“The need for transformation is imminent, and individuals and organisations must fine-tune skills that drive change.”
These are the words of Michael DePrisco, Interim President & CEO and Chief Operating Officer of Project Management Institute, upon publication of the PMI’s Global Megatrends 2022 report.
“In today’s fast-moving environment,” he added, “they must draw on a robust toolkit of capabilities to cultivate new ways of working and lead their teams forward.”
One simple paragraph, against which you can measure how future-proofed your IT Project team is!
Many organisations are not doing this. Rather than developing new ways of working, they’re relying on the tried and tested. Things change though! Museums are full of ‘tried and tested’ innovations that have had their day but which no are longer fit for purpose.
Accelerating Project Management Talent Shortages
It’s the pace of change though that is catching most organisations on the back foot.
You can draw comparisons with just about any technology to illustrate how the change has really ramped up. The telephone, for instance, pretty much the only change to the telephone in my youth was that the dial you slotted your finger in to rotate the numbers got replaced by buttons. That phone I remember as a child hadn’t changed much since the Bakelite phones that predated the second world war, any innovation was over a very gradual timescale.
Now, imagine the smart phone you have today and compare it to the iteration of the same phone you were using just five years ago. Tried and tested is becoming old and obsolete at a dizzyingly faster and faster pace.
TVs, cars, IT Project talent shortages … all on EXTREME fast forward!
The recent PMI® 2021 Talent Gap Report predicted that “The global economy needs 25 million new project professionals by 2030. To close the talent gap, 2.3 million people will need to enter PMOE (project management-oriented employment) every year just to keep up with demand—this includes project managers and all changemakers.”
These are challenging times and reactively ‘working hard to stand still’, as many are, especially in the current climate, will leave you falling behind in the race for an ever-decreasing pool of talent.talent gap image
We’ll come back to the talent shortages which are fast becoming a key concern for those tasked with resourcing IT Projects and look at potential solutions, but first, the report identifies six critical demographic, economic, and social trends in total. It’s worth looking at all six trends.
PMI’s Global Megatrends
1 – The impact of COVID-19 significantly amplified digital disruption. Organisations quickly adopted technologies to enhance customer service, improve project outcomes, and facilitate remote working. The post-pandemic business world will need a sense of purpose, desire for innovation, and an eye trained on the future.
2 – Awareness of the climate crisis is widespread within society, but action in the business world has been comparatively slow. Just a fifth of the world’s largest businesses have set net-zero targets, for instance. To counteract the most damaging effects of global warming, sustainability will need to be baked into every project and process, says the report.
3 – Demographic shifts are impacting project delivery is ways that organisations are not preparing for. Declining fertility rates, an increasing percentage of workers retiring from the workforce and other factors will force organisations to seek new ways to close talent gaps and mitigate effects of worker shortages. Retention of talent, inclusive policies to support age-diverse teams, attracting younger employees to the industry must be given greater priority, according to the PMI.
4 – Economic shifts have either led to supply chain vulnerabilities and setbacks to globalisation and organisations must develop strategies to mitigate them.
5 – Global labour shortages, aggravated by the pandemic and “The Great Resignation” when nearly four million workers quit their jobs! The workplace is shifting, organisational leaders are grappling with how to retain and attract talent. The PMI says that organisations must have a successful retention culture, understand the value placed by talent on work-life balance and deliver it, and provide greater recognition for the contributions of employees.
6 – Social shifts, protests have continued and are expected to only ramp up leading to a growing desire among companies for real change and collaboration in response to the demands of civil, civic, and equality movements. True diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives that give everyone the same opportunities to contribute and develop are vital.
It’s easy to see how these trends overlap, dovetail, and have the potential to feed into and fuel each other. As I say, one is fast becoming a big dilemma for those resourcing IT Projects. Industry professionals, friends, colleagues, and clients tell me that they are concerned about their organisation’s capability to react to increasing talent gaps and shortages.
As one told me, “With the possible exception of supply chain issues, most of the other trends feel within our control. We can make a conscious choice to be greener or more diverse, there are obvious benefits to doing so, but how do you address a lack of talent? You can’t magic people out of thin air.”
Or can you?
Another PMI study (Make Reality Global Survey 2020-2021) further reinforced the urgent need for workers with project management skills, citing project management as one of the top-five areas business leaders would like to prioritise.
The projectisation of work, more industries become project-oriented, has led to organisations needing employees with project management skills, driving a shortage in available talent, and inevitable, rising project costs.
The Solution – Magic People Out of Thin Air (Sort of)
Stoneseed’s Project Management as a Service (PMaaS) means that Project Managers, Business Analysts, Technical Advisory and PMO experts are available onsite or remotely when you need them (and for the length of time that you need them!) thanks to a flexible, on-demand resourcing model. You can align resources as and when you need them, on a cost effective, full-time, or part-time basis.
Stoneseed employs a team of Project Management and Technical Professionals, delivering services from strategy to service delivery and everything in between, all underpinned by Stoneseed’s PMO, methodology and toolset and using a transparent and commercially smart model that allows you to keep control of costs.
All Stoneseed’s PMaaS services are available onsite or remote, in fact we are experts in remote access Project Management, offering rapid response resources. Furthermore, Stoneseed’s team are experienced across multiple technology solutions, sectors, and industries, and we work on all types of projects and programmes such as Business Change, Transformation, Infrastructure, Digital and IT Project Delivery.
PMaaS provides access to a wide portfolio of project skills, made available against your demand schedule, from a single Project Manager, Business Analyst, Technical Advisory expert or PMO Manager for a few days, right through to a large team of fully utilised project professionals.
So PMaaS gives you flexibility and control at a time when talent shortages are threatening both!
As we say online, “Turn it on, turn it off, turn it up or turn it down.” Stoneseed’s innovative on-demand resource model allows you to dial up and down IT project resources in sync with your delivery needs.
Whatever your talent shortage, whatever the extent of your capability gap, we flex to support your project needs and delivery requirements.
The Project Management Institute’s Global Megatrends 2022 is a fascinating read. Its key findings can act as a benchmark against which to measure and predict the effectiveness, responsiveness, and performance of your IT project delivery capability in five or ten years.
And it’s a warning. Talent shortages in IT Project Management (all project management) are real and accelerating. Stoneseed’s PMaaS could be a resourcing game changer for your organisation.
Find out more by calling 01623 723910 (either on your state-of-the-art smart phone or 1930s Bakelite!) or email info@stoneseed.co.uk.
Sources
PMI® 2021 Talent Gap Report
