Building excellence

International engineering and construction group, Costain, has a reputation for technical excellence. But, says Jeremy Galpin, the groups skills and development manager, maintaining such high-standards rests on a long-term commitment to improving project management capability throughout the organisation.

Senior executives have, in the past, gone so far as to say that Costains fate lies in the hands of the groups 200 or so project managers. It is for this reason that the company set up its Project Management Academy (PMA). The PMA is a structured and mentored development programme that aims to bring the highest quality to the groups project management staff. Staff, including new recruits to experienced project managers, self select for a major development process.

Since its creation in 2007, 55 project management staff have been engaged in an ongoing series of training sessions (28 joined the academy in 2009). Before they apply, potential academy delegates must first seek approval from their divisional managers. Applicants then have to complete a battery of tests that look at how their behavioural profiles fit the companys needs, as well as their personality traits, motivation and cognitive abilities.

These measures were drawn up, working with organisational change and talent consultants Crelos, after eight of Costains industry-leading project managers were studied to identify the mix of skills that made them so successful.

Once an individual is accepted by the academy, their training needs are assessed against this ideal skills combination. Designed and run by Crelos, the assessment tools include one-on-one interviews, 360-degree feedback and a development centre that includes psychometric testing. Every academy student assesses their own training needs against the ideal model gathered from studying the successful project managers. A traffic light assessment highlights the needs of individuals, who decide which level to target when they join the academy. They remain active in the PMA for two years.

Benchmarking is also conducted at a national level through the Association for Project Management where Costain has targeted a number of people it would like to achieve the APMs top qualification.

Progress

Measuring individuals progress takes several forms, including gaining professional qualifications, assessing behavioural change and project level metrics such as project profitability, customer service, teamwork and engagement. The academy, with its emphasis on nurturing the highest quality staff, is also designed to fit with the companys strategy of Being Number One and evidence of project management competency is increasingly in demand from customers.

However, in order to be sustainable, we realised that we had to raise professionalism across the whole of the business. So, in 2007, Costain embarked on developing a competency framework. The framework was designed to align with the companys core business values and it proved particularly useful in the project management job family, describing the different levels of ability and allowing employees to plan their career through the business.

To implement the framework, a web-based software package was chosen. Five companies were invited to tender, the winning company, Online Profiling Ltd (OPL), embarked on a period of careful consultation, design workshops and presentations to ensure full approval and ownership in the business.

The system was launched, initially using the performance management module, to 2,500 staff via a simple email, with very little user training. Despite this, it worked well, take up was high, and Costain was able to focus on giving help where it was needed most.

Six months later the Career Development Review module was launched using the core behavioural competencies to self-assess against the current Role Profile. This identified strengths and skill gaps, and meant that each person was able to create an online Personal Development Plan. As a result, it is now possible to identify training needs and use training funding more effectively across the whole business.

For project professionals it is possible to see and compare any project management roles across the business. Career aspirations and capabilities have been gathered to create a succession plan and an information database for career development.

"Using the Costain PMA and CDR process as a framework for my personal development and succession planning over the past 12 months has been great. The personal assessment has provided an increased self awareness of strengths and capabilities: the models, frameworks and career planning helped to improve visibility of my longer-term goals and where I am heading." - Andrew Bull, commercial director, Costain

Simplicity

In all areas the simplicity of the web-based software has been a big help; and in the busy project management community several benefits quickly became apparent:

Low time and cost investment in up-front training using the OPL software.
Simple to roll out, by email to staff, even to remote locations or joint ventures.
Easy-to-use for staff with on-screen prompts, guidance notes, flowcharts and context-sensitive help are available at the touch of a button.
Easy-to-track progress, with reports showing progress by team, function, competency, line manager, etc.
Follow-up prompts can be sent by email only to those who need it!

In support of this, OPLs software is also capable of holding the APM Competence Framework alongside Costains behavioural and Technical competency frameworks, allowing staff to build their professional portfolio for accreditation alongside self assessments within the Career Development Review.

Although its too early to talk of spectacular changes, the vision for the future of skills development within Costain is clearly on track. By progressing in bite-sized stages, the company has smoothed implementation and reduced resistance to change.

In future, we believe that the success of the PMA will be matched in 2010 by similar progress in developing capability and talent across the whole of the Costain business, thus making all projects consistently successful.