I've recently been drafted in to manage a team of consultants in the professional services industry. About 80% of our work is fixed fee projects. My impression is that staff routinely do not log all of their time on a client project to that project (they may disguise it as internal work or simply opt to not record it at all), because of concerns the project may otherwise show as missing its targeted margin.
What behavioral interventions might I employ to encourage staff to report all of their billable hours? (note: we do not have billability targets at the individual level and the CEO has ruled against introducing them). Saving Changes...
Why would staff be concerned about a project not meeting its expected profitability? Have they been punished for this in the past? I'd seek to understand what is prompting the behavior and then use that information to set their minds at ease by showing them what the captured data will be used for (and what it won't be used for).
Understanding the true cost of a project is valuable, but this shouldn't come at the cost of team morale.
Kiron Saving Changes...
Chad DukesProject Coordinator| DP SolutionsBel Air, Md, United States
I work in a very similar environment. I suspect that the consultants aren't logging their time simply because it isn't required of them. It's a major point of emphasis in my environment with KPI's tied to Billable Hours, and we still have struggles getting consultants to record their time properly.
I suspect that you have to make it important to them in some way, or incentivize them to get the behavior that you're looking for. If the CEO doesn't want to include billability targets then there must be some other incentive for them. I'm sorry that I don't have anything else to add. Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
Just to work with the people to make them understand the consecuences of being working in a project which is not achieving the expected margin. Saving Changes...
Paul WieserPresident Owner| Nuncworks Inc.Fountain Hills, Az, United States
Robin, to change behavior without the support of a mandate from management/ownership you could consider using incentives that align with the behavior change.
The obvious option is to incentivize a full account of hours on projects. Another not so obvious option is to capture non-project hours.
A third option is for leaders in your organization to demonstrate how they account for their time spent on project matters and demonstrate what they consider "productive" work - which may be factoring into your problem statement to begin with.
Of course, these options can work together. Each can set you on different paths. I recommend you consider them in the context of your organization's culture.
Let me know if any of this helps. Saving Changes...
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