5 Steps To Bring New Resources Up To Speed!

As learned in project management certification — ideally, we keep our project team together for the duration of the engagement, and everyone works effectively, efficiently, and cohesively. And, in a perfect world, everyone does an excellent job, has no customer interactions, and possesses the essential abilities to complete all project responsibilities. Ideally.

However, there are times when we need to bring in a fresh resource for the project. Someone in your team might be failing to live up to the ‘ideals’ described in the first paragraph. Or perhaps their abilities are now required on a new, high-profile project, or on a project that is underperforming and requires their assistance for a period of time to overcome whatever challenges are now present. Alternatively, they may have been sacked from their job. Whatever the situation, if you need to add a new resource to an ongoing project, you must do so quickly, intelligently, and in a way that maintains customer trust in your team and management abilities.

When this is required, I attempt to follow the five-step method below to bring the new resource up to speed, onboarded, and productive so that the project does not face any hitches.

1. Customer alert.

To avoid seeming deceitful to the project client, the first thing I do is inform them that there will be a change. I provide them as much information about the issue as possible — in a favourable way, of course — and may include a resume for the incoming resource if it’s relevant…or at the very least an overview of the resource’s history with the organisation or related initiatives. Basically, anything that provides the client trust that their service will not be interrupted. This is especially important if the customer’s displeasure with the departing resource necessitates the resource swap.

2. Knowledge transfer.

As learned in project management certification — I provide the new resource as much information as feasible and ask the project team to do the same. I offer as much project history and documentation as feasible, including the statement of work, my presentation materials from the project launch meeting, the requirements document, updated project schedules, progress reports, budget predictions (if needed), resource projections, and so on.As for the rest of the team, I call a team meeting and introduce the resource, asking that they give any relevant information they can think of to the new resource right then and there, AND that they each have a one-on-one call or meeting with the resource within the next week to give them their project updates.

3. Customer introduction.

On the next project status call or face-to-face meeting, I’ll do a formal introduction of the resource to the customer. They may not be working on the project yet — and they probably aren’t — but it’s an opportunity to engage in some pleasant banter with the project client and allow the customer to ask any questions they may have of the new resource.

4. Status call sit-in.

This step could or might not be feasible… However, I like to keep the new resource hidden for a week or two. Obviously, if the departing resource is still accessible for 1–2 weeks, this works best. That way, the resource can observe how the meetings are managed, what their engagement expectations are, and get a clear picture of where things stand and what the project client’s major interests appear to be.

5. Productive activity.

Finally, I anticipate the project resource being completely trained and productive within 1–2 weeks. As previously said, if the exiting resource is entirely gone and the remainder of the team is unable to make up the slack in the meantime, that may be an instant demand. However, under ideal conditions, I aim for a 1–2 week period.

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