Human Resources FAQ

How to Become a Project Manager

The position of Project Manager is more and more present on the job market and on job portals, so becoming Project Manager is attracting employees more and more. It sounds important and it is convincing people to specialize and follow project management courses and acquire project management certifications. But is it that simple? And are there details you should know before starting? Is there something that you should be careful about? The answer to these questions is “No”, “Yes” and “Yes” in that order. It’s not simple – it’s a long and serious process that requires lots of work and also since there’s money to be invested you must be really careful what you invest it in.

Let me start by telling you what a Project Manager does:

A Project manager is assigned a project to complete by a certain deadline – has a clear mission like build a bridge in one year;
He/she then needs to start thinking what he/she needs in order to do that: how much money (this is the planned budget), how many people, how many machines and what other type of equipment and materials, what authorizations and what paperwork needs to be done; all these items are called resources;
Then a clear plan needs to be made so that the large project is split is smaller activities: the materials need to be bought by this deadline, the people hired by this deadline, the machines need to clear the land by this deadline, soil structure analysis needs to be done by this deadline, the pillars need to be built by this deadline and so on;
Then risks need to be identified and addressed: what do we do if we don’t manage to hire all the necessary workers by the set deadline, what do we do if the price of materials raises suddenly and we need to increase the budget, what do we do if there’s a flood and we need to stop work for a week and so on depending on the project;
Then clear tasks need to be given to the members of the team, conflicts should they appear solved, people need to be monitored and so on.

- The Project Manager is the one responsible if the project is not delivered on time.

How should you start, then?

First step: takes a few months and allows you to acquire the basics of Project Management – learn notions like project, details of a project, start date and end date, intermediary deadlines, milestones, project resources which include both human and material resources, project risks and how to address those and the role of the project manager and of the team (because a project manager never works alone). All these notions can be acquired by trainings you do yourself, or books you read. You don’t need courses that are too advanced or a certification from first. Take your time to understand the basics and realize if this is really for you. Be really careful what trainings of Introduction to Project Management you attend. There are a lot of companies which offer them and most of the times cheap equals to poor quality, so be really careful. You may end up with the diploma you wish for but get no real knowledge you can use.

Second step: try to develop the skills you need to be a good Project Manager – first the skills for the “project” part like organizing and prioritizing skills (these are crucial), analytical thinking, ability to say “no”, to be assertive, then the “management” part of the skills like the ability to lead a team, to solve conflicts, to efficiently split resources and tasks among team members to meet deadlines, the ability to motivate your team. Again, think carefully if this is really for you because from now on you start investing the big money and not only your time. And if you get a Project Management certification that is really expensive and don’t use it, then it has all been a waste of time and money.

Step 3: register in a Project Management training to obtain a Project Management certification – Foundations Level. Some good certifications that are accepted all over the world are Prince 2 and PMP. The prices are quite high but they look great in every Project Manager’s CV and can help you get good paid Project Management jobs. The Foundations level for Prince 2 for example costs around 1000 USD/750 Eur. This is the step when you turn professional. You no longer learn and practice Project Management by yourself, but are officially a Project Manager. Try to get involved at the same time in projects to practice what you have learnt.

Step 4: learn how to use Project Management software. You can start with the basic Microsoft Project which is part of the Office Suite. It offers a lot of functionalities from project properties, milestones, resources and budgets. You can create charts of activities, deadlines and resources. Then go online and see what’s available in this field. You will be amazed to see how much this area has developed too in the past years.

Step 5: get more advanced Project Management certifications. You can try Prince 2 Practitioner to start with. Of course all these certifications need to be combined with practice on the job. Information on the Project Management certifications can be found online so I will not get too much into details.

So now, all I can do is hope that my article has helped you decide whether Project Management is really for you. It’s a specialized job that requires years to become really good and remember that a single course of two days in Project Management basics is not enough to give you confidence to apply to such a serious position.

