Deploying your people effectively on your projects is like a jigsaw puzzle. After all, you have to match the employees with the right skills with the corresponding project requirements. That is not always easy, especially if you do not have a structural approach for this.
That is why in this blog article we take you through 6 steps with which you can deploy your people more effectively to projects.
1. Analyze your projects
Start with an analysis of the projects you are currently working on and those that are in the pipeline. Look at the specific skills required for each project. Then work out what type of tasks, responsibilities and objectives they entail. In this way you can map out which skills are needed to successfully carry out each project.
Tip : You can go on for an unnecessarily long time, so limit yourself only to the most critical skills that determine the project success.
2. Create a skill matrix
With your projects clear, it’s time to look at the skills of your employees. Map out the level of experience, relevant training and certificates, specializations and special achievements during previous projects. Also identify the strengths and weaknesses (including interpersonal skills), where everyone’s potential for growth lies and what it costs to deploy each employee.
Remember to work with objective criteria here, for example by scoring each aspect from basic level to expert level or with numbers from 1 – 5. Work out what you expect under each score.
3. Match the skills with the projects
Now match the required skills of each project with the skills of your employees. Consider effectiveness, costs and growth opportunities. It may be the case that a senior has the skills to perform the required tasks most effectively, but that the costs for the project become too high. In addition, this can limit the growth opportunities of your juniors and mediors and therefore also the growth of your company.
In this way you also prevent employees from working below or above their level and thus getting a bore or burnout.
4. Determine if you need recruiting and training
It is of course possible that there are projects for which you do not have the right skills at your disposal. In that case you have several options, for example purchasing certain training courses or assigning a senior mentor to teach his/her skills to a junior. In addition, you can of course also recruit new employees or freelancers with the necessary skills, or outsource part of the project to a specialist party.
Also take into account the organizational goals for the future – for example, does recruiting new employees fit in with these goals or is it better to work with freelancers or externals at this stage ?
5. Communicate and motivate
Once you’ve assigned the right people to the right projects, communicate clearly the reasons behind your assignments. After all, you have worked and thought about this extensively, if you include the employees in your reasoning, they will better understand their assignment and you increase the chance that they are motivated to work on the project.
Tip : Don’t forget to express your acknowledgment of the individual skills and indicate how you facilitate assignments to projects, growth and development.
6. Monitor and evaluate
Finally, it is important that you keep an eye on the performance of the team and team members during the projects. This way you can evaluate whether your assignments of skills are still effective and whether it is necessary to make adjustments, to assign employees to another project or to call in external expertise.
An additional result of monitoring and evaluation is that your allocation process for new projects will go better and easier.
