Opportunities for training project managers and invoice approvers.

When your organization conducts new hire and project manager training, what do you include in that program related to contracting strategies and field oversight? When hiring an experienced PM, it is expected that the individual is well versed in understanding contracting strategies and pricing models for each and how that may impact field oversight. For PMs that this is their primary function day in and day out, this is usually the case. One area that companies fail to take into consideration are individuals who are casual PMs, individuals that are used infrequently during large maintenance events or a shared resource due to dedicated resource constraints.

It is common for organizations to fail to recognize and mitigate the risk of scope creep and unnecessary change orders related directly to poor training ahead of field work. I have personally witnessed and been involved in many scenarios where PMs have agreed to change orders on lumpsum or fixed price contracts that were covered in the base scope and should not have been approved by the individual. In some cases, these are verbally agreed to compounding the problem and potentially create a tense situation between the two parties if challenged after the fact. For many of the events that I have been involved in, I have found that in most cases the individual charged with oversight never even read the contract or purchase order in the first place.

If you would like to learn more about how we can help strengthen your new hire onboarding program? Simply send us a contact request and we will be in touch to discuss how we can help.