Take care,

Geo

I Think I Want to Be a Trainer - I Need to Know More

First of all you need to know what a trainer does on a daily basis, then what skills you need to have and to develop and last but not least what training of your own you need to become a trainer. All these details should help you decide if the job of a Trainer or HR Specialist in training and employee development is really for you.

The main activities that a trainer does on a daily basis are mentioned below. However, the list is open and depends on the specifics of each company. In some companies, the trainer does only the last activity in the list and that's it. In others, he/she is involved in administrative tasks and budget approving as well.

A trainer:

- discusses with the managers of each department and identifies training needs. By training needs I mean the list of skills that the employees in the specific team need to develop. These can be technical skills or soft skills (communication, leadership, time management, decision making, etc.);

- discusses with the employees themselves face to face or applies questionnaires to identify and confirm training needs again;

- creates the training plan for a given period of time, including all the necessary trainings, number of employees that need to be trained, if the trainer is internal or external, potential costs, timelines;

- asks for approval for potential costs - sometimes this is the job of his manager, but not all the time, so be prepared for explaining as well. All costs need to be reflected in company productivity so be prepared with strong arguments before sending the costs for approval. Asking for managers' support can also be useful;

- creates the training agenda for trainings that he/she will be organizing himself/herself;

- gathers materials for his/her trainings;

- contacts external companies for trainings that need to be organized by an external provider (mostly technical, but not only), prepares the room, communicates training details to participants, gets feedback from participants at the end;

- develops and presents his/her own trainings in front of the participants, communicates details, gets feedback, improves training for next session based on feedback; selects the best training techniques in order to achieve the training goal;

What skills do you need?

First of all, communication and presentation skills. You must have the ability to explain what you know to the trainees so that at the end of the training they have acquired at least half of the presentation content. Depending on the training techniques used, the percentage can be even more. You must speak fluently and openly, keep eye contact with each of the participants, must not be afraid to speak in public. Allow them to give you their opinion as well. Don't make it look like you're a teacher in school.

Then, analytic skills which will allow you to select from the materials you have the best for your training and from the techniques you know the best for your purpose.

Being patient is also important. Not everybody understands information fast and a trainer must be able to make sure that at the end of the training all the participants have understood the message. Repeating over and over again can also be necessary from time to time, so be prepared.

Sensing the dynamics of the group is a must. You must know when to tell the information again, when to stop, when to listen, when to change the training technique because the trainees are bored and no longer follow you. Don't get annoyed by aggressive trainees, have patience with slower ones, encourage everybody to contribute with ideas.

Time management is also crucial. You need how to monitor the discussions in order not to transform a 2-hour training in an entire day of small talk. Encourage the participants to participate but also keep an eye on the clock to make sure you keep the agenda. Some of the participants' time may be limited and wasted. Keep the agenda as promised and if there are trainees who want to talk more to you, ask them to do it at the end of the training.

If you do also administrative tasks, you need to be organized and have some negotiation skills if you want the training budget approved. Training results are not concrete results you can feel, so management will need some strong arguments from your side.

Coming back to our third part of the topic, what trainings do you need to become a trainer?

The main training you need to start with is called "Train the Trainers (TTT)". There are a lot of companies offering that, so be careful which one you choose. Ask around and go by recommendation if you really want to achieve your goal. Then continue with communication, time management and some psychology courses (to understand groups). Then, try to get as much experience as you get and good luck.

And as bonus: Training FAQs:

1. What do I do if they ask me something I don't know?

This can happen to absolutely every trainer no matter how experienced. Don't panic, don't start searching for ideas and details right away because it will look unprofessional. Just admit you don't know, get the contact details of the participant and promise you will come back to him/her with details. Mention also the timeline you intend to come back with details. Keep your promise. That's it. Move over.

2. If I am the trainer of groups, how many participants can I allow during one session?

Depends on the training type. If it's a training on the PC, as many as the number of PCs in the room. If not, try to limit the number to 8-10. If you have more than that, you will not be able to give enough of your attention to each of them.

3. Can I train just one person?

Yes, but it's much more fun and rewarding with more because experience is shared. You might even learn something from them. Also, they get to know each other and share experience and ideas.

