An Introductory Guide to Project Management for HR
HR professionals are leading the workplace revolution. Smarter hiring, workplace culture initiatives, and day-to-day operational excellence are all priorities in the industry, meaning that project management for HR has never been more important. In fact, HR professionals are increasingly adopting project management tools to improve their processes and workflows.
In this article, we will discuss the benefits of project management for HR professionals and why HR project management is vital for departmental success.
Why should companies use project management for HR professionals?
While HR professionals may not be used to planning and managing formal projects, many of the activities they complete are, in fact, projects.
For instance, attracting new talent, launching and executing training and development programs, completing annual performance and salary reviews are all projects that HR teams need to complete. Further examples of these projects are:
- Intern recruitment programs
- Planning of retreats and kick-offs
- Executing team bonding events
- Training and development programs
- Workplace operations management
- Optimizing virtual onboarding for dispersed teams
Using formal project management processes, procedures, and tools can help lower risk and increase success on all of these long-term HR activities.
HR professionals are also becoming more and more involved in organization-wide projects. Many strategic projects involve multiple departments and interdisciplinary teams. An HR employee may be asked to be a part of any internal project that could impact the way employees work or affect corporate culture.
They can also be recruited to help staff a project team, coach team members, assist with communications, or create training plans and programs. For instance, if the IT team is developing new software for the company to use, HR may be asked to help build the training plan for user adoption.