Selecting the right project manager is crucial for the success of any initiative. Many of us know great project managers (PMs). Many of us also know solid but somewhat unspectacular PMs. While some great PMs are widely regarded as great, and some solid project managers will only ever be solid, it’s also possible that someone who is a great PM in one environment is only a solid or functional one in another environment. While we would all love a team of superstar PMs, a number of factors mean that this is rarely possible – factors such as:
- Market availability
- Budget
- Company reputation
- Human factors like motivation, career progression, and life events
Think about the PM cohort in your organisation: What capability and mix of PMs is ‘right-size’ for your organisation? And, most critically, how do we attract and retain the right PM skills needed in our organisation?
In this paper we explore 6 steps that describe a comprehensive selection and onboarding process. These are broken down into 3 pre-selection steps, and 3 onboarding steps.
In terms of pre-selection, there are a number of things to consider while going through the interview and onboarding process. While there are certainly PM skills and attributes that are generally regarded as ‘must have’, such as being able to build a project plan, and to manage stakeholders and team members, more specific thinking about your required skills might uncover even better options. Let’s attempt to summarise pre-selection into a simple diagram covering 3 steps:
These steps are explored in more detail below, including reminders about things an interviewer or recruiter can do to match skills to roles.
Considerations in Interviewing and Selecting the Best PM For Your Organisation
- Industry, Organisation Type, and Level of Experience
Use these as important filters when shortlisting potential PMs. Someone familiar with the industry’s language and organisation type is a great starting point. This provides an early indicator of cultural fit.
This is often done through keyword searches or reviews of CVs and profiles. Reputation is also important – if someone well respected from within the industry has worked with a candidate and can recommend them, Ideally, as many sources as possible are used here to confirm general and cultural fit.
- Key Project Manager Attributes
Identify skills and qualities that are relevant to the role. Qualities may include:
- Exceptional communication skills
- A track record of delivering projects on time and within budget
- Strong leadership abilities
- Adaptability to changing circumstances
More generally, look for someone who demonstrates the ability to cope (if not thrive) under pressure and can navigate challenges while managing expectations. Of course, the pressure on a small project may be different to that for a strategic, mission critical project, but the point is – can they cope?
Note the emphasis on the phrase ‘relevant for this role’. Different projects require different skill mixes and have different measures of success. Here are a few examples:
- Not every project delivered on time and within budget is deemed a success (stakeholder acceptance and solution quality matter)
- Some projects don’t warrant large teams that need leadership or motivation
- Some projects are more technical / IT focussed than others
- Some projects require close attention to contractual obligations and vendor responsibilities
Think about the measures of success for projects in your portfolio and choose your skills to suit.
On the subject of communications skills – these are crucial yet sometimes underemphasised. A PM’s role involves receiving and communicating information effectively. Do they like communicating, are they persuasive, and can they adapt their style to different audiences and situations? Remember that PMs manage the human element of a project as well as the technical and control elements of a project.
Here is a brief list of factors that can make the difference between a solid PM and a great one. These factors would seem to be relevant to most PM roles, but it’s worth rechecking if they are all relevant:
- Communication Skills: Can they convey ideas clearly and listen effectively?
- Problem-Solving Abilities: How do they handle unexpected issues? How do they handle ambiguity?
- Leadership: Do they inspire and motivate the team? Do they role model the expected behaviours for all project stakeholders?
- Time Management: Are they meeting deadlines without compromising quality? Are they anticipating where deadlines might be under pressure and taking corrective action?
- Adaptability: Can they adjust to changing project scopes and client needs?
- Technical Know-How: Do they understand the project’s technical aspects?
- Stakeholder Management: How well do they manage client and stakeholder expectations? How much emphasis do they place on Change Management as a critical success factor?
Assuming that a potential candidate sufficiently satisfies cultural and skill requirements at face value, the final pre-selection step is to confirm suitability directly.
- The interview and reference process should be tailored to assess suitability of the candidate for your organisation. An important note here is this is about validation of perceived suitability, and ultimately, organisational fit.
Interview Questions
Inquire about specific past projects, the challenges encountered, and the solutions applied. Discuss their communication preferences and styles, as well as their commitment to completing projects. Questions should be a combination of generic and role-specific.
Behavioural questions can reveal how they handle real-world scenarios (both positive and negative ones). Remember to use your human instinct about the responses provided – do the answers sound natural and authentic, rather than scripted? Does the voice match the body language?
If possible, include a scoring mechanism for the answers to interview questions. Its not necessary to score answers during the interview (this may be off putting for all involved) but if done well it can provide a measure of the relative strength of the candidates, as well as brokering discussion about scoring between interviewers. Interviewer scoring might diverge for a particular question, and ratings can be used between interviewers to explore different justifications for a score (and hence fit).
Reference Checking
Past colleagues and supervisors can provide valuable insights into the candidate’s work ethic, compatibility with your team culture, and compatibility with the project at hand.
Reference checking may be seen as a tick-box exercise, but often undervalued. Naturally, candidates will select referees that will vouch for their capabilities and experience, and its rare that a reference will not recommend a candidate. Alongside that, you can glean perspectives from reference checks by paying close attention to detail. You can also uncover insights from the non-verbal cues of referees. Positive cues may include genuine transparency and willingness to help; and other less positive cues may include pauses in responding or guardedness.
To sum up in one phrase, check references thoroughly. Think of this as another opportunity to independently validate fit. Assuming that at this stage the candidate is being seriously considered, is the referee providing a consistent perspective with what the candidate has said themselves? Has the candidate created a positive legacy with the referee? Is the candidate’s engagement style during the interview process consistent with this other perspective?
Considerations in Onboarding the Best PM Found
By this stage, hopefully the candidate and their references will have convinced you that they are the person for the job, and vice versa. Assuming that the remuneration and other onboarding matters have been agreed, it’s time to start the onboarding process.
Here are the key steps of onboarding:
- Initial onboarding can occur once paperwork is signed and a start date agreed.
Allow the candidate some time to understand the environment and to get set up with processes, technology, hardware, and so on. Ensure that the onboarding is consistent with the way it was presented during the interview process. Ideally, technology onboarding can occur, and company training can be planned before the candidate actually starts. That way, everyone starts on a positive note.
- Check In (after initial onboarding)
After the initial onboarding, take the time to check back in with the candidate and verify that everything is proceeding as planned. This shows proactivity and interest in the best possible start for the candidate.
This check-in would typically occur between 2 and 4 weeks after initial onboarding. Are there any items (either by the employer or the candidate) that can be fine-tuned? Are there any learnings that can be passed back into other future recruitment activities?
- Commitments and follow ups
The final key point to conclude this process is to follow through on commitments.
Commitments may take many forms. It could be training related, opportunities to meet with key stakeholders, technology commitments, and workplace commitments. It could also include tracking and followup of KPIs / OKRs. If there were any commitments provided during the interview process, or any learning or development opportunities identified, make sure that they are documented and followed through. You don’t want to lose a candidate that you’ve spent a lot of time and effort finding, only for them to leave sooner than hoped, and then have to start the process all over again.
Summary
Bringing all steps together, it’s important to take care that the interviewing and onboarding process is robust and consistent.
When a PM has been interviewed, and an offer is made and accepted, then the other parts of the organisation kick into gear and assist in smoothly onboarding the PM. The efficiency of the onboarding process is in many ways as important as the interviewing process, because this is the first evidence to the PM that the organisation operates as presented and facilitates the environment for the PM to apply their skills.
This sets up both the organisation and the candidate for success.
On that note, recruit well!