4. How do I start the training?

With an ice breaker. The best one to give you time to breathe is asking them to introduce themselves and say a few words about them. This is also good for the group dynamics because they get to know each other and they will work better throughout the training session/s.

5. How long should a training session be?

If you mean during a day - 1 hour maximum with adults and then break. If you mean during a longer training - depending on how much information you have to communicate. Can be from 2 hours to 3 months daily.

Good luck in achieving your goals.
Regards,
Geo

What Should a Labor Contract Include?

A Labor contract is the type of contract that an employee should sign with his/her employer to make sure that the rights and obligations of both parties are respected.

The main items included in the labor contract should be:

The identity of the parts (name, address, phone, legal representative of the company and name, address, personal identification details, work permit details if necessary of the employee);
The object of the contract: 1- 2 phrases describing the main activities performed by the employee for the company;
Validity of contract – permanent or temporary; if temporary, the contract must include ending date;
Place of work and conditions;
The name of the position that the employee is going to have; job description can be included in contract or separate;
Number of hours the employee will perform every day or if less than one hour/day, the number of hours/week - part time or full time contract;
Vacation and free time details;
Salary and additional benefits if any;
Details concerning overtime payment;
Rights and obligations of the parties (employee and company);
Trial period for the employee;
Notice period in case of resignation;
Dismissal in case of deployment period (number of days the employee will still be working for the company from the moment the position he/she is on is no longer necessary in the company);
Clauses: confidentiality, mobility, not being allowed to work for the competition, obligations from the employee side in case he/she is sent to specific trainings/certifications, others if necessary;
Termination clauses;
Signatures of the parties.

The elements above are just a draft for you to get an idea. They may vary from country to country and may include more or less details. What’s important for you is to make sure you sign such a document and ask for your copy signed by both parties. This will be your backup in case the company doesn’t respect their obligations in terms of salary, vacation, breaks, benefits or others.

Have a great evening, morning or day no matter where you are,

Geo

I Want to Become a Manager – What Should I Do?

First of all you must think really well if you have what is takes. What I mean is:

Are you willing to be the role model and image of your team?
Are you willing to take responsibility for everything that happens in your team, including the negative results?
Are you strong enough to solve the conflicts between the members of your team?
Do you think you are able to build authority and convince the members of your team to listen to you and to follow your lead?
Are you willing to talk to the members of your team periodically, listen to them, know them well enough in order to help them and be their mentor?
Are you willing to learn and understand the functionality and roles of the members in your team in order to assign tasks in a fair and efficient manner and maybe help from time to time?
Are you interested in knowing and doing more than your current role?
Are you interested in understanding the entire business conducted by the company you are in (or are interested of working for) in order to understand where you and your team fit?
Do you like working with people?
Do you have any idea what “motivating your team” means?
Do you feel confident to speak in public?
Do you like reporting or are patient enough to deal with this task even if you’re not very fond of it?
Do you feel confident enough to make your own decisions knowing that they might affect not only you, but the people in your team as well or even the entire company?
Do you feel strong enough to fire someone?
Do you feel strong enough to tell someone to their face that they are not performing well and need to improve?
Do you know what “delegating tasks” means? Do you trust your team members enough to actually do it?
Do you know what you current manager does on a daily basis?
Are you organized? Do you know how to prioritize your tasks?

If you replied in a positive manner to all or most of the questions above, then you want to become a manager. Now, from wanting something and making it happen, it is a long way. What you need to do next is shadow your manager and get involved in trainings.

How to shadow your manager: talk to him/her in an open manner and tell him/her that you want to learn more than what you know at the moment. Ask for additional tasks that are done by a manager mainly and see how it feels like: do reports, talk to the members of your team, plan meetings, be the moderator in meetings, propose improvements, come up with new ideas, take responsibility for results. This will give you the confidence to take this new role and do it well.

