The Role of Human Resource Management in the Knowledge and

Application of Project Management and its Tools

The “P” in PM is as much about ‘people’ management as it is about ‘project’ management.”

– Cornelius Fichtner
AUTHORS
________________

Ramesh Jamdhade

MLS- Mumbai University, EMBA from NIBM

Head HR & Administration at EsselWorld Leisure Pvt. Limited, India (Essel group)
Anchoring Human Resources for country wide project activity of ESSELWORLD from Head Office

Dr. Uday Dokras

B.Sc., B.A. (Managerial Economics) LL.B. Nagpur University, INDIA
Graduate Studies, Queen’s University, Kingston, CANADA
MBA CALSATATE USA
Graduate Diploma in Law, Stockholm University, SWEDEN
Ph.D. Stockholm University, SWEDEN
CONSULTANT HR & Administration, FDCM ESSELWORLD GOREWADA
ZOO Pvt. Ltd..

ABSTRACT

Tools that help in managing Projects form a part of what is known as Enterprise Software
which are a collection of computer programs that have common business applications, tools
for modelling how the project or its parts works, and development tools for building
applications unique to the organization. These tools are intended to solve an enterprise-wide
problem, rather than a departmental problem and improve the projects productivity and
efficiency by providing support functionality. Some of these tools are considered in this paper.

Project management tools are usually defined by the different features offered. They include, but are
not limited to: Planning/scheduling - Project management tools allow you to plan and delegate work all

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in one place with tasks, subtasks, folders, templates, workflows, and calendars. So, what is a project
management tool? Simply put, it's software to help organize work and collaborate with colleagues on
projects.
Project management tools are aids to assist an individual or team to effectively organize work and
manage projects and tasks. The term usually refers to project management software you can purchase
online or even use for free.

According to the National Standard Competences of Project Management “Project management

is the planning, organizing, monitoring and controlling of all aspects of a project and the
management and leadership of all involved to achieve the project objectives safely and within
agreed criteria for time, cost, scope and performance/quality”. However, the range of project
management tools is growing, while the attention is paid to the tools that help implement the basic
project parameters effectively, i.e. the project objective, quality, period and budget, and minimize
the related risks, but also the tools that make it possible to manage implementation of more parallel
projects (project programs or portfolios).

Together with the trend of change and innovation implementations in the form of projects, what is also
more and more important in practice is the knowledge and application of project management
and its tools. The fact is that the higher the rate of the project management expertise, the higher the
probability of successful completion of such projects by its application in practice and the higher their
effectiveness. However, the level of utilization of project management and its tools is different in
different countries, national economy sectors or organization types.

Whom one hires and how they manage them determines the success and failure of every project. Other
factors seem to be secondary in comparison to this one. HR is indispensable for a business if it is to
thrive because nailing a sales pitch and successfully spreading the word about one’s product won’t do
them much good if there are no people in place to meet customer demand.However, managing
employees and tasks they are appointed to isn’t a piece of cake. Fortunately, there is plenty of project
management tools which may help one to coordinate their employees. Some of the best can be found
below:

1. Project Human Resource Management. The Human Resource Management Plan

Human resource management is a plan to organize and lead the project team. Human resource plan
process describes how the project manager will manage the staffs, team building, assess and improve
the project team. It includes project organization charts and the timetable for staff acquisition and
release, and may also include identification of training needs, team-building strategies, recognition
programs, compliance considerations and safety issues.
2. Inputs to develop Human Resource Management Plan

