| Title | Building a Scalable Human Capital Infrastructure |
| ShortDescription | The past decade has seen an explosion in the need for knowledge workers, together with a seismic shift in the emergence of a new segment in the human capital continuum, that of the project professional. The shortage of in-house resources and/or tight development timeframes often leads to the need to supplement one's own staff with experienced outside experts who can seamlessly integrate into an existing team to add value immediately. This article talks about the benefits of using project professionals, and how to manage them. |
| LongDescription | Just as corporate treasurers optimize returns across multiple financial instruments (stocks, bonds, LOCs, etc.), competent managers rely on multiple sources of human capital to achieve business growth. Accordingly, they consider all the human capital 'instruments' available to them, including current staff and new hires, contract and temporary staff, consulting firms, auditors, and independent consultants, who are also known as project professionals. Once the workforce is assembled and allocated, they also ensure that human capital is appropriately managed. The past decade has seen an explosion in the need for knowledge workers together with a seismic shift in the emergence of a new segment in the human capital continuum - the project professional. The shortage of in-house resources and/or tight development timeframes often leads to the need to supplement one's own staff with experienced outside experts who can seamlessly integrate into an existing team to add value immediately. Regardless of where they come from, these senior-level independent consultants have several things in common: specialized functional skills, deep industry experience, and situational wisdom to help solve client problems. Companies that use project professionals as part of a strategic approach to managing human capital have an advantage over those that do not. That advantage is flexibility. The challenge, however, is to be prepared to rapidly identify, efficiently utilize, and effectively retain the expertise of independent professionals. This new management approach requires the building of an organizational infrastructure, which consists of three components: (1) a process to identify and select the best possible talent, (2) a deployment process that ensures immediate productivity, and (3) a knowledge transfer process that ensures that knowledge does not leave the organization when the project professional departs. |
| SourceAuthor | Moore, Robert |
| Reference | Los Angeles Business Journal, Jan 30 2006 |
| Organization | Los Angeles Business Journal |
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http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m5072/is_5_28/ai_n16084324
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