At the same time, get involved in trainings. Talk to your manager, to your Human Resources department and also search by yourself trainings in the following areas: decision making, time management, planning and organizing, conflict management, leadership and team management, motivating your team, recruitment and selection, building trust in your team, building authority, project management – at least beginner level, risk management, organizing meetings, communication and anything that your manager and HR department recommends.

Only then you will be ready to apply for this new role in your company or in a different one. Becoming a manager takes a lot of work, but if you really want it and are determined enough to do the work and learn, you will succeed. It means having a lot more responsibilities, but also more satisfaction when projects are done and results are visible.

Good luck and always follow your dreams, no matter what they are.

Geo

I Feel I Am Performing Better Than The Rest of My Team – What Should I Do?

First of all, watch your colleagues, try to understand their work and try to notice their skills. Also, try to get involved in what they do to get the feel of their work. All this to make sure you are really performing better. Maybe their tasks are different and more difficult and your impression may not be that correct.

Then, if you convince yourself that you are really performing better, put your thinking cap on and make a list of things you want: you want more tasks, more responsibilities, some tasks changed, more money or another position in the team or in another team – get prepared. After you have the list, talk to your manager in an honest and open manner telling him that you feel you perform better than the rest of your team and you want some changes. Be open and tell him what changes you feel would motivate you. Be prepared with ideas and arguments, not just demands. Simply showing a list of demands won’t take you anywhere. Maybe your manager has been too busy to notice all your daily activities and doesn’t know the status of your work as well as you do. Giving clear arguments and examples will support your cause.

Also, offer to help your manager with some of his tasks if you feel you are up to the challenge – ask for small tasks at first and them get involved in more important ones to prove yourself.

Then, if changes don’t come quickly, don’t be disappointed. Maybe the company can’t offer you more that what you have at the moment. Try to learn more, try to get involved in as much as possible, keep all your options open and changes will come for sure in the end.

My Manager Told Me We're Going to Have Regular Meetings From Now on. Is It Bad?

First of all, nothing is bad until you are told firmly that something is bad. Don't ever panic until you have reasons to do so.

Regular meetings with your manager may mean:

- Your manager has a communication target from his/her manager to achieve. This means that your manager was told to organize more meetings with his/her direct reports to improve communication in the team;

- Regular meetings are organized when there is a new project to be done and the meetings are used to communicate milestones, resource information, project steps, action status, problems to be solved along the way. Regular meetings can make sure the project is delivered on time because the team which is part of the project has an organized environment to communicate, share ideas, issues and solutions;

- Your manager wants to involve you in new projects or wants to entrust you with some new tasks for you to be able to prove your skills. Probably you have asked for new tasks or they have noticed you have some skills that can be put to good use;

- There is something in your performance to be improved or your manager has noticed that there is something that you are not satisfied with and you need to communicate more often. Again, don't panic! You will probably talk about how things can be improved and what ideas and requests you may have.

Regular meetings are good news. They mean there's place for discussion, sharing of ideas and improvement. So, your manager wants to organize regular meetings with you? Great! then prepare some ideas and thoughts of your own that you would like to discuss and maybe implement. Take advantage of the opportunity and be open-minded.

Take care,

Geo

Again…What Does HR Do Every Day?

From the outside HR people look very very busy, but nobody really knows what they do. I see a lot of forum questions from people asking themselves what does this department really do and what are they paid for since the results of their work are not that visible. They don’t produce anything concrete, but they never have time when you want to go meet them. They always schedule you for another day or ask you to send them an email. So what do they do? Is it that difficult to hire someone?

Well, in a lot of companies HR is actually undersized. They say the optimum ratio is 1 HR person to 100 employees, but sometimes due to extensive local bureaucracy that is not enough. You can’t really see what HR people do because they have so many things to do that they have no time to presents reports of their work to the people. Here are just a few ideas of what HR does in each area. Most of the times there is one specialist covering more than one area which makes it really difficult, challenging and necessary for them to be always open to specialize in something new.