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Activity Resource Requirements: It provides information on what resources will be needed to complete
the work on each of the activities within the project. When carrying out the time management planning
processes, general estimates were created for human resource needs, and they will now be more
thoroughly evaluated and estimated within this process.
Enterprise Environmental Factors: This will give information about organizational structure and
infrastructure of company. These provide vital background when performing the develop human
resource plan process
3. Organizational Process Assets: These will include aspects such as examples for previous
similar resource project plans, organizational policies procedures and guidelines with regard to
human resources, or special corporate or competences for the provision of key knowledge skills
and experience for the project.
Tools and Techniques of HR Plan:
I) Organizational Charts
Organizational charts are the graphical diagrams to explain the authority and reporting lines in the
project. Human resource management plan is the staffing management plan it describes about when the
staff will recruit in the project, how the staff will be trained and when the staff will be relived from the
project.
II) Matrix
The type which is used most often is called the responsibility assignments matrix (RAM). These
can be shown as a table with the left hand column listing the various work packages, and the remaining
columns describing the various roles.
III) Text
Text is a simple document which describes the position role within the project, what their
responsibilities will be, what the job involves and the qualifications needed to fill such a position. This
particular format is particularly useful when recruiting appropriate individuals for roles within the
project.
IV) Networking
This is the second main outputs of the develop human resource plan process, and describes the
communication process with others within your network of contacts. The main purpose here is to gain
an understanding of the political and organizational forces that may influence the project.
V) Organizational Theory
Teams or groups behave differently than when they work as an individual, and it is vital that the
project manager understands how such teams behave. There have been various studies and tools
developed to help understand organizational theory, and it is important that the project manager up next
themselves familiar with these as they will have a huge positive impact on the project in helping it to
be successful.
VI) Expert Judgment

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 When developing the human resource management plan, expert judgment is used to list the
preliminary requirements for the required skills. Assess the roles required for the project based on
standardized role descriptions within the organization. Determine the preliminary effort level and
number of resources needed to meet project objectives. Determine reporting relationships needed based
on the organizational culture. Provide guidelines on lead time required for staffing, based on lessons
learned and market conditions. Identify risks associated with staff acquisition, retention, and release
plans. Identify and recommend programs for complying with applicable government and union
contracts.
Develop human resource management plan outputs
VII) Human Resource Plan
Project management plan provides guidance on how project human resources should be defined,
staffed, managed, controlled, and eventually released.
The structure of this important document consists of:
o Roles and responsibilities
o Organization charts
o The staffing management plan
VIII) Roles and Responsibilities
Roles and responsibilities explain each role that is needed on the project, provide their title, and
describe their level of authority, responsibilities, and their knowledge, skills and level of competency
needed in order to carry out their role within this project.
IX) Project Organization Charts
Organization chart is a graphic display of project team members and their reporting relationships.
X) Staffing Management Plan
Staffing management plan is a part of the human resources plan within the project management plan
and describes when and how human resource requirements will be met. It includes:
• The staff acquisition processes
• A timetable for staffing requirements
• A description of how and when staff will be released from the project
• Staff training and development needs
• Health and safety policies
The TOOLS to make all the above 10 items possible or at least as many as possible are listed below.

HeySpace
If Slack and Trello had a baby, it would be HeySpace. It’s one of the best tools for sales because of it’s
functionalities and ease of use. HeySpace is a task management software with chat. It helps to
communicate and collaborate with clients, and with other team members and departments. People can
manage workflow and monitor the progress of works always up-to-date.

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HeySpace allows your sales team to eliminate two or even three different tools – task management
software, project management software, and communication software since it combines the key features
of these three. No more switching between different apps! You have everything in one place, easy to
access and easy to use.
Main features:
 Workspaces – you can create different workspaces for different clients, teams or departments
 Group and individual chat
 Converting conversation into task
 Adjustable tasks – you can set date, assign people to it, add tags, description, files, comment
on it, add estimates, copy task
 Calendar integration and Google docs attachments
 Small features for your convenience: status, text editor, attaching files, mentions, history of
changes
 Notifications
 Kanban board with tasks
 Hangouts calls
 TimeCamp time tracking integration
 Available as Web, mobile, and desktop app
The other three top-rated project management software solutions for HR are:

 Basecamp
 Mavenlink
 Paymo

2. Basecamp: Onboard and train employees faster with a resource centre

Basecamp is a software tool that combines project management and team collaboration. HR
professionals can leverage the tool’s file management and master calendar features to create resource
centres for faster employee onboarding.
Profile pages can be created for new hires where important documents such as employee handbooks,
medical benefits forms, holiday lists, and payroll info can be stored. And a to-do list of priority tasks
for new hires, such as filling out forms, to complete within the first few days of hiring can be created.
Additionally, the resource centre serves as a central location for new employees to download, fill out,
and submit forms digitally. This way, employers and new hires save a lot of time, which would
otherwise be spent writing and sending multiple emails for each task.
HR teams can also add to-do items to a new hire’s calendar using the master calendar feature. This
feature automatically alerts new hires about important meetings such as explanation of benefits,
upcoming training, or even team parties and events. Other interesting points are:

