Today it is essential HR managers are not only good people managers, skilled negotiators, great listeners and business minded, but also have a healthy set of project management skills.

A project is a process of delivering a defined change, usually to a fixed timescale and budget with defined quality standards. Several projects may form part of a journey towards a common goal that collectively comprises a programme of change. Thus an HR systems implementation project, the design and development of a shared service centre and an HR capability programme may be three projects within an overall HR transformation programme.

All programmes struggle with common issues relating to budget, timescale, resource availability and the need to engage senior staff. However, there are also some key differences that need to be understood, and addressed, that are specific to HR programmes if they are to be set up for success.

• High Touch – High Change. Most HR projects will inevitably have an impact across the wider business. This will often affect all employees or have a direct impact on the way in which line manager’s work in a way that other types of programme may not. As such, the need for an effective change management process and early engagement with senior stakeholders is often far more pressing on HR programmes than on other types of delivery.

• High Need – Low Priority. Whilst HR programmes may be driven by a business imperative for change, they are still often perceived as ‘an HR initiative’ focused on the needs of HR and the people who work in it. This perception is often fuelled by HR itself when it fails to engage the business directly in discussing the changes that will affect it and to ensure that the benefits of change are fully understood. As a consequence, HR programmes are often afforded a much lower priority for resources or funding as they are not considered core to the business.

• Project – what Project? One of the problems faced by many organisations is ‘initiative overload’ whereby many HR change projects are initiated at the same time but without a common or overarching vision of the goal they are all working towards. Without a common vision and guiding strategy, successful delivery can be compromised as projects become disjointed and fail to support the wider programme objectives.

The wider organisation is often placing pressure on HR to deliver a supporting role in organisational changes to meet business imperatives in changed market conditions. In the banking sector, for example, HR functions are currently having to rapidly reassess organisational approaches to compensation and benefits in the light of media attention; consider the informational demands of external organisations such as UK Financial Investments Ltd and, in the case of some of our largest banking organisations, manage large scale mergers; and all of these at the same time!

Having a well planned strategy and a robust design for these changes is of little comfort if the organisation flounders on its ability to execute changes effectively and it is, perhaps, not surprising that one of the most frequent requests from our own client’s organisations is for robust, industrial-strength programme managers who have the capacity and capability to deliver this kind of change effectively.

Too often we find that programme and project management are not regarded as skills in their own right in HR and candidates to manage key HR projects are still often chosen on the basis of availability rather than capability. Even where good candidates are available, the choice is often between an HR expert or a programme management expert as few people seem to encompass the disciplines and experience of both. Today’s HR practitioner needs to develop to gain the skills of both – working more flexibly and becoming armed with new skills will put you in a great position to deal with the modern HR function which is often less about business-as-usual and more about the business of change.

• The second part of this mini-series will identify the 12 things a HR project manager must know.

Allan Boroughs and Judith Clark are partners at Orion partners