Recruitment people – discuss job openings with managers, post ads, read hundreds of CVs (don’t imagine it’s that easy – to hire one good professional sometimes you have to go through hundreds of worthless CVs that waste your time), schedule interviews, make phone interviews, test candidate skills (sometimes HR people need to speak 2-3 languages to be able to test them by themselves – help from outside is not always available and they have to manage), participate in face to face interviews (which drain all your energy by the end of the day), make presentations, promote the company, participate in job events, prepare tons of recruiting reports, answer hundreds of silly questions from candidates etc. etc.;

Payroll people – spend their time entering employee data into the payroll system: new joiners, contract changes, leavers, timesheets, vacation hours, sickness leaves, bonuses, night shifts, overtime, week-end shifts, salaries, additional employee benefits; when the payroll is done they prepare payments for salaries and additional documents for local authorities;

Training people – spend their time analyzing competencies that need to be developed in employees on each position, discuss training needs with managers, prepare internal trainings, prepare training plan for internal and external trainings, present the internal trainings to selected employees, contact external companies and sometimes negotiate training offers, organize external trainings – make sure external trainers have all the necessary logistics to do a good job, gather training feedback from participants, prepare training reports;

Administration people – prepare huge amount of employee related paperwork – contracts, contract changes, certificates, prepare access cards, order computers and users&emails sometimes, manage lockers and protection equipment sometimes, manage employee assets, manage additional employee benefits like transportation (are sometimes involved in finding and negotiating a contract with a transportation company), manage taxi or transportation vouchers, prepare reports of HR indicators (attrition, sickness leave, joiners, leavers, etc);

Communication people – manage the internal communications towards the employees, manage external communications for external partners and media, manage the internal suggestion system, manage internal display boards, prepare newsletters with important information for the employees, are sometimes involved in CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) campaigns, manage sometimes employee satisfaction surveys and actions.

What else do HR people do: are involved in internal and external audits, are involved in the risk management system, prepare files for work permits for the Immigration authorities, prepare employee motivation programs within budget, prepare huge amount of work policies and work instructions necessary for the good flow of information or for company certifications, need to be always up to date with local and international labor regulations (otherwise high fines can be paid by the company), give advice to managers, are involved in the succession planning system…

So, do you still wonder what HR people do?

Why Should You Find Out Company Details Before the Interview?

As a recruiter I strongly advice you to do it. Even if the company has a website too large for you to digest in a few hours. Try to select from it only main information that you can impress them with: company main activities, company values, location/s, achievements and awards during past years. Try to spend at least one hour reading about them, remember as much as you can, even write down some information that you consider important.

If you go there for a position in a specific field try to find out information about that field:

- HR: find out about current company headcount and distribution across the country/globe, training programs, employee benefits, CSR campaigns, anything connected to HR and if they don’t ask you try to ask 1-2 questions connected to the field just to show them you care about their company, you tried to find out more and you want to know more;

- Finance: remember some financial related information – company income, company financial issues, problems they have and maybe some solutions you see, read articles, show them you are interested;

- Technical: find out about their Research & Development department, their divisions, technical details of their products and services;

Why is it important to know as much as you can about the company?

- They are likely to ask and if you have no idea your application will look very bad – you have no idea what they do, you didn’t try to find out, you prove that you don’t really care about the company, so why should they care about hiring you?

- If you know, you will convince them of your motivation – you want to work for their company, you know what they do, you really want this job and not another one in another company.

Where can you find out information about a company:

- their website;

- people on social networks who work for that company;

- internet articles;

- forums;

- job fares where you can meet recruiters;

- even the person scheduling you for the interview can direct you to a source of information about their company.

What not to do: don’t ask stupid questions at the interview just to show how much you read about the company. Ask real questions, ask for information that you can’t find and are really interested in. I had someone at the interview asking me about the company values. I was really annoyed since they are on our website and also displayed on the walls in the hall where the candidate waited before the interview.

Take care and good luck with the job applications.
Geo

Does a Company Really Need a Human Resources Department?

This is from a person who has been working in HR for over 8 years and the answer is Yes and No.

Can you get it any “clearer”, you may tell me…

Well, the answer is simple.

