Ask yourself about your biggest pet peeve as a project manager. Ask any project manager for that matter.
Of course, you won’t get any uniform answer. Some say it’s the deadlines. Some say that it’s confronting the client about their crazy expectations that gives them jitters, others will complain about their teams. Many of them will have complaints about their jobs taking over their private lives.
And the answers are all true. If you are asked to assign those answers into categories it will certainly fall into two: time and the people. You can never get enough of the first and the latter keeps on creating painstaking problems and situations.
Of course, you’d like to be in control of the both. But the truth of the matter is, none of those two are fully controllable. Not from all the angles for that matter.
Okay, so let’s put this in the perspective of an organization. Yes, any business, project or organization (big or small) has to deal with these two aspects the most. We all want to grow, to prosper. But the time and the people (capacities) are limited, each from their own perspective.
Sure, you’re growing (let’s say you are, at least) and time seems to be shorter and shorter. And the people can only do so much. What happens? You’re doing things all the same way as when you were at the beginning. Nobody wishes to struggle and nobody, surely, wants to have less time for their leisure activities and families. Most of the people reach for the easy way out and start bringing in new employees, without ever wanting to fight for it.
We’re not saying you are one of those people. But before you ever start reaching for the easy solution, try to adapt and see what’s inside. Inside of your business that is.
The key here is human resource planning. You want to keep up with a steady flow of things, but when things start to go south it’s time to adapt. Just like Bruce Lee said: “Be like water, my friend.”
You know what? Mister Lee was right.
Benefits Of Human Resource Planning
We already talked about human resource planning and the process behind it. Nope, we’re not repeating ourselves, but it truly is the key element to any organization. No matter if you’re a one-man leader of a small business or a project manager with many levels of management in your company, you’re going to need to do some serious human resource planning. Better sooner than later.
The objective is simple. You want to reach the desired manpower from the current manpower. And don’t mistake the ‘desired’ part with new signings. Rather, what’s the desired potential you want to and can reach using the current state (number, capacities) of people you already have?
Well, trust us when we say that you won’t believe how much. And with the time to spare!
We don’t want to sound discouraging. Organizing time and peoples’ activities is a tricky feat and might take some more time to get the hang of. But hey, you’re almost there, because there’s no chance you aren’t doing any human resource planning already. But, if you do it right these are some of the benefits you’ll experience down the road:
1. You’re leaving a legacy
Okay, not a benefit as much. But keep repeating this to yourself as a mantra. Nothing you do when you’re doing resource planning is in vain. This should be your motivator. Round of applause for the geniuses that made it perfect right from the start. But, no matter how many times it turned out bad, remember it cannot be worse then it was, just keep on rockin’.
The fluff part, we know. But, everything you do regarding your human resource planning will echo in the future. You’ll have a better understanding of the processes, of where and when to assign the right person for the job. You’ll know what are individual’s capacities and so much more. That’s the right person for each task where the big perk lies.
2. It’s cost-effective
Downright true, from any angle you may look at it. By effectively planning your resources, you’ll save up time, energy, use of both human and machine resources and ultimately money. Also, you’ll do more in less time, which will generate faster incomes and enable fast and steady growth.
Costs are a big issue, we all know that. Start slicing them on the inside processes and place the generated wealth into expansion. It all pays off in the end.
3. It’s Beneficial For Personal And Professional Development
Probably our most favorite benefit of the bunch. Doing the human resource planning properly will enable proper allocation of the people to the right, preferable tasks. You’ll encourage their development in the certain fields, making them specialists and master of their trade.
Everybody is made to do something. When it comes to your human resources, you’ll make them irreplaceable. A true, driving wheels of the organization with the drive to do and learn more.
4. You’ll Have Better Employment Solutions
It’s a sad truth, but some of those irreplaceable might eventually leave the organization. But, don’t despair. Remember, everything connected to human resource planning has something to do with the legacy.
By using the roles of each member of the team and making them develop and good at what they do, makes you notice the ideal strengths and knowledge of the person coming to their place should possess. It will ease up the recruitment process and you’ll be sure you’re hiring the right individual.
5. It’s A Performance Booster
Yep, all of the above can only lead to one place – effectiveness in performance. Every single thing you do when doing human resource planning properly will effect and boost the performance of your project groups and the organization as a whole. Your team learns how to do things faster, gains knowledge in a faster way and it all adds to having more of that precious resource we talked about – time.
One More Thing…
How to do it properly? You ask.
Yes, we talked about doing the things the right way, but haven’t really explained how. Well, there’s no one secret formula of successful human resource planning we’d. Like with all things, what works for someone, won’t necessarily work for the other.
Just do it! As the famous clothing brand says, that’s the formula. It’s better to do than to wait for anything to come all by itself. Learn by doing, use the proper tools and once you get there, you’ll know it.
Andrei is a Growth Hacker on Teamweek's marketing team. He is the person behind most of Teamweek's SEO-driven projects, including the budget calculator and the worst productivity tips generator. He enjoys writing about project management, graphic design, and anything tech.
