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You as a project manager do not work in a vacuum. The issues that leaders in your organization worry about effect the environment in which you work. Some things they tell you and some things they don't necessarily make public. This blog is about workforce management and so keeps you updated on workforce concerns of leaders so you don't have to worry about sneaking into their offices at night to find out.
A recent report gives you an insight into how workforce management concerns stack up against other areas. Business leaders were asked to identify what they worry about when it comes to threats to the business.
See how well you understand business leaders' collective mind. (Don't be afraid. Results will not be tracked.) How would you rate these factors (highest to lowest) as threatening your business?
Attracting and Retaining Talent
Cyber Risk
Complying with Laws
Legal Liability
Increasing Employee Benefit Costs
Medical Cost Inflation
When asked business leaders said that they worry "a great deal" about these threats at the rates shown below.
Medical Cost Inflation 32%
Increasing Employee Benefit Costs 29%
Legal Liability 24%
Cyber Risk 18%
Complying with Laws 22%
Attracting and Retaining Talent 18%
So you see that the original list posed to you was in reverse order. The order shown above represents the order where "worry a great deal" and "worry somewhat" are bundled together. No matter how you slice and dice the numbers, talent management remains lower than the others. Maybe I better rethink my blog topic.
Now it might be more clear why you wrestle with workforce issues in your project! On the positive side, this report does help develop tactics for resolving certain workforce management problems.
You may have to make strong efforts to resolve your more difficult workforce issues to get them on the radar. For example:
- Band together with others in your organization who are experiencing the same workforce issues, be it need for more workers, particular expertise, or a re-look at who gets shared resources.
- Specify the urgency of the problem. Urgency is a good motivator to action. Your workforce issue can be urgent because your project cannot be completed on time or that, once implemented, it cannot be utilized properly to gain the business benefits projected at the beginning. It can even be that your workforce issue may keep you from obtaining the necessary stakeholder input for a successfully accepted project.
You can increase the possibility of success if you connect your workforce issues to an item that is a higher priority on the "worry a great deal" list (or any other item on the priority list). Example connections:
- Inadequate staffing in your project may result in legal problems later due to defects or problems with controls provided by software.
- Shared resources prioritizing projects other than yours may make complying with laws more difficult or impossible.
- Lack of expertise and slow hiring may make cyber risk more likely. Here's a struggle that we will all continue to experience: We are asked to get results through people, but organizational barriers to doing so keep getting in our way.
Here's a struggle that we will all continue to experience: We are asked to get results through people, but organizational barriers to doing so keep getting in our way.
Posted on: May 29, 2014 07:01 PM |
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