Richard Grimes, MPA, C.P.T.

Course Outline

This online course provides practical and easy-to-follow guidance for leaders who want to reduce a large part of their project administrative workload by creating an effective project team performance assessment process. Step-by-step guidance helps users develop an objective method of defining performance expectations within a performance range for each project function. The result is a system just like the report cards you received in grade school when you could always tell how you were doing in the course and did not have to wait until the end of the semester to find out if you passed or failed.

This course includes a multiple choice quiz at the end, which is designed to enhance the understanding of the course materials.

Learning Objective

Course participants will learn:

• How to construct an effective employee performance assessment system within a typical project's matrix organization.
• How to set meaningful and measurable goals for employees that allows them to self-monitor their work progress.
• How to reduce the administrative workload on project department managers concerning employee performance assessment issues.
• How to make it easy for project employees to stay focused on project tasks and not be distracted by any changes in project management.
• The five components of motivation and ways to provide them to project team members
• The typical causes of unnecessary personal stress on projects and how to reduce it
• The four critical elements of effective employee performance goals.
• To change employee behavior from "busy" to "productive".
• How to work with employees to establish effective performance goals.
• To discern between "hard" and "soft" project performance skills.
• To create a measurable range of "hard" and "soft" skills for use in documenting employee performance assessments.
• To create a method of collecting and reporting team member work performance objectively, consistently, and easily.
• To develop an effective performance action plan for use with project team members.
• How to plan and conduct an effective goal-setting meeting with employees.
• The two simple questions to ask an employee for the first goal setting meeting and the five simple questions to ask thereafter.
• The three elements of an effective performance assessment process.
• To consider the "ORPperson" and why you should care.
• How to apply all of this to a project environment
  
  

Course Introduction

Projects are typically matrix organizations consisting of team members temporarily brought together for the duration of the project. Although their department managers and, ultimately, the current project manager direct them locally at the project, they usually receive their annual performance assessments, wage increase, and promotion recommendations from their
permanent manager back at company headquarters.

Unfortunately, the distant permanent manager has not seen them perform daily and their performance assessment relies, at best, on second hand knowledge. The accuracy of this second-hand knowledge further depends on whether local management on the project has the time, method, and inclination to collect thorough documentation and forward to the permanent manager.

If the team member feels the information is not complete nor totally objective and accurate, this situation can easily become a source of poor morale and job satisfaction. Their subsequent work product is typically a direct reflection of whether they feel valued and treated fairly by the project.

Participants taking this course can defeat that problem by learning how to create an effective project team performance assessment process.

Course Content

Table of Content

The PM's Problem
The Opportunity for Business Performance Improvement
Course Learning Objectives
The Implication for Use by Other PM Practitioners
The Foundation of the Process

The Components of Motivation
Setting Effective Performance Goals
Setting Effective Performance Goals
The Elements of Effective Performance Goals
The Elements of Effective Performance Goals
Section Review

Goals and Tasks
Establishing Effective Performance Goals

Measuring "Hard Skills"
Section Review
Measuring "Soft Skills"
Section Review
Employees Rating Each Other: Good or Bad Idea?
Section Review
- Developing an Action Plan
Conducting The Goal-Setting Meeting
Performance or Activity?
Elements of an Effective Performance Assessment Process
1. Your Job Description
2. Written Performance Standards
3. Conducting A Goal Setting Meeting

Documentation That Satisfies The "Orp"-Person

Conduct A Performance Assessment Meeting

Applying This To A Project Environment
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Course Evaluation

Course Summary

Project team member morale, job satisfaction and subsequently, work performance, will improve if an objective, consistent, and measurable work performance assessment process is in place on a project. This allows team members to focus on task performance with confidence that accurate data will flow back to the permanent manager in the home office without regard to personalities. Also, if management changes during the life of the project, team members can remain focused on the job at hand without fear that their previous performance has been wasted and now they must start all over and get to know the new ones.

Bonus Materials

The author would like to offer his "The Volunteer Organization's Development Handbook" free of charge to users who take this course. Just download the handbook in PDF at the beginning of the quiz!

If you are part of a volunteer organization whether it is a professional engineering chapter, a youth sports league, or a booster group at your child's school, this handbook will be useful. Please feel free to share it as much as you want.

Quiz

Once you finish studying the above course content, you need to take a quiz to obtain the PDH credits.