Planning a Human Resources Project - Example

These are the people who define the requirements for the end product. In the case of compensation and benefits packages, several factors need consideration including the employee grade level, federal and state employment regulations, prevailing market standards, as well as the organizational strategy for human resources (Williams, 2014). Consequently, the current project will consolidate a team of experts that include the firm’s legal advisor, external human resource consultant, and the company’s senior recruiting officer. The experts will support the development of the scope baseline, approve relevant documents, and assist in setting the timeline.

Project Manager

Since I am the human resource manager, I will be performing the role of project leader that involves creating, executing, and controlling the project plan. This project plan processes will require approval from the general manager for implementation and budget acquisition.

Project Team

The project team includes the staff members who will participate in building the end product (Williams, 2014). For the purpose of this project, the team comprises of the employee relations officer, the remuneration officer, the financial planning officer, the administration manager, and the senior compliance officer. The team will participate in developing many aspects of the project plan such as design, quality, risk management, and implementation.

End Users

They are all the people affected by the improved reward package and include all staff members from the general manager to the subordinate staff (Williams, 2014). They will participate in the development of the project plan especially by giving their opinion on what they think about the current reward package and what improvements they would suggest for the new compensation and benefits plan.

Support Staff

These are other staff members whose roles have a stake in the project plan including auditors, information technology specialists, quality assurance officers, risk analysts, and public relations officers among others (Williams, 2014). They participate in project planning to ensure their areas of operations are considered to ensure success of the project.

After identifying all project stakeholders, it is vital to hold a kickoff meeting that brings them together to discuss the project. It is the most efficient way to initiate the process of planning because it builds trust among team members and ensures that the project plan takes into account all ideas and considers all organizational aspects that might affect the project’s success. Besides, the kickoff meeting provides a platform for the project sponsor to demonstrate his commitment to the project and improve confidence in team members that their contribution is invaluable to the organization.

Project Scope

The company does not have a structured benefits and reward system to supplement its compensation scheme. Consequently, the firm has been experiencing low employee performance and high staff turnover that have been attributed to low job satisfaction and low motivation due to perceived poor rewarding (Armstrong, 2003). Besides, the company seeks to improve compliance with employment laws at the state and federal levels associated with fair compensation and protection of staff welfare. The project, therefore, strives to address the above problem bearing in mind that the benefits and rewards system is just one of the major factors influencing performance and retention among a few others. The project team will collaborate to develop the scope statement, which ensures that all end users requirements are considered and captured in the project plan.

The statement specifies all the work that is required to complete the project as well as the specific resources needed for project completion (Kerzner, 2003). In this case, the project requires human, financial, and legal resources to accomplish the task of amending the employee compensation and benefits package. This team estimates the process to take one fiscal year starting from 1st June 2016 to 30th may 2017 meaning that new benefits and reward scheme will be fully operational at the beginning of the next financial year. Measurement of variables will begin in the 2017/2018 financial year after the reward system has been in operation for one year. The predominant goals are attaining high performance and achieving zero staff turnover by increasing job satisfaction and improving employee commitment to the mission of the firm.

The new compensation system does not yet have a fixed budget but aims to revamp the remuneration system by increasing it by 10 percent of individual employee salaries for all the firm’s personnel. For instance, if the communications manager earns $60,000 per year, then for her, improvement of the role’s benefits package will inject $6,000 more to her gross salary to cover the extra employee benefits implemented by this project. The new compensation system will add health cover, retirement benefit, leave allowance, maternity allowance to staff that delivered or miscarried a child, and death allowance to the beneficiaries of a former deceased staff. The reward system for employees will involve occasional monetary rewards to employees for exceeding job expectations and surpassing targets. The project will not set a fixed proportion of the target relative to the salary. Nonetheless, it sets the limit to a maximum of 20 percent of an individual employee’s salary. The direct line manager in consultation with the human resource manager will determine the proportion of the bonus based on the employee’s performance outcome.

Work Breakdown Structure

This step in the project plan involves breaking down project activities into manageable parts in line with project objectives (Davidson, 2003). Consequently, the team can come up with deliverables as well as gain a reference point for determining whether a particular activity or task is captured in the project scope. The lowest task levels are referred to as work packages, and they help in estimating costs, risks, and resources needed. The last work package involves evaluation of the project long after its completion to determine whether the desired objectives in the project have been met in line with the firm’s overall strategy. Project evaluation also demonstrates whether organizational goals sought have been achieved.

Project Communication Plan

The project plan requires a clear and structured communication framework so that the project team is conversant with the format, frequency, and media of reporting. In addition, the communication plan describes how the team will escalate issues and when such escalation of issues will take place (Williams, 2014). It will also outline how all the information about the project will be stored and who will have the authority to access it. The project team will formulate a communication matrix through my leadership, which will include such elements as routine status, decisions, and problem resolutions among others as shown below. Communication with the project sponsor and project stakeholders entails email sharing. Communication with project team will predominantly involve meetings. Lastly, communication with all other staff members will involve mainly memos.

Serial No.

To distribute

To receive

Importance

Timeline

1.1

Inform project sponsor about completion of project plan for approval by mail

Receive response from sponsor about the plan’s feasibility, acceptability, and budget approval

Critical since it affects overall project existence and viability

Response and update by 20th may 2016

1.2

Send email to all project stakeholders to attend kickoff meeting

Get confirmation of attendance in 3 days

Mandatory for all stakeholders to discuss all project aspects

All responses received by 25th. Meeting scheduled for 27th

1.3

Share project budget to all team members

Budget plan from financial officer

Mandatory for project team

Budget shared by 30th may 2016

1.4

Inform sponsor about new benefits plan

Receive feedback from stakeholders

Mandatory for stakeholders

Conducted by 1st November 2016

1.5

Inform staff about proposed benefits plan

Conduct survey on current benefits plan

Mandatory for all staff

Completed by 10th January 2017

1.6

Share revised benefits plan with project stakeholders based on staff feedback

Receive recommendations for implementing the benefits plan

Critical for project controlling

Write the final draft of benefits plan by 31st March

1.7

Give the human resource department the final draft

Conduct monkey survey on staff’s thoughts about new benefits

Mandatory for all staff

Completed by 31stMay 2016

1.8

Evaluate project’s success through performance assessment and evaluating rate of turnover

Critical for project team and future projects

31st May 2017