People

TASKFORCE MEMBERSHIP

The ECI Executive Board has sanctioned the launch of a new ECI Taskforce, the PEOPLE Taskforce, to be chaired by Tony Maplesden, Head of Project Management- Major Projects, AMEC – Power and Process (UK and Europe)

The taskforce already has a core team in operation made-up with representatives from AMEC, Kingsfield International, CEL , ECI HQ and the University of Leeds, UK. The core team is undertaking a questionnaire survey of the ways in which ECI members currently develop the competencies within their workforce to effectively develop complex projects. The results of this survey will be presented at the Taskforce Launch

TERMS OF REFERENCE

The terms of reference of the Taskforce are to identify best practice, create new knowledge and to support its use in order to:-

attract and recruit people

train and develop people

appraise and reward people

in the European Engineering Construction Industry to enable the effective delivery of projects

FORMAL LAUNCH

The taskforce will have its formal launch in London on Wednesday 22nd September 2010. This will take the form of a review starting at the point of an individual leaving school and concluding at the point at which that individual is fully capable of successfully delivering a complex project. Individual organisations who represent ‘best-practice’ along this lifecycle (from ECI members and beyond) will present their own experiences. Attendees can influence the issues covered by the PEOPLE taskforce and can chose to participate further in Taskforce activities.

THE REALITY OF CPD IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT

The survey of CPD by ECI and Leeds University has already yielded some interesting interim results.

  • Organisations  are saturated with mid-career project managers  who have  had little to no formal career planning or development
  • Transitioning construction organisations (those moving up the value chain) appeared to have the most diverse collection of PM CPD but also a strong focus on embedding new processes;
  • Professional service organisations (i.e. multi-disciplinary consultancies) had somewhat sporadic project management training which was attributed to PM as a second career
  • Many of the participant organisations may be neglecting to provide any advanced project management development.

Very few organisations are checking to see if they get value from CPD. The majority of the organisations surveyed struggled to provide any evidence of learning. Often simply throwing money into a ‘black hole’, being unable to quantify, qualify or even attribute staff improvement or performance back to the training interventions. Few  of  the participants interviewed acknowledged their organisation provides further training assessment than a form of ‘reactionnaire’. Select participants alluded to attempts to link training to results or business performance, while only one claimed to evaluate the behavioural dimension. Many of the project participants recognised the lack of formal and/or objective training assessment as a relevant issue but revealed they were in not in a position to be able to comment on return on investment of the existing training interventions.

For further information  on the PEOPLE taskforce please contact Naomi Brookes on +44 (0)1509 223526 or by email on n.j.brookes@lboro.ac.uk