Human Resource Management - Assignment Example

Manage Projects – Human Resource Management – Assignment 3 Student’s Name Course Tutor’s Name 26 March 2013 Part 1: Communication and Stakeholder Engagement Plan for the Change Management Project Stakeholder engagement has been cited as critical to any project that wishes to introduce changes in an organisation’s environment. According to Colwell (2012) changes typically involve people, systems and processes; to be successful however, such changes need to be accepted and adopted by the people they target. Acceptance and adoption of such changes can on the other hand occur only when stakeholders are engaged fully. In the Salix Creative Technologies’ context, internal stakeholders in the firm will need to be engaged comprehensively since their acceptance, adoption or lack of the same will determine the success of the changes introduced through the new workflow management system. The communication and stakeholder engagement plan will be as follows: Justification (in manner of preference) Activities Sponsorship Engage the senior management and gain their commitment to the proposed changes. At this stage, the project manager will need to define the project’s scope and its context in order to gain full commitment for the same from the senior managers. Involvement Select (and involve) the right team in the design and implementation of the new workflow management system. Before commencing on the design, consultations need to be done among all teams for purposes of ensuring that the right changes will be incorporated in the new workflow management system Impact Assess and address how changes will affect the employees. Any issues raised or identified by members of the three teams at Salix will be handled in a manner that increases stakeholder engagement. By so doing, the company will get all its team members to participate in finding and/or developing solutions to existing workflow problems. Communicate Tell all people who will be affected by the changes about the same, and listen to their responses. Through communication, the sponsors and the targeted users of the new system will understand its context and purpose. Additionally, communication will align team members at Salix, clarify team member’s roles, and ensure that the process of developing the new system is responsive to their needs as suggested by Colwell (2012). Readiness Get employees at Salix ready for the changes in workflow management by giving them the right information, training them, and helping them where the need to do so arises. The project manager will also ensure that the timing of the new system coincides with the availability of resources needed to implement it. Responsibilities Ensure that team members understand and agree to the responsibilities given to them. The definition of each team member’s role will be unambiguous thus making their ability to understand easy. Participants will also be made to understand that they will be held accountable. Compliance Address resistance and remove negative influences if the need to do so arises (Colwell 2012). Section 2: Final Report Project Title: The Development of a New Workflow Management System for Salix Creative Technologies Project Duration: 1 Month Report Submission Date: 15 May 2013 Project Team: In-house Innovators Team Team Leader: Josh Carpenter Project Summary This project was meant to come up with a new workflow management system to replace the manual workflow process that was used at Salix Creative Technologies. The team of five members was appointed to handle the design and implementation of the new system within a month. They however had to consult with other teams and the management in order to ensure that their design would be effective and acceptable across the company. In summary, the project was a success having met almost all of the deliverables identified in the scope statement. The resulting system has been widely accepted and adopted at Salix, and as such, workflow management has improved significantly. Notably however, some challenges were identified in the initial implementation phase especially since the employees had gotten used to the ‘old’ manual way of handling workflow. Such challenges included employees ‘forgetting’ to use the new process hence sometimes reverting to the manual manner of handling workflow. In a week’s time however, everybody had become used to the new system and had completely embraced its use. Background Salix Creative Technologies (hereunder Salix) has been using the manual method of handling workflow for 5 years now. As the company – which majors in software development – becomes a widely known firm, it is gaining market share, and this simply means that the company has an increased workload. In a review, it was found that while Salix has superior software products, a significant percentage of customers are dissatisfied with their order turnaround time. Further in-house audits revealed that sometimes the department that receives customers’ orders is not knowledgeable about the workload and/or progress that software development teams have, and as such, cannot accurately tell how soon a new customer can have their orders processed. In view of the aforementioned, consultations were held, and collectively, a workflow management system was proposed for use. According to Daysha Consulting (2008), such management systems enable businesses to reach maximum efficiency by controlling factors such as: staff organisation, assignments organisation, and using technology to reduce workload on individual employees who would otherwise be charged with the role of handling the manual workflow process. The aim of the project To improve the rate and efficiency of workflow management at Salix Objectives of the project Design and install a new, effective and efficient workflow management system Install and configure the new system into existing workstations Customise the new systems to interact with existing applications Import data from current workflow management applications at Salix Train users Evaluate the new system and identify its challenges, successes and any need for modification and/or improvement. With the exception of the concluding objective (i.e. evaluate the new system and identify its challenges, successes and any need for modification and/or improvement), all the other objectives have been met. A team of five software developers were identified and commenced work as scheduled in the work breakdown schedule. Practically, the time limits indicated in the work breakdown schedule were hard to abide by especially since some tasks took longer than was initially envisaged. Specifically, all the tasks that had been scheduled to be accomplished in 0.5 days took at least one day. However, some of the other tasks that had been allocated more days were accomplished in less time hence covering the time variations. Notable cases inlude the development of the new system, the configuring of the new system and the customisation of existing data; all the three identified tasks took 1 day less than was indicated in the work breakdown schedule. The surplus days covered for the extra days used in tasks that had been allocated 0.5 days. So far, the project has performed well on almost all deliverables. However, seeing that an evaluation is yet to be conducted on the system, Salix is yet to identify the extent of its successes and challenges. Gauging by its ease of use and the vigour with which all staff members adopted it, the project manager can confidently suggest that the project is largely a success. The costs of the project have been revised downwards to factor in the hours of manual labour saved by the new system. Ideally, the system does not require a person to manage it as was the case of the previous workflow management processes, where one staff member had to dedicate full attention to taking orders from customers, tracking their progress with the teams and communicating with the customers. As a result the new costs of the project are as follows: Cost of project  Lessons learnt One of the important lessons learnt from the project is the need for team cohesion while working on a joint project. As indicated by Brandon (2002), teams are more efficient if they agree on what needs to be done, by whom, for what reasons, and at what time. Cohesion in teams also enables team members to pursue a mutual goal. The importance of managerial support was also undeniable in this project. Although the project led to a reduction of profits in one month, the project received management approval, since management was already convinced that the short-term losses would yield larger gains in the long-term. Overall, it is worth noting that all risks were identified and managed, and as a result, they were no unnecessary delays in accomplishing identified tasks. Notably however, the new system has created the need to streamline it to involve customers. Specifically, and in order to reduce the number of hours used in accepting and queuing customer orders, suggestions to use it on an online platform has been received from both customer service managers and customers. Specifically, it has been suggested that the online system should allow customers to create a Salix account, where they can place orders, pay for the same, and track the progress of their orders. Currently, customers have to place their orders through other means such as physically visiting the office, making telephone calls or sending emails. Since Salix have a no-cash policy, all payments by customers are via credit card or cheques. Depending on the management’s approval, using the new workflow management system in an online platform may be the next modification and/or improvement that teams will work on. References Brandon, L 2002, ‘Team cohesion success: is there really a demonstrable link?’, Peak Performance, no. 172, viewed 25 March 2013, < http://www.sirc.ca/ccaa/documents/s-851685.pdf>. Colwell, T 2012, ‘Change management: 7 essential elements of stakeholder engagement’, Acuity Consultants, viewed 25 March 2012, < http://acuityconsultants.com/wp/2012/02/change-management-7-essential-elements-of-stakeholder-engagement/>. Daysha Consulting 2008, ‘Benefits of collaborative workflow management’, viewed 25 March 2013, < http://www.dayshaconsulting.com/benefits-of-collaborative-workflow-management/>. Read More