If we are talking about the HR as a distinct department, about HR as a separate office with a separate team, the answer is NO.

If we are talking about HR as a series of functions, the answer is absolutely YES. Even if we don’t have a person designated for this department only and even if the functions may be split between different people doing other different tasks too or even outsourced to a third party company or consultant, a company no matter how small can’t survive without HR.

Not being able to survive without HR may sound critical and it really is if we consider the various list of tasks connected to HR, tasks that need to be done, no doubt about it. These are roughly listed:

- Recruiting new employees should we have new positions or leavers;

- Organizing trainings for employees – internal or external;

- Promoting the company on the local labor market;

- Creating all the huge amount of employee related paperwork: contracts, certificates, contract changes, contract terminations, clearance forms, various statistics and reports;

- Calculating the employees’ salaries and additional benefits.

The above are only basics HR tasks which happen in all companies no matter how small, but if we consider a bigger company even more critical HR tasks are added to the list:

- Succession planning;

- Competency analysis and developing training plans to improve required competencies;

- Employee performance evaluation;

- Communication – internal (towards employees) and external (towards state institutions or media);

- Employee satisfaction surveys and action plans;

- Salary and payroll analysis, salary surveys, alignment to the market;

- Employee motivation;

- Internal audit;

- HR indicators (attrition, sickness leave, hires, leavers, regretted leavers, training hours, productivity) analysis and improvement plans;

- Client presentations;

- Coordination of health and safety trainings;

- Creation of company policies;

- Risk analysis in the area of people management;

- And many other smaller daily tasks and requests from employees and management…

To sum up, HR is a mediator between the employees, one vital resource of the company, and management. No company can survive without a human resources function, no matter if this is performed by a dedicated team or split between employees dedicated to other functions.

Open space or small closed office?

I have worked for years in both and I think I can offer you a clear insight. Nowadays companies in order to save money avoid building small offices on the same floor and prefer to use open spaces presenting them proudly to clients as a great team work environment. So what's the difference and which one is better?

Closed small office

Advantages: more quiet, you can concentrate easier on your work, you see the same people everyday and get to know them very well, most of the times you have your own desk and own storage places, you have a door you can lock and leave your work safely on the desk for only your team members to see, better information security; you can have a work schedule for the rest of the employees in the company to follow - they can't come in and interrupt you at all times, better time management opportunities, more privacy, especially when dealing with confidential information.

Disadvantages: seeing the same people every day and not getting to know well the rest of the teams in your company can be a disadvantage sometimes since you can't always work with your team members only but need to relate to the other departments; forgetting your key at home can end up in you waiting in the hall way for long minutes until someone comes to unlock the door, spaces can get crowded when there are too many members in your team, too much paperwork or too much furniture; not being always informed about latest news (especially informal ones) unless you go around the company to ask; people in the company don't know you very well and don't trust you for a while at least.

Open space

Advantages: you always have a lot of people around that can help and from whom you can seek advice, the atmosphere is merrier; it's indeed a great way to develop the team spirit and build a strong team; you are always up to date with the news; there's always something to learn from the problems solved by the people around you - you always end up learning a solution by chance and realizing you have it when you most need it; it's a great place to celebrate birthdays with so many people singing to you and wishing you a great time; it's a great place to have a Christmas tree for so many people to enjoy it; it's a great place to learn how to share.

Disadvantages: it's always noisy, there's always someone interrupting you from important work when you least expect it, there's never an agreement concerning temperature and fresh air - there will always be someone who wants more heat or less heat or who can't stand the air conditioning; if someone gets sick and comes to work chances are that a lot of the other team members will be affected too; it's very difficult to discuss confidential information or work on a confidential report with people always moving around you; sometimes desks can get crowded, there's never someone responsible to bring paper to the printer and you always have your things missing from your desk (and if you look around they are always on someone else's desk and they forgot to bring them back - it's always annoying to search 80 desks to find your stapler).

If I had to choose now - I would choose the closed office because of the silence, but for all very young people just starting off on their career journey the open space is a great place to work.