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  Ease of document management: The file management feature that creates an archive of
important documents to share with colleagues.
 Streamlined team communication: Users mention that the tool stores all communication in
one place, saving them time that would otherwise be spent on digging through email threads.
Basecamp is suitable for small HR teams that want to store important files and documents in a
centralized location for all employees to access easily. One can create as many new hire profiles as you
want. But it is not ideal for large and distributed teams where employees need to connect with each
other via real-time chat or videoconferencing.

3. Mavenlink: Manages HR employee workloads better with resource management

Mavenlink is project management software that offers resource planning, resource utilization reports,
and forecasting capabilities. Its resource utilization reporting feature can help HR managers understand
which employee is doing what, at any given time. View details such as time spent on recruiting,
onboarding, managing payroll, and ensuring compliance. These reports help managers identify issues,
such as instances of over-allocation of work, and set realistic objectives and targets.
HR managers can also use Mavenlink to leverage the skill sets of different employees and ensure they’re
adequately staffed with the resource planning and scheduling features. For instance, allocate
administrative tasks such as creating job ads and handling paperwork to a more junior HR associate,
while a senior HR employee can handle more complex tasks such as compensation management and
training.
The master planning sheet also helps you understand resource availability by giving you an idea of how
much work an employee can handle in a day. View details of upcoming events that will take up your
employees’ time, e.g., team meetings, paid time off, and public holidays.

 Different kinds of reports, such as resource allocation, resource utilization, and resource
forecasting, which help form a clear picture of employees’ capacities can be easily created. This
allows for better management of resources at all levels.
 Awareness of task dependencies with Gantt charts: Gantt chart helps in reviewing and
adjusting any bottlenecks that employees face while executing tasks. Mavenlink is suitable for
midsize companies and enterprises (with more than 900 employees) that are expanding to
multiple locations and need to ramp up their hiring. More hiring means that these businesses
need a resource management tool for HR employees to effectively manage the increasing
workload.

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Despite this, small businesses can also use this software. If you’re thinking of using Mavenlink,
negotiate with the vendor over the price. Small businesses should factor in their current budget and the
estimated volume of usage by their employees before making a decision.

4. Paymo: Track employee time and estimate compensation

Paymo is a project management solution that offers time-tracking functionality, which is useful for
creating employees’ hours worked reports.
The tool offers both manual and automatic time-tracking. Manual time-tracking allows employees to
digitally record their login and logout times. Automatic time-tracking, on the other hand, runs in the
background of a device and records onscreen activities. For instance, it tracks the time an employee
spends browsing a website, reading emails, or creating a document.
Automatic time-capture is useful for tracking hours for freelancers and could be used to calculate
compensation based on the actual time they spend on a project. Conversely, if your small business does
project-based work for clients, this feature can help create billable hour reports to benchmark salaries
for your employees.
One can run the time-tracking apps on different devices and platforms and collect data from employees
working on desktops, laptops, and even iOS or Android mobile devices.It lets you visualize all this
data in the form of online timesheets, so you can quickly understand the total employee work hours and
financial details such as billed and unbilled tasks.

 Automatic time-tracking on different devices: Users like the convenience of the built-in
functionality for automatically tracking employee time on different devices such as desktops,
laptops, and mobile devices.
 Ease of invoice management: Reviewers mention that the tool’s reusable invoice templates
make it quick and easy to bill clients. They only need to add a link to the payment option, such
as PayPal and Stripe, in the invoice.
Paymo doesn’t have a user limit in its paid plans, which means that different small business HR teams
can use it at no additional cost. They can continue using it as they grow in size to track employee time,
especially that of remote workers and freelancers.
HR teams can also use the billable hours functionality to calculate compensation.
5. Other software tools for project HR are
1. Applicant Tracking Systems
2. Video Interview Software
3. Pre-Employment Assessment Tools
4. Onboarding Software
5. Performance Appraisal Software

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6. Compensation Management Software