has over seven years of online teaching experience.
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