Project Human Resource Management: A Complete Primer

You can’t get a professional project done without people. So, you need to manage your team as well as managing your project. And that’s what project Human Resource Management is all about.

This is Part 2 of our guide to Project Resource Management. We started last week with a general overview. But this week, we’ll take a close look at managing human resources. This is project Human Resource Management and it’s a big topic in its own right. So, if you are only interested in this part of the topic, you can read this as a stand-alone guide.

Project Human Resource Management versus Project Resource Management

Indeed, we only have to look as far back as the start of 2017, when the PMI’s Project Management Body of Knowledge (the PMBOK Guide) was in its fifth edition. Then, the 6th Knowledge Area (of 10) was called Project Human Resources. The PMBOK Guide made little more than passing reference to non-human resources.

In September 2017, the sixth edition fixed that. The Knowledge Area (KA) name was changed and broadened out. You can find out all about that in the accompanying Part 1 to this guide: ‘Project Resource Management: A Comprehensive Guide‘.

But you’ll still find two of the six processes in this KA refer exclusively to your human resources. Here is a reminder of all six:

So, in this guide, we will focus on the skills you’ll need, for processes 9.4 and 9.5:

• Develop Team. PMBOK includes activities like:
• Manage Team. PMBOK includes activities like:

Our Approach

I don’t propose to follow the PMBOK Guide for this. I find the ITTO (Inputs, Tools and Techniques, Outputs) approach to be poorly suited to this. If you are new to the PMBOK Guide and want to know more about ITTOs, check out these two short videos:

1. What are ITTOs? (4 mins)
2. What are ITTOs, Part 2 – Definitions? (2 mins)

Instead, we’ll take a thematic approach that covers everything the PMBOK refers to, and a whole lot more. I’ve summarized the six themes we’ll look at in the diagram below.

Each of the themes could carry a whole article. And, indeed, many of the topics within each theme do carry a whole article. So, this article provides you with a resource that will signpost you to all our best content on the topic of Project Human Resource Management.

Onboarding

Bringing people onto your team is your first human resource management challenge. And we’ll split it into finding them, introducing them into your team, and then kicking off your project.

Recruitment

Recruiting team members can be a joy or a nightmare, depending on your circumstances. It pays to have a very clear idea of what skills you need and at what level. But it is also important to remember that the individual personality is what contributes most to your team, so do be flexible. The old saying goes:

Hire for attitude: train for skills

There’s a nice, short, opinion piece on the Harvard Business review site about this.

Induction / Welcoming

I hate the term induction for bringing a new person onto your team or into your organization. It just sounds too… gynecological? Or electrical engineering? It certainly doesn’t sound welcoming. And ‘welcoming’ is precisely what you need to focus on. Other aspects include:

• introducing them to their colleagues and their work
• setting up necessary familiarization and training
• covering necessary admin and logistics

Project Kick-off

You need to get your project started well. So if that’s your next task, take a look at our article:

• How to Make Your Next Kick-off Meeting a Huge Success

Workload Management

Once a team member is onboard and one of the team, you’ll need to start them working alongside the team. In this Project HR Management Process, you’ll need the skills to get productive work from your team.

Your Plan

I would say that it is essential to share your full plan with your team. Better still is engaging them in creating it. When your team helps build the plan, it becomes ‘their plan’. This has advantages:

• Better plan, because more minds have created it
• Deeper understanding of the plan
• Higher levels of commitment to the plan

Here’s an article you may like:

• 12 Project Planning Mistakes… and How to Fix Them

Competency Matching and Allocation

You probably did not recruit every member of your team with a specific role in mind. So, for each stage of your project, you’ll need to assign team members to work packages. The process of allocating a work package is very similar to delegation.

• What is a Work Package? | Video
• What is Delegation? | Video
• How to Delegate | Video
• Full Course: How to Delegate without Stress

Performance Management

Another vital task is to monitor team performance, and then intervene to optimize it. An article you may like is:

• Boost Your Project Team Performance with these Hacks

Team Management

Team management is a big part of project human resource management because in projects we tend to work in teams. For small projects, it’s one big team. On larger projects, you’ll have multiple teams working on their own work stream or work package.

As a result, we have several articles that will give you different perspectives:

• What You Need to Know about Building a Great Project Team
• Ten Ways to Win Team Commitment on Your Project
• Effective Teamwork: Do You Know How to Create it?

Team Structure and Culture

Good team performance starts from the culture you foster. Two models are particularly useful here:

1. The Tuckman Model of how groups evolve – and what you can do as a team leader, to encourage a group to form a high-performing team
2. The Belbin Model of Team Roles – which will help you understand how people act in teams and can lead to a diagnosis of what’s wrong with an underperforming team. It’s usually one more roles missing. Or, it can easily be two or more people trying to play the same role in a competitive (and therefore disruptive) way.

We have articles to help you understand project culture and these two valuable models:

• Project Culture: What it is and How to Craft it
• What is the Tuckman Model of Group Development? | Video
• Get Better Results from you Team with Tuckman
• What is the Belbin Team Profile? | Video

Team Collaboration

Collaboration can create so much more than solo efforts in parallel. But it takes work to build good collaboration. Here are two things. First, a short video defining collaboration and explaining what you need to get it. And second, an article on how I go about creating it:

• What is Collaboration? | Video
• How I Create Exceptional Project Collaboration

Lessons Learned

As a professional person, leading other professionals, learning should be of paramount importance to you. And often the best and deepest learning comes from reflecting on your experiences. Drawing lessons from your project is an art-form, and we have an article that will help you.

• How to Get Your Next Lessons Learned Meeting Right

Team Welfare

You have a responsibility – dare I say a ‘duty of care’ – towards your team. You need to look after their wellbeing in what can be a highly stressful environment. So, be constantly alert for signs of stress. And, as soon as you spot something, take action. This article could easily be essential reading.

• How to Spot and Deal with Stress in Your Team

You also need to take care of yourself, by the way:

• Resilience for Project Managers: How to Build it and Regain it.

Individual Management

One of the best – and best-selling – guides to managing people at work is the One Minute Manager (US|UK). So, as a long-term fan, I’ve tried to adapt the principles to the project environment:

• One Minute Project Manager: Applying the Principles to Projects

Workload Balancing

Over-stretching people is a sure route to burnout and stress… and project failure. We talked about the need to balance workloads and also to fit them around other work and non-work commitments in Part 1 of this Guide. But for a short-cut to levelling and smoothing assigned project work, take a look at this short video:

• What is Resource Levelling? | Video

Motivation

Motivation is what gets us through tough patches and keeps us going. It’s a highly personal thing: some of the things that motivate me won’t interest you. And vice versa. So we need to motivate our team through each individual, and that’s how I wrote this guide:

• Everything You Need to Know about Project Team Motivation

Professional Development

Something I have always considered to be an important part of my role is developing the people who work for me. A lot of this comes through the assignments I set, and how I supervise them. But there are formal means we need to use, too. Such as:

• training
• coaching
• mentoring

Here are some articles to get you started:

• How Coaching Skills will Make You a Better Project Leader
• Mentoring Skills: How to Mentor a More Junior Project Manager
• How to Get Yourself a Project Management Mentor – You may need one, or you may want to point your people towards finding one, if you aren’t the right person to help them

Feedback

Feedback is the juice that grows our skills. Giving feedback is the greatest gift to a committed professional. So, here’s an article that will show you how:

• Performance Feedback for Project Team Members: In a Nutshell

Offboarding

At some stage, you’ll need to handle roll-offs from your project. Towards the end, your team members will start to get twitchy. They’ll not want to miss the next opportunity, so their feet will start to itch. Keeping them as prisoners can be counter-productive though. If their heart is no longer in it… Remember: ‘attitude over skills’.

Keep them motivated by letting everyone know you are looking out for opportunities for them and are eager to help them get staffed on their next project. And, when a team member leaves, you can handle it well and make it a good experience for everyone. Or you can stuff it up and leave a bad taste in everyone’s mouth. It’s your choice. Here’s how to do it well.

• The Essential Guide to Handling a Team Member Leaving Your Project

People Skills

he last Project Human Resource Management Process is the collection of people skills you’ll need. It’s a huge set of topics – not least because it includes communication and leadership!

Let’s kick off with some general or hard-to-classify articles and videos that I think will be helpful to you:

• How to Make a Good Project into a Brilliant Project
• The Best Personal Effectiveness Books for Project Managers
• What is Monkey Management (Onken’s Monkey)? | Video

Emotional Intelligence

Emotional Intelligence is no longer a 1990s fad. It’s a solid post in the workplace landscape. I’ve yet to do a piece for you n this topic (it’s on my list – don’t worry). But here are some articles that touch on aspects of your role where EI is particularly necessary. In the meantime, here’s an excellent short introductory article from the Harvard Business Review site.

But here are some articles that touch on aspects of your role where EI is particularly necessary.

• A Simple Way to Develop Interpersonal Skills for Project Managers
• Managing Conflict: Everything a Project Manager Needs to Know
• Conflict Management: Ways to Get it Right | Part 2
• Full Course: Dealing with Conflict in Projects

Communication Skills

At the heart of ‘people skills’ is our ability to communicate – and communicate well. You won’t be surprised that we’re building quite a library of articles and videos on different communication topics:

• Great Team Communication: The 10 Commandments
• Managing Difficult Conversations: A Guide for Project Managers
• Persuasion and Influence: A Thorough Introduction
• What is Transactional Analysis? | Video
• Communication Skills for Project Managers | The Best Books

Leadership

What is the one topic about which you’ll find more books on the business shelves of a large bookshop? Yup, it’s leadership. So, we have even more articles on this subject than on communication. Each one will give you a different insight to test out and apply in your work.

• The Four Essentials of Project Team Leadership
• LEAD: Your Four Project Leadership Priorities
• Get Better Project Results with Personal Leadership
• What does Cross-Cultural Leadership Mean for Project Managers?
• What is Situational Leadership? | Video
• How to Get the Best from Your Project Team with Situational Leadership
• What is Transformational Leadership? | Video
• Full Course: Day- to-Day Leadership that Gets Results

Team Meetings

Meetings! Aargh! some people love them, and many hate them. But they are work, and you need to do them well.

• How to Run a Really Great Project Meeting
• Full Course: Leading Effective One-on-One Meetings

What is Your Point of View on Project Human Resource Management?

Please do share your thoughts in the comments section below. I love reading them and will respond to all contributions.