For decades, the United States has been the global leader in research and technology. In recent years, however, there has been an intensifying drumbeat of urgent calls to address the aging infrastructure that underpins US leadership in innovation. While most think of ‘infrastructure’ as physical, there is also a compelling need to address the looming human infrastructure challenge: the predicted shortage of project personnel. According to a PMI study from 2021, “Demand for project management talent is unlikely to be filled by 2030 unless organizations promote a culture of continual learning. Reimagined employee capability-building will be a core focus for the most resilient organizations.”
Organizations cannot maintain their competitive edge unless they address the need to attract, train, and retain project personnel. This is particularly true in technical fields vital to national security. “The U.S. dominated for decades in these fields, but our competitors were not sitting still either. Today technology innovation remains the key to economic growth and national security,” according to Dr. Thomas Mason, Director of Los Alamos Laboratory. As existing project personnel retire and more industries become ‘projectized’, there will be an increasing demand for updating and replenishing the project workforce. In an address to Congress, Mason testified, “If we are to compete for the leadership role in the future, the U.S. must both revitalize its physical and human capital infrastructure.” Without properly trained personnel in critical areas, the US is increasingly vulnerable to security threats and being outcompeted in global technology leadership.
Traditional project personnel solutions are inadequate to the task of revitalizing human capital infrastructure for four main reasons:
Generic staffing companies (‘body shops’) provide ‘off the shelf’ temporary project personnel who lack a commitment to the organization and have unverified skills prior to placement.
Trainers offer ‘one-size-fits-all’ standardized training to staff, which is often abstract and academic. Staff are numbed by Powerpoint and incentivized to pass tests rather deliver project excellence.
Niche specialists may provide specialized training or advisory services on specific topics, but this targets only a small fraction of competencies needed to be a holistic project controller or manger.
Human Resources point solutions provide some people management tools such as resumes, performance reviews, certifications, and HR files, but lack the ability to track training progress and make data-driven resource allocation decisions.
How We Can Help
Management Solutions and our subsidiary Project Controls Solutions provides an end-to-end project personnel assessment, training, management, and advisory solution, enabling organizations to outsource their project workforce development like companies outsource their IT services.
We offer a data-driven approach to meeting project needs by:
Assessing competencies via out proprietary Project Controls Maturity Assessment
Training using our practical, holistic training program
Managing project personnel by creating a hub and dashboard for human capital management
Advising by developing customized training modules and offering on-demand subject matter experts
Our goal is to deliver a complete end-to-end human capital solution, enabling clients to focus on project excellence. “I’ve been in the industry for over thirty years, “says Management Solutions and Project Controls Solutions Founder & CEO Misty Mayes, “and we created Project Controls Solutions as an end-to-end solution to meet the urgent need for customized, data-driven workforce development solutions for project